Verde Report: League Cup Nightmare Draw Exactly What Austin FC Needed: Worst-case scenario? Three-week training break. Best-case scenario? Biggest win in club history. – Sport

Courtesy of Austin FC

Happy League Cup to all celebrating.

For the second year in a row, MLS has suspended its regular season for a month to host the world’s longest crossover, once again teaming up with Mexico’s Liga MX for a tournament-style competition with bragging rights and a combined $40 million prize pool at stake.

Many American soccer fans — including the Los Verdes and Austin Anthem fan groups locally — have publicly condemned the League Cup after MLS withdrew most of its teams from the 110-year-old U.S. Open Cup. That is largely unfair.

The League Cup is a creative, forward-thinking endeavor for both leagues (and especially MLS) that accomplishes several things. First, it creates unique, compelling matches, such as LAFC vs. Monterrey in last year’s quarterfinals. Second, it offers an accessible way for casual fans to parachute into North American club soccer during a barren month of the sports calendar without having to commit to an eight-month season. And third, it challenges MLS clubs to worthy — if not better — opponents.

This is in stark contrast to the Open Cup, which annually pitted MLS teams against second, third and fourth division clubs in lopsided matches that offered little benefit to the big players beyond giving minutes to players who were usually benched.

Fans of Open Cup nostalgia and “tradition” are certainly rightly wondering why MLS can’t continue to fully participate in both competitions, as it did last year. However, if the league felt it could only keep one of the two on the calendar, the choice was always going to fall on the Leagues Cup, and rightly so.

Austin FC, meanwhile, barely got a taste of competition in 2023. Despite being drawn into a group that included two lower-table Liga MX clubs – Mazatlán and FC Juarez – ATXFC ​​were eliminated after two games.

This time, Austin has once again brought in one of two groups to showcase a pair of clubs from south of the border. Only this time, it’s a pair of giants from Monterrey and Pumas UNAM, two of the most decorated clubs in North American soccer history.

“We’re playing two of the best teams in Mexico. These are probably going to be the toughest games you can possibly face,” said ATX head coach Josh Wolff.

It’s a terrible fate in every way. But in a way, it’s really the perfect fate for Austin at this point in time.

The Verde and Black are expected to lose both games. If they do, the club will quietly go on a three-week summer break, during which Wolff will have all the time he needs to recalibrate before the final nine games of the MLS season. Those nine games aren’t just crucial for Austin, they’re crucial for Wolff himself, as he tries to save his job by leading the club back to the MLS Cup playoffs (ATX are currently two points off the playoff line).

The break would also allow the club’s three recent signings, Osman Bukari, Mikkel Desler and Oleksandr Svatok, to have a shortened pre-season so they can fully settle in in Austin.

On the other hand, if Austin FC somehow won either of those matches, it would instantly go down as the biggest win in the club’s history and could instantly give the club a huge boost.

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