{"id":983822,"date":"2026-08-06T04:48:54","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T04:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/983822\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T04:48:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T04:48:54","slug":"match-preview-cruz-azul-and-philadelphia-union-meet-again-in-leagues-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/983822\/","title":{"rendered":"MATCH PREVIEW:\u00a0Cruz Azul and Philadelphia Union meet again in Leagues Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n      <strong>By Tony \u00c1lvarez<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Reigning Liga MX champions Cruz Azul opens its Leagues Cup campaign against the Philadelphia Union on Thursday at Subaru Park in Chester, Pennsylvania, at 8:00 p.m. ET on MLS Season Pass via Apple TV.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>2nd all-time meeting in Leagues Cup (Cruz Azul won via penalty kicks in 2024)<\/li>\n<li>Record at Leagues Cup: Cruz Azul (5-5), Philadelphia Union (10-4)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Cruz Azul enters Leagues Cup as the reigning 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup winner.<\/li>\n<li>The Mexican giants recently won the 2026 Campe\u00f3n de Campeones trophy over Toluca FC.<\/li>\n<li>Philadelphia Union returns to Leagues Cup after capturing the 2025 MLS Supporters&#8217;\u00a0Shield with the league&#8217;s best regular-season record.<\/li>\n<li>Philadelphia Union has reached the semifinals in both of their previous appearances (2023, 2024).<\/li>\n<li>Both clubs enter Leagues Cup after competing in the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup, where Cruz Azul reached the quarterfinals, and Philadelphia Union advanced to the Round of 16.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Cruz Azul<\/strong>:\n<ul>\n<li>Enters Leagues Cup with momentum as the defending Liga MX champions, Campe\u00f3n de Campeones winners, and a strong start to the Apertura 2026.<\/li>\n<li>Will look to stay undefeated at Subaru Park against Philadelphia Union.<\/li>\n<li>Has scored seven goals through its first three Liga MX matches.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Philadelphia<\/strong>:\n<ul>\n<li>Enters the tournament with renewed confidence after winning three straight home matches.<\/li>\n<li>Milan Iloski has 10 goals in MLS play and will look to continue his high level in attack.<\/li>\n<li>Cavan Sullivan, 16, is one of the young players to watch in the tournament and has four assists \u2014 one behind team leader Frankie Westfield.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\n      <strong>WHAT TO EXPECT?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The two clubs meet again after needing penalties to separate them in 2024. That game ended in a 1-1 tie, with the Mexican squad winning 5-3 on penalties.<\/p>\n<p>The reigning Liga MX champions have picked up where they left off after winning their first two Apertura 2026 games under head coach <strong>Joel Huiqui<\/strong>. Led by <strong>\u00c1ngel Jeremy M\u00e1rquez<\/strong> in attack and backed by a solid defense, La M\u00e1quina enters the tournament as one of the favorites to lift the Leagues Cup.<\/p>\n<p>Philadelphia Union is looking to take advantage of its home field after winning three consecutive matches following the World Cup break, turning around its fortunes following a tough stretch to begin the year. The Union will once again rely on <strong>Milan Iloski<\/strong>, who has scored 10 MLS goals this season, to capitalize on its scoring opportunities against one of Liga MX&#8217;s strongest sides.<\/p>\n<p>One of Matchday 2&#8217;s tightest matchups sees Cruz Azul holding a slight edge, earning <strong>40%<\/strong>\u00a0compared to <strong>35%<\/strong>\u00a0ahead of a clash between two clubs with legitimate title aspirations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Tony \u00c1lvarez Reigning Liga MX champions Cruz Azul opens its Leagues Cup campaign against the Philadelphia Union&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":983823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,394808,105,61117,12419,1448,2830,1311,8895,393819,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-983822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america","tag-cruz-azul","tag-latest-news","tag-leagues-cup","tag-match-preview","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-union","tag-tournament-updates","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117046762954288893","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=983822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/983823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=983822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=983822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=983822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}