LOS ANGELES (Thursday, April 14, 2022) – Major League Soccer (MLS) and LIGA MX, together with SoFi Stadium, today announced that the new, state-of-the-art sports and entertainment venue and 2022 Super Bowl host will welcome fans of the world’s most popular sport to its first-ever soccer event this summer, an unprecedented Leagues Cup Showcase featuring four of the continent’s most popular clubs – LA Galaxy, Los Angeles Football Club, Club Deportivo Guadalajara and Club América.
On Wednesday, August 3, SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. will host the four clubs in a doubleheader, with the following matchups.
LA Galaxy vs. Club Deportivo Guadalajara
Los Angeles Football Club vs. Club América
The marquee doubleheader will serve as a preview to the highly-anticipated Leagues Cup, the annual, month-long official tournament between MLS and LIGA MX – to kick off summer of 2023.
Ticket Information
Fans will have the opportunity to experience this historic doubleheader in club specific supporter sections. LA Galaxy and LAFC season tickets holders will have the opportunity to purchase tickets through an exclusive presale. LA Galaxy Season Ticket Member presale starts on Monday, April 18 at 10:00 am PT and members will be contacted directly via email with their presale details. Tickets will be made available to the public on Thursday, April 21 at 10:00 am. PT via Ticketmaster.
The LA Galaxy and Chivas will meet for the first time in 15 years. In the previous three matches, Galaxy won in a 1999 friendly at the Rose Bowl and in penalty kicks at the Concacaf Cup of Champions in 1997 in Chicago. In their last match 15 years ago, Chivas defeated the Galaxy 2-1 in the LA Memorial Coliseum during SuperLiga 2007. Current LA Galaxy star Javier “Chicharito” Hernández began his career with Chivas, and this match up would be the first time Hernández would face his former club since 2010.
The matchup between LAFC and Club América will be only the second time they meet, and the first since LAFC eliminated the LIGA MX club from the 2020 Concacaf Champions League semifinals.
“The LA Galaxy are excited to be part of a historic event in Los Angeles as four of the biggest clubs in MLS and Liga MX face off against one another in the first-ever soccer event at SoFi Stadium,” said LA Galaxy President Chris Klein. “There’s a great history of big soccer matches being played in the United States and in Los Angeles, dating back to the 1994 World Cup, the 1999 Women’s World Cup, and all of the big games that the LA Galaxy has been a part of, so having the opportunity to play against a storied franchise in Liga MX is an honor that we are looking forward to. We believe this will be a great spectacle for fans of the sport in LA, and we are thrilled to represent our city against Chivas Guadalajara in this showcase.
"I’m very happy that Chivas will play in that wonderful stadium. In Los Angeles, we feel at home; it is a rojiblanca city, and that the team can meet its fans in the home of the NFL Champions, it is great news," said Amaury Vergara, President, Grupo Omnilife – Chivas. “It's a great stadium, with a great rival and the best fans... What more can we ask for? I'm sure it will be a party.”
“We look forward to participating in this historic doubleheader at SoFi Stadium and rekindling our rivalry with Club America,” LAFC Co-President and CBO Larry Freedman said. “Los Angeles is showing, yet again, why it is one of the top sports cities in the world, and it is an honor for our Club to have the opportunity to compete in this showcase.”
“This will be another historic day for soccer in Southern California,” LAFC Co-President & General Manager John Thorrington said. “Facing off once again against Club America in the first soccer event at SoFi Stadium is another major moment for our Club.”
“We’re very excited of having the opportunity to connect, once again, with our amazing fan base in California. This match against LAFC represents the first time, in recent years, to face a local team in Los Angeles, so we’re pretty sure that it will be a vibrant game, which will be played in a magnificent stadium, and that all the americanistas are going to truly enjoy,” said Santiago Baños, President of Club América.
“SoFi Stadium was designed to host a variety of events, and we are thrilled to welcome the Leagues Cup Showcase as our first soccer match at SoFi Stadium,” said Jason Gannon, managing director, SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park. “We look forward to bringing Liga MX, MLS, and soccer fans from around the world together on August 3 to watch this historic double-header. This will mark the first of many memorable soccer matches at SoFi Stadium.”
SoFi Stadium
SoFi Stadium, home of the reigning Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams and the Los Angeles Chargers, is located at Hollywood Park, a near 300-acre sports and entertainment destination being developed by Los Angeles Rams Owner/Chairman E. Stanley Kroenke. The largest venue in the NFL at 3.1 million square-feet, SoFi Stadium can host approximately 70,000 fans, expandable up to 100,000. It is the first indoor-outdoor stadium ever built, and it features more than 260 suites, eight suite concepts, 12 club spaces, and more than 13,000 premium seats all designed to create extraordinary fan experiences. SoFi Stadium is an all-digital venue and has 90,000 square-feet of digital LED in the seating bowl alone. The largest videoboard in sports, the Infinity Screen by Samsung, makes up 70,000 square-feet of the bowl’s digital LED. A completely unique design, the Infinity Screen is the first of its kind and is the only 4k end-to-end videoboard in all of sports.
Leagues Cup Showcase will be a taste of what’s to come in 2023. All 47 MLS and Liga MX clubs will participate in Leagues Cup next summer, with the tournament champion earning automatic qualification for the Concacaf Champions League round of 16. In addition, clubs finishing second and third in Leagues Cup starting in 2023 will qualify for the Opening Round of the CCL.
MLS and LIGA MX – which entered a partnership in 2018 rooted in the on-field rivalry as well as the true spirit of collaboration off the field - will pause their respective seasons for one month during the 2023 summer to play Leagues Cup, showcasing the soccer infrastructure and capabilities in the region in the years leading into the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the U.S., Canada and Mexico -- the first World Cup to feature 48 countries.
Leagues Cup Showcase, sponsored by BODYARMOR, will be broadcast on Univision and ESPN platforms in the United States, and TUDN platforms in Mexico.
