August 23 – Leagues Cup finalists Los Angeles FC and Columbus Crew have qualified for the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup.

This marks a leap in performance by MLS clubs on the international stage over their traditionally dominant club neighbors from Mexico’s LigaMX. Since 2002, LigaMX clubs have won 20 Champions League titles (now renamed Champions Cup), while only the Seattle Sounders have recorded a victory for MLS in 2022.

The Leagues Cup, currently in its second year and contested between all MLS and LigaMX clubs for a month in July and August, has sparked greater interest in international club competitions in the United States, and especially among MLS clubs.

Qualifying for the CONCACAF Champions Cup is a clear incentive as it also gives clubs a chance to qualify for future editions of the expanded 32-team Club World Cup. However, the four CONCACAF clubs for the 2025 event in the USA have already qualified.

Eight of the 27 participating teams in the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup have now confirmed their participation. LAFC and Columbus Crew join six clubs from Liga MX – CD Guadalajara, CF Monterrey, Club America, Cruz Azul, Pumas UNAM and Tigres UANL.

The game will be played between February and June 2025, it is the 60th.^th Edition of CONCACAF’s premier club competition, won in 2024 by Pachuca, who defeated Columbus Crew 3-0.

Of the 27 participating clubs, 22 will begin in the first round and five will receive a bye to the round of 16. With its victory in the 2024 edition, Pachuca will join Club Leon (2023), Seattle Sounders FC (2022) and CF Monterrey (2021) as one of the four Concacaf representatives in next summer’s FIFA Club World Cup.

The remaining 19 spots will be filled by five other MLS clubs, as well as the winner of the US Open Cup, three Canadian clubs, three clubs from the 2024 Caribbean Cup, six clubs from the 2024 Central America Cup and the third-place club in the current Leagues Cup – either Colorado Rapids or Philadelphia Union.

This means that nine US clubs will ultimately qualify for the 2025 edition, one more than their noisy neighbors from the south.

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