In December, the Leagues Cup organizers unveiled the 2026 tournament’s format – confirming the Fire’s participation – but the specific matchdates and opponents the Fire would face were not known. Now, that information has also been unveiled as organizers have announced the opponents and dates – but not kickoff times – for group stage matches.
All three of the Fire’s group stage matches will be played at SeatGeek Stadium, starting with Club Necaxa on Thursday, August 6th. Three days later, the Fire will take on Santos Laguna, giving the Fire another now-rare Sunday match on the schedule, before facing Liga MX giants Cruz Azul on Thursday, August 13.
The matchups are overall favorable for the Fire: Roughly halfway through the 2025-2026 Clausura, Santos Laguna are last, with just two points in nine matches. Necaxa are in 15th place, with nine points. Cruz Azul, however, is top of the table, one point ahead of Toluca and three ahead of Chivas, who have a game in hand. That means there is a good chance that given the tournament, the Fire-Cruz Azul match could be must-watch entertainment with real stakes on the line for both clubs.
The Fire’s opening match will be the first time that the team has faced Club Necaxa in their history. The Fire previously faced Santos Laguna in a friendly at what is now SeatGeek Stadium on September 8, 2012, when a mostly-reserve Fire squad played Santos Laguna to a 2-2 draw off of goals by Michael Videira and Corben Bone.
In that summer friendly, the Fire’s opening goal was the only professional career strike for Videira, who retired with the Fire in 2013, while Bone’s goal was his only tally in the top-flight, although he later went on to make 161 professional appearances with with the USL Championship edition of FC Cincinnati and Louisville City, with the midfielder scoring 22 goals in the top flight.
The Fire have faced Cruz Azul twice, with the Fire losing both matches, both of which were also held in Bridgeview. In a friendly on October 10, 2007, they fell 1-0 off a penalty by Mexican legend Jared Borgetti — somewhat ironically, Santos Laguna’s all-time leading scorer, who played a single season with Los Cementeros, in a game where C.J. Brown captained a Fire squad that also featured Calen Car, John Thorrington and Cuautémoc Blanco.
In another twist, the Fire had a friendly scheduled against Santos Laguna cancelled that year due to inclement weather.
In 2019, the Fire fell to Cruz Azul 2-0 in the inaugural, single-elimination edition of the Leagues Cup, ending the Fire’s participation in the tournament.
While the Leagues Cup has been controversial with diehard MLS fans due to participation in the tournament having effectively caused MLS to take a step back from U.S. Open Cup participation, the action on the pitch has been fun, with teams playing with intensity, particularly in the knockout rounds.
The tournament has also gained notoriety because during many matches, an anti-gay chant which is rarely – though not never – heard in MLS matches has been common, and is often audible on broadcasts. To combat the chant, players from each squad read a message to fans ahead of kickoff and video boards and other signage display a message to discourage fans from engaging in hateful behavior.
During goal kicks, music is played over stadium loudspeakers in an attempt to either reduce the chances of the chant spreading – or at least drown it out. Still, tournament organizers have been unable to prevent the chant’s occurrence, and referees have been hesitant to formally engage in the multi-step protocol which can cause matches to be paused or abandoned.
The Fire participated in the first two full editions of the tournament as well as the inaugural 2019 edition that featured eight teams. In 2025, a new format was unveiled which shrunk MLS’s participation down to the 18 teams that made the postseason, leaving the Fire out of the tournament.
In the revised tournament structure, league seasons are paused only for the group stage. For the knockout rounds, teams play midweek – with all matches still held in the U.S. or Canada, forcing Mexican teams to travel across borders.
The same format is returning this year. In it, each team plays three group-stage games against teams from the other league. Instead of top teams from each group advancing, however, the teams are ranked in a single table with the other 17 teams from their league.
As has been the case in the Leagues Cup, there are no draws, and if teams are tied after regulation, the match will proceed to penalties. Regulation wins are worth three points. Shootout winners receive two points, while shootout losers receive a single point At the end of the group stage, the top four teams from each league advance, where they will face a team from the other league.
The new format guarantees that Liga MX-vs-MLS matchups through the quarterfinal stage, but the group format is punishing: Last year, the Portland Timbers failed to advance out of the group despite having two wins and a shootout loss, conceding just once, to Club América, in the group stage. That put the team in a four-way tie for third place with seven points, but the team was knocked out due to Orlando City having a +6 goal differential – one better than the Timbers.
Although the format guarantees the drama of inter-league rivalry matches early on, the format has meant that a single loss can effectively knock teams out of the tournament. That effectively reduced the drama of the final group stage games for many teams, as even squads with two shootout wins, knowing that their chances of advancement were slim at best.
The tournament – officially sanctioned by CONCACAF – has real stakes: Both finalists as well as the winner of the third-place playoff qualify for the CONCACAF Champions Cup the next spring. That’s a golden opportunity to make it to the continental tournament, which the Fire have never qualified for in its current format.
