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Teams from Liga MX and Major League Soccer face each other in the Leagues Cup tournament to stoke rivalries and define American soccer—the North American game, specifically.
Mexico, the United States and Canada will welcome the FIFA World Cup in 2026, and their national teams just got a small regional preview of that event in the U.S.-hosted Copa América. While La Liga and MLS clubs were among those that faced off in the CONCACAF Champions Cup earlier this year—with La Liga’s Pachuca besting MLS’ Columbus Crew—Leagues Cup is the only tournament catered specifically to La Liga and MLS Clubs. Held four times since 2019, the event features 47 clubs playing 77 matches throughout the U.S. and Canada through August 25.
Oved Valadez is the co-founder and executive creative director of Portland, Oregon-based creative consultancy Industry, which was tasked with branding the Leagues Cup and giving it a visual identity. That’s difficult to do when broader U.S. audiences have a far different view of soccer than league and team fanbases.
“When you think of the Americana of sports, like there’s these visions and behaviors that are stamped into the American mindset: The big barn with the basketball hoop and the kid shooting, the alleyway with the crate and basketball in Chicago, playing stickball in Brooklyn, playing football at nighttime in Texas in a big stadium,” Valadez said. “There’s these really beautiful symbols, but those don’t exist in soccer or people’s perception of soccer: It’s a suburban sport, you pay to play, orange slices.”
When planning the marketing for the Leagues Cup, Industry’s mission was to show U.S. fans that soccer is a much simpler, multigenerational, accessible game—not only globally but in many corners of the United States. Last year, that meant having LeBron James, Serena Williams and Kim Kardashian in seats by the sideline when Lionel Messi scored the game-winning goal in his debut for MLS’ Inter Miami against Liga MX’s Cruz Azul during the League Cup. Messi would score 10 goals throughout the tournament as Inter would secure MLS’ first Leagues Cup win.
This year, Industry took a multipronged approach with its marketing, starting with the anthem and music video, “Nuestros Colores,” produced by Grammy Award winner Emilio Estefan Jr. and featuring contributions from six-time Latin Grammy winner Christian Nodal, Black Eyed Peas member Taboo, Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Emily Estefan, Latin Grammy nominee Gusi, Argentinian singer Abel Pintos and Rabanes’ frontman Emilio Regueira. Laden with lots of on-pitch action, the anthem video also lingers on fan jerseys, their team logos’ place in Leagues Cup jerseys and flags designed by Industry, their repurposing by fans like San Diego-based artist Georgina Treviño and their movement across generations.
