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Yesterday, Major League Soccer and Liga MX announced the schedule for the 2020 Leagues Cup. The Leagues Cup is one of two contests set between Liga MX and MLS clubs, the other being the Campeones Cup.
MLS will have the top eight clubs qualify for the Leagues Cup, minus any teams who have qualified for the Concacaf Champions League. This means that Philadelphia Union, Real Salt Lake, Minnesota United, LA Galaxy, Toronto FC, DC United, Portland Timbers, and New York Red Bulls will participate in the Leagues Cup. As for Liga MX they will also have eight teams qualifying based on the 2019-20 Liga MX season. The Campeón de Campeones Champion, Campeón de Campeones Runner-Up, and Copa MX Champion will be the top three teams to qualify. The other five will be determined based on the overall 2019-20 Liga MX Standings. This does mean that the Liga MX Campeón de Campeone winner will qualify both for the Leagues Cup and play Seattle Sounders in the 2020 Campeones Cup along with qualifying for the 2021 Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League.
The opening round of the tournament will be played on July 21st and 22nd with all matches being interleague and hosted by MLS clubs. The Quarter-Finals will be played August 4th and 5th, Semi-Finals on August 25th and 26th, and the Final will be played on September 16th. Just like the 2019 edition any MLS vs Liga MX matches will be hosted by the MLS side, while any later matches that are MLS vs MLS will be hosted by the higher seed. Any matches in the Quarter-Finals or after that are Liga MX vs Liga MX and the Leagues Cup final will be held at a TBD neutral site in the United States.
This morning MNUFC also announced their 2020 broadcast schedule, the Loons will be staying with FOX Sports North as their local broadcast partner for the fourth consecutive season. 27 out of the 34 match schedule will be aired on FOX Sports North or FOX Sports North Plus with 25 of those 27 also being aired on FOX Sports Wisconsin. The season opener at Portland Timbers on March 1st and Home Opener vs NYRB on March 15th will be aired on FS1. Other matches that will be aired outside of FSNorth will be the April 15th match at Houston Dynamo will be on FOX Sports GO. The May 31st match at LA Galaxy, July 5th match at Seattle, and August 16th match vs Seattle will all be aired on FS1. One match, the July 12th contest vs LAFC will be on ESPN and the August 9th match against 2017 expansion rival Atlanta United will be shown on ABC.
Callum Williams and Kyndra de St. Aubin will return as the commentary team for all matches on FOX Sports North for the 2020 season. All matches on FOX Sports North also will have the 30 minute Loons Live pregame and postgame show and will also be aired on FOX Sports GO.
Stay tuned to E Pluribus Loonum for more pre-season updates on Minnesota United FC.