When they put out the group lists last week and I really started thinking of the logistics of this tournament, I started to talk myself into the conclusion that this tournament could end up being very lopsided in favor of MLS in a way that makes it lose credibility. This tournament is asking Liga MX teams to spend at minimum weeks in and at the most a month away from home, constantly traveling to new grounds to play one-off away matches in the late-summer on short notice. Everything is stacked up against the Mexican sides here and I could see it turning out absolutely miserable for them despite the talent disparity their top sides hold against MLS's top sides, especially as fatigue builds over the latter portion of the tournament.
I do at least think some MLS sides will find benefit in it, the same way that teams on the rise, maybe with playoff ambitions might push harder for an Open Cup run than those with MLS Cup ambitions do. Teams like Nashville, Miami, and Vancouver have the chance to win a tournament, get a trophy and a CCL spot, and have some validation that they're making forward progress as clubs, and a Leagues Cup win for a team like Toronto or Columbus could prove that they're back on track as contenders. I also think we can look to Seattle's 2021 Leagues Cup run as something that helped them prove themselves against good LMX clubs, which they put into practice in the 2022 CCL run, so maybe that could provide something to get good MLS teams to try for.
I carry the mindset of philosopher and restauranteur J. Sheldon Plankton into everything with MLS -- "Do I find this entertaining? In a cosmic sort of way, yes" and I think there's a lot of entertainment that can come out of this first iteration of the tournament, cheap and unintentional as it could be, but no, I'm not really clamoring for it and I don't think we'll learn all that much about the participants nor the state of MLS versus Liga MX or MLS on a global scale from it.
When they put out the group lists last week and I really started thinking of the logistics of this tournament, I started to talk myself into the conclusion that this tournament could end up being very lopsided in favor of MLS in a way that makes it lose credibility. This tournament is asking Liga MX teams to spend at minimum weeks in and at the most a month away from home, constantly traveling to new grounds to play one-off away matches in the late-summer on short notice. Everything is stacked up against the Mexican sides here and I could see it turning out absolutely miserable for them despite the talent disparity their top sides hold against MLS's top sides, especially as fatigue builds over the latter portion of the tournament.
I do at least think some MLS sides will find benefit in it, the same way that teams on the rise, maybe with playoff ambitions might push harder for an Open Cup run than those with MLS Cup ambitions do. Teams like Nashville, Miami, and Vancouver have the chance to win a tournament, get a trophy and a CCL spot, and have some validation that they're making forward progress as clubs, and a Leagues Cup win for a team like Toronto or Columbus could prove that they're back on track as contenders. I also think we can look to Seattle's 2021 Leagues Cup run as something that helped them prove themselves against good LMX clubs, which they put into practice in the 2022 CCL run, so maybe that could provide something to get good MLS teams to try for.
I carry the mindset of philosopher and restauranteur J. Sheldon Plankton into everything with MLS -- "Do I find this entertaining? In a cosmic sort of way, yes" and I think there's a lot of entertainment that can come out of this first iteration of the tournament, cheap and unintentional as it could be, but no, I'm not really clamoring for it and I don't think we'll learn all that much about the participants nor the state of MLS versus Liga MX or MLS on a global scale from it.