The Union’s Leagues Cup schedule has a lot of home-field advantage

The Union will host Mexico’s Club Tijuana on July 22 and Querétaro on July 26 and would host almost every team in the tournament's knockout rounds.

Union fans at Subaru Park.Read moreElizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Updated March 9, 2023, 4:07 p.m. ET

Published March 9, 2023, 3:26 p.m. ET

A few weeks after setting the groups for this summer’s Leagues Cup, on Thursday MLS announced the schedule for the tournament that will it pits teams against opponents from Mexico’s Liga MX.

The Union will host Mexico’s Club Tijuana on July 22 and Querétaro on July 26, both at Subaru Park. Tijuana and Quéretaro will finish the three-team group stage by facing each other in Chester on July 30.

The top two teams in the group will advance to the round of 32 and will face the advancing teams from a group of CF Montréal, D.C. United, and Mexico’s Pumas UNAM. The bracket is divided into four geographic regions, with those two groups in the east. The other Eastern groups are New York City FC, Toronto FC, and Mexico’s Atlas; and the New England Revolution, New York Red Bulls, and Mexico’s San Luis.

The East region winner will face the South region winner. That bunch includes Atlanta, Charlotte, and all the Texas and Florida teams. Its Mexican teams are Cruz Azul, Necaxa, Mazatlán, Santos Laguna, and reigning champion Pachuca.

Every game of the tournament will be played at MLS venues, which will be a nice pile of cash for the league and its clubs. Home field in the knockout rounds will go to the group stage winner in the round of 32, then by last year’s regular-season standings for all-MLS matchups afterward. That means the Union would host every team except LAFC.

If there’s an all-Mexican knockout round game, the venue will depend on the region the teams came out of. If there’s such a game in the East region, it could be at Subaru Park, Red Bull Arena, or D.C.’s Audi Field.

The knockout rounds start on Aug. 2, and the final is Aug. 19. Both leagues will stop their seasons for the tournament. The top three finishers qualify for next year’s Concacaf Champions League.

All the games will be on Apple’s streaming platform, with a few also on Fox and Univision TV channels. Union season-ticket holders get the Tijuana group game included for free in their packages, with special access for the other group contests.