Welcome to Leagues Cup 2024, whether you like it or not.

The arrival of the month-long, inter-league competition between Major League Soccer (MLS) and Liga MX teams prompts two questions. The first: Should we even do this?

Austin FC’s two largest supporters groups, Los Verdes and Austin Anthem, each released statements expressing disappointment that MLS teams would participate in Leagues Cup at the expense of competing in the U.S. Open Cup, with Austin Anthem even stating they won’t organize support for Leagues Cup matches.

In December last year, most MLS teams withdrew their first teams from the U.S. Open Cup – this country’s oldest soccer competition featuring teams from multiple professional leagues and amateur clubs – with “fixture congestion” cited as the reason.

Considering loosening the byzantine salary and roster restrictions MLS clubs must comply with – MLS clubs have 20 senior roster spots while, for comparison, English Premier League clubs have 25 – would easily make it plausible for clubs to participate in both competitions, the furor surrounding Leagues Cup is unfortunate. Leagues Cup should be a great opportunity for North American soccer to showcase its talent and potentially reach a wider audience than MLS and Liga MX separately reach on their own each week.

Instead, for many, the competition has become a symbol of how corporate greed is destroying the soul of the sport. If MLS is mad about this, it should look in the mirror.

The second question: How seriously should Austin FC take a competition they (probably) have no chance of winning? Fortunately, for those who were able to morally rationalize a trip to Q2 Stadium on Friday night, the answer to that question was: pretty damn serious. Austin FC fielded a strong team (with a couple of notable absences) in a 3-2 win over Liga MX’s Pumas UNAM, which ranks as one of the finest victories in the team’s history.

Austin FC raced out to an early lead in the eighth minute when midfielder Alex Ring (wearing the captain’s armband even with Sebastian Driussi also on the field) put the home team ahead with a daisy-cutter of a shot that snuck by Pumas goalkeeper Julio Gonzalez. From there, the narrative of the match became clear. Pumas was going to attack, and Austin FC was going to defend. Pretty soccer with fancy passing triangles? Not from the home team in this match.

Pumas are a good team. They entered Friday night second in the nascent Liga MX 2024/25 Apertura (the first of two tournaments in the league’s split season). This was projected to be a match that challenged Austin FC’s defensive resolve. That challenge became even more daunting when new arrival Osman Bukari picked up a second yellow card for a high boot in the 34th minute.

In some respects, Bukari’s dismissal didn’t change Austin FC’s approach much. They were happy to cede possession in a lowish-block 4-4-2 formation prior to the red card and continued to defend with two banks of four in a 4-4-1 until halftime. Midfielder Dani Pereira even took advantage and nicked the ball off a lackadaisical Rodrigo Lopez before assisting striker Gyasi Zardes, who put Austin FC up 2-0 with a confident finish.

“Dani’s been extremely good,” Austin FC head coach Josh Wolff said in his post-match press conference. He continued, discussing the recent attacking contributions of Austin FC’s central midfielders: “That’s been a big, big positive. Those central players, for possession purposes, for the ability to move the attack forward and side to side, it’s extremely important.”

However, trouble struck for Austin FC before the first half’s conclusion. In stoppage time, substitute and Mexican international Cesar Huerta fired a low cross that evaded the grasp of Austin FC goalkeeper Stefan Cleveland (filling in for an ill Brad Stuver, per Wolff) to find the opportunistic foot of Pumas striker Ali Avila. It was 2-1 with 45 (plus) long, long minutes for 10-man Austin FC to navigate.

Shifting to a 5-3-1 formation to begin the second half with Driussi as the spearhead of an attack that wasn’t going to do much attacking (Owen Wolff came on as a halftime substitute for Zardes), Austin FC bunkered in and looked to frustrate their visitors with scrappy, deep defending.

The hosts would receive breathing room in the 55th minute after a rare foray forward resulted in a corner kick that Pumas failed to clear. With the ball on his dangerous right foot, Ring whipped in a vicious cross that found an unmarked Driussi in the six-yard box. Goal-scoring drought or not, Austin FC’s star man wasn’t missing from there.

Austin FC held onto their two-goal advantage until the 72nd minute when Pumas substitute striker Guillermo Martinez out-jumped center-back Brendan Hines-Ike to knock a header past Cleveland and set up a nervy finale to what was an already scintillating contest.

Just as ten exhausted Austin FC players could see the 90th minute creeping into view, the shifty Huerta was able to draw a foul from substitute Julio Cascante in the penalty area. You could excuse Austin FC fans for bemoaning the absence of Stuver when Martinez stepped up to take the penalty. Except, Stuver wasn’t needed. Shaky for most of the night, Cleveland guessed correctly, dove to his right, and saved Martinez’s penalty to preserve Austin FC’s 3-2 lead.

“I think he did an incredible job when asked, when needed on that penalty kick,” Wolff said of Cleveland’s heroics. “There’s no doubt about it.”

When the final whistle was blown seconds after the 100th minute, another question pertaining to Leagues Cup may have entered the minds of those in Austin FC’s fanbase. If the Verde and Black play more Leagues Cup matches as entertaining as this, who on earth of an Austin FC persuasion could possibly look away?

Eric McCoy

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