The Verde Report: Nightmare Leagues Cup Draw Exactly What Austin FC Needed: Worst-case scenario? A three-week break to train. Best case? The biggest victory in club history. – Sports

Courtesy of Austin FC

Happy Leagues Cup to all who celebrate.

For the second year running, MLS has put a monthlong freeze on its regular season to stage the world’s longest crossover episode, once again teaming up with Mexico’s Liga MX for the tournament-style competition. Bragging rights, along with $40 million in total prize money, are on the line.

Many US soccer fans – including Los Verdes and Austin Anthem supporter groups, locally – have publicly denounced the Leagues Cup in the wake of MLS withdrawing the majority of its teams from the 110-year-old US Open Cup. That is largely unfair.

The Leagues Cup is a creative, forward-thinking enterprise by the two leagues (and particularly by MLS) that accomplishes several things. Number one, it creates unique, attractive matchups, like LAFC vs. Monterrey in last year’s quarterfinals, for example. Number two, it offers an accessible way for casual fans to parachute into North American club soccer during an otherwise barren month of the sports calendar without having to commit to an eight-month season. And number three, it challenges MLS clubs against worthy – if not superior – opponents.

That’s in direct contrast to the Open Cup, which annually pitted MLS teams against second, third, and fourth division clubs in utter mismatches that offered little benefit to the big boys apart from a chance to give minutes to players that typically rode the bench.

Fans of the nostalgia and “tradition” of the Open Cup are certainly fair to wonder why MLS can’t continue to fully participate in both competitions, as it did a year ago. However, if the league felt it could only sustainably keep one of the two in its calendar, the choice was always Leagues Cup, and rightfully so.

Austin FC, meanwhile, barely got a taste of the competition in 2023. Despite drawing a group that included two lower-table Liga MX clubs in Mazatlán and FC Juárez, ATXFC ​​bombed out after two matches.

This time around, Austin once again drew one of the two groups to feature a pair of clubs south of the border. Only this time, it’s a pair of giants in Monterrey and Pumas UNAM, two of the most successful clubs in North American soccer history.

“We play two of the very best in Mexico. They’re gonna be about as difficult of games as you can face,” ATX head coach Josh Wolff assessed.

By any measure, it’s a nightmare draw. But in a way, it’s really the perfect draw for Austin at this point and time.

The Verde and Black will be expected to lose both games. Should that indeed happen, the club will quietly shuffle off into a three-week summer break where Wolff will have as much time as he could possibly need to recalibrate for the final nine games of the MLS season. Those nine games aren’t just critical for Austin, they’re critical for Wolff himself as he tries to save his job by leading the club back to the MLS Cup Playoffs (ATX is currently two points below the playoff line).

The break would also grant the club’s three recent acquisitions, Osman Bukari, Mikkel Desler, and Oleksandr Svatok something akin to an abbreviated preseason to get fully up to speed in Austin.

On the other hand, should Austin FC somehow win either matchup, it would immediately go down as the biggest win in the club’s history and could instantly inject the club with a massive dose of momentum.

Austin FC takes on Pumas Friday night and Monterrey Tuesday night, both at Q2 Stadium in what should be tremendous environments. So let’s sit back, relax, and enjoy the magic of the Leagues Cup.