14 Aug 2026

Soccerwise Minutes

August 14, 2026

Headlines:

Leagues Cup Recap: Leagues Cup completed “Phase One” last night, with Columbus, Real Salt Lake, Chicago, Austin progressing for MLS, and Leon, Toluca, Monterey,and América for Liga MX.
More on the new dynamic of Leagues Cup below, but one that didn’t change: a ton of player rotation. The format’s future will assuredly be up-for-debate with the MLS schedule shift in 2027.
The transfer season is still in full swing in MLS, highlighted by the signing of Chilean icon Alexis Sanchez with…Montreal?
Elsewhere, Columbus brought Josef Martinez back to MLS, Marcel Hartel surprisingly departed St. Louis CITY to return back to Germany for personal reasons, and L.A. Galaxy take another swing at the former FC Barcelona wonderkid pipeline, adding Sergi Roberto.
Off-the-pitch, the news remains the Infantino imbroglio. U.S. Soccer co-signed a letter issued by Conacaf, UEFA, and the AFC (Asian confederation) further demanding governance reform and questioning Infantino’s presidency.
Notably missing from the co-signers is Mexico. Reportedly, Gianni Infantino offered Mexico a departure from Concacaf and a way into Conmebol (and the riches of Copa Libertadores and Copa America).
Finally, on Yanks Abroad watch: Sebastian Berhalter and Max Arfsten started their first match for Middlesbrough (and Berhalter assisted), and Zavier Gozo is finalizing his deal with Crystal Palace, who have plans to immediately integrate him into the first team.

Story of the Week:

By Catalina Bush

One key conversation point about this year’s Leagues Cup: games are finally being hosted in Mexico. For all five previous editions, every game in Leagues Cup was hosted in the United States for logistical reasons, seemingly providing MLS an advantage. The numbers are now in for Phase One of the 2026 Leagues Cup, and that perceived advantage may not have made as much of a difference as we thought.

A common stereotype of MLS teams is that they can’t win in Mexico. This claim has basis—in Concacaf Champions Cup, MLS teams have historically performed poorly away from home. At this year’s competition, an even 11 games were played in each country in matchups between MLS and Liga MX sides. Mexican teams won 36% of their away matches. American teams won just 9%—only Nashville won away, against Club America. It’s clear that there's a major advantage for Liga MX teams in their own stadiums (and sometimes the stadiums of MLS teams, too), but has that translated to the Leagues Cup in the same way?

The short answer is no. While we don’t have a large sample size—just over a quarter of the matches have been played in Mexico—MLS teams have continued to dominate Leagues Cup, as we’ve seen for the past few years. In 2025, when all matches were in MLS stadiums, American teams posted a 43% win rate against Mexican sides. This year, that has risen to 51%. Liga MX win rates have also increased, moving from 26% to 35%, with the greatest change coming in the quantity of draws. Last year, nearly a third of all games ended in a draw; this year, the proportion of even matches at the end of regular time stands at less than 15%.

MLS teams have already won three times in Mexico during this year’s Leagues Cup, which is a major achievement in and of itself. While the hosting rights are still tilted in favor of MLS teams, American sides have proven at this year’s Leagues Cup that maybe they aren’t so afraid of the away games anymore.

Players of the Week:

Soccerwise is introducing weekly Player of the Week and U22 Player of the Week awards for MLS, and Player of the Week and Newcomer of the week awards for NWSL:

Matches to Watch:

🚨🚨🚨Nashville SC vs. Inter Miami, MLS 🚨🚨🚨(August 15th, 8:30 PM ET, Apple TV): The biggest match of the season as the top two clubs in MLS battle for what might be both a Supporter’s Shield and Eastern Conference deciding match. Lionel Messi’s participation following the passing of his father will be in question, though reports have him returning in time for this match. Either way, all eyes will be on Nashville this Saturday.

Sickos Match: Orlando City vs. FC Cincinnati, MLS (August 15th, 7:30 PM ET, Apple TV): Evander vs. Antoine Griezmann. Justin Ellis vs. a limit in nutmegs (his limit doesn’t exist). We’ve got two attacks on fire, and two backlines that love to give up goals…join us, sickos, for the match that should be 5-4 but will inevitably end as a 0-0 draw now that we cursed it.

Angel City FC vs. Washington Spirit, NWSL (August 16th, 9:00 PM ET, ESPN): The Washington Spirit and MVP candidate Trinity Rodman head to Hollywood, looking to get back on track after back-to-back home losses and keep pace with Gotham FC for the NWSL Shield. Angel City rallied to earn a point on the road last weekend against Seattle, keeping themselves in the hunt for a playoff spot. They currently hold the eighth and final playoff spot, with just five points separating eighth from 14th in the NWSL standings.

Goal of the Week:

We could just make this the “Evander Goal of the Week” award to be honest:

A Note from Kickback Soccer Media:

Subscribers,

You may have noticed some changes this week in our newsletter! This comes as part of an exciting addition to the Kickback Soccer Media slate, as we’ve added leading MLS & U.S. Soccer newsletter Nutmeg Soccer!As part of the addition, we’re adding a second newsletter every week, adding a weekend recap every Tuesday! We’re also expanding our team of writers and contributors to make this the best possible American soccer fan weekly compendium.

If you’re a subscriber of both newsletter, you’ll notice you may have received two newsletters today. Go ahead and unsubscribe to either; we’ll be sending one newsletter to a single database after around one month.Thanks for your continuing support!

Sincerely,Kickback Soccer Media

Quick Links, Kickback:

Soccerwise: MLS transfers abound! Catch up with David Gass and Tom Bogert on Thursday’s episode.
First Touch: Kickback’s global soccer platform! This week’s First Touch Dispatch takes you around the world of soccer in under twenty minutes.
Tom Bogert, The Athletic: Tom has something like 12 MLS transfer stories from this week. Catch up here!
Tactics Free Zone: Matt Doyle is on vacation this week, but subscribe anyways!

Quick Links, Kickback Partners:

Nashville’s SixOneFive Soccer got the breakdown for this weekend’s match-of-the-season.
Seattle’s Sounder at Heart had Paul Tenorio on to discuss what to expect from new MLS commissioner, Larry Berg!

Quick Links, Kickback Favorites:

Backheeled has a great feature this week on Poch’s need to focus on recruiting dual nationals!