NEW YORK AND MEXICO CITY – Vancouver Whitecaps FC will kick off their first ever Leagues Cup match at 7:30 p.m. PT against Concacaf Champions League semifinalists Club León on Friday, July 21 at BC Place.
Whitecaps FC are in West Group 3 alongside Club León and fellow MLS Western Conference club LA Galaxy. The 'Caps will play their second group match on the road against LA Galaxy on Saturday, July 29 at Dignity Health Sports Park. The top two teams from the group will advance to the knockout stage.
Leagues Cup: Key information to know
- World Cup-style tournament held from July 21 to August 19
- All 47 combined MLS and LIGA MX teams compete annually, pausing their respective league seasons each summer
- 77 matches played across the US and Canada (hosted at MLS stadiums)
- Leagues Cup champion, as well as the second and third-place finishers, qualify for the Concacaf Champions League
- Every team will play two Group Stage matches in the Group Stage
- Top two teams from each group, as determined by points, advance to the single-elimination Knockout Stage
- No matches in the Leagues Cup Group Stage will end in a tie (decided by penalty shootout)
- Regulation win earns 3 points; PK shootout win earns 2 points; PK shootout loss earns 1 point
Leagues Cup today announced kickoff times for all Group Stage matches. Games will have the majority of official starting times between 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Pacific Time, giving fans the opportunity to enjoy the games under the lights.
Fans in over 100 countries and regions will be able to watch all 77 Leagues Cup matches on MLS Season Pass on the Apple TV app, the subscription service from Apple and Major League Soccer that is available on smart TVs, streaming devices, Apple devices, set-top boxes, game consoles, and the web at tv.apple.com.
In addition, TelevisaUnivision, FOX Sports, TSN and RDS will be the linear broadcast home for 15 group stage matches in the United States and Canada.
Beginning this year, Major League Soccer and LIGA MX will pause their respective league seasons in the summer and compete in Leagues Cup, an official Concacaf competition to be played across the U.S. and Canada. The inaugural edition will see all 47 clubs (18 from LIGA MX, 29 from MLS) compete in a World Cup-style tournament from July 21 - August 19, 2023. The champion and the second and third-place finishers will qualify for the Concacaf Champions League and have an opportunity to earn a spot in the FIFA Club World Cup.
The Leagues Cup Group Stage kicks off on Friday, July 21 at 4:30 p.m. PT between two MLS clubs, Orlando City SC facing Houston Dynamo at Exploria Stadium, followed by LIGA MX’s Cruz Azul against Inter Miami CF (5 p.m. PT) at DRV PNK Stadium, the first in the highly anticipated series of matchups between the two leagues. Also on opening night, FC Dallas receives Charlotte FC at Toyota Stadium (5:30 p.m. PT), Austin FC battles Mazatlan FC at Q2 Stadium (7 p.m. PT), and Leon takes on Vancouver Whitecaps at BC Place (7:30 p.m. PT).
Leagues Cup Group Stage closes out Monday, July 31 with four intra-league matches, starting at 8 pm ET between Club America and Columbus Crew at Lower.com Field and rounding out at Children’s Mercy Park between Chivas Guadalajara and Sporting KC (7 p.m. PT)
The complete Leagues Cup 2023 schedule along with broadcast network assignments can be found here. The complete details on the Leagues Cup format can be viewed here.
Advancing teams will compete in the single-game elimination knockout rounds, beginning with the round of 32 on August 2-4 (16 matches), followed by the round of 16 on August 6-8 (eight matches). The eight advancing teams will compete in the quarterfinals from August 11-12 (four matches) before the two semifinal matches on August 15.
The Leagues Cup 2023 final and third-place games will be played on Saturday, August 19 and determine the three clubs that will qualify for the 2024 Concacaf Champions League. The game times and broadcast assignments for the elimination rounds and finals will be announced once the qualifiers are known.
Ticket Information
Tickets for all matches are available on LeaguesCup.com and are also available to fans via the hosting MLS club. MLS club season ticket holders should contact their club representative for more information or visit LeaguesCup.com and follow @LeaguesCup on social.
Media Assets
Click here for Leagues Cup 2023 assets. To watch the Leagues Cup explainer video, click here.
About MLS Season Pass
MLS Season Pass – the unprecedented subscription service from Apple and Major League Soccer that is home to all MLS and Leagues Cup* matches, and hundreds of MLS NEXT Pro and MLS NEXT games – is available to fans in over 100 countries and regions and is on billions of devices through the Apple TV app on smart TVs, streaming devices, Apple devices, set-top boxes, game consoles, and the web at tv.apple.com.
Fans can subscribe to MLS Season Pass on the Apple TV app for $14.99 per month during the season or $99 per season, and Apple TV+ subscribers can sign up at a special price of $12.99 per month and $79 per season. A subscription to MLS Season Pass is included with each full-season MLS ticket account. Through Family Sharing, up to six family members can share the subscription using their own Apple ID and password. To subscribe to MLS Season Pass, customers must update to iOS 16.2 or later, iPadOS 16.2 or later, tvOS 16.2 or later, and macOS 13.1 or later.
*This excludes Leagues Cup for viewers in Mexico
