Doug McIntyre’s MLS column, 24 Thoughts, parses through the latest insights and inside info from around American soccer.

This week and next, the burgeoning relationship between MLS and Liga MX — its older, richer, more popular and more competitive counterpart in Mexico — will be front and center.

The new Leagues Cup that pits teams from North America’s top two circuits against each other kicked off last month to mixed reviews. But Wednesday’s one-off, hard-fought and highly entertaining Campeones Cup clash between Atlanta United and Club America — easily the best-supported clubs from the U.S. and Mexico — offered a glimpse of what fans and suits on both sides of the border believe the partnership can become.

The rivalry will resume next Wednesday, when the LA Galaxy, the only MLS team to advance to the Leagues Cup semifinals, takes on Cruz Azul for the right to play either America or Tigres in that tournament’s inaugural championship. Next season, the competition doubles in size to 16 teams.

“As you heard me and people in the league say for a long time, we have a real focus on being competitive against the Mexican first division,” MLS commissioner Don Garber told Yahoo Sports last month. “We’re constantly trying to join forces in a wide variety of ways.”

View photos Club America defender Bruno Valdez (left) battles Atlanta United forward Josef Martinez during the second half of Wednesday's Campeones Cup. Atlanta won the match 3-2. (Dale Zanine/USA Today) More

24 Thoughts

1. The interview with Garber happened just after the first round of Leagues Cup games. It was a long conversation, and Garber’s thoughts on the competition didn’t make it into the Q&A we ran before the All-Star game, where Liga MX president Enrique Bonilla was Garber’s guest. That doesn’t mean the commish didn’t have a lot to say.

2. In short, the two leagues feel that by joining forces, they’ll be in a better position to measure up to not just Europe’s elite soccer leagues, but also North America’s “Big Four” sports: the NFL, NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball.

Obviously MLS wants to expose its product to the millions of Mexican soccer fans stateside, consumers who have made Liga MX America’s most-watched futbol property. Between the end of the SuperLiga in 2010 and the debut of the Campeones Cup debuted last year, the CONCACAF Champions League — an event Mexican clubs have utterly dominated — was the only proving ground.

3. “We are committed to CONCACAF and helping to build the CONCACAF Champions League, and obviously there’s MLS-Liga MX competition within that,” Garber said. “We continue to talk to CONCACAF about how we all can work together to try to build on the rivalry of the pro leagues that could begin to mirror the rivalry that exists between the United States and Mexico national teams.”

4. There’s plenty of work to do to get there. While a crowd of 40,128 showing up on a weeknight to watch a new event is nothing to sneeze at, that figure was still a couple thousand fans less than the least-attended MLS match in Atlanta this season. And a good percentage of those in the building were clad in the visitors’ yellow. The four Leagues Cup games played so far averaged just over 15,000, well below the MLS mark of more than 22,000 per match.

“It is the first year, and it takes time to build,” Garber said. “But we are committed to making that tournament and making the competition between the two leagues really important.”

5. To that end, Garber suggested that MLS could penalize teams that don’t take matches against Liga MX sides seriously. The regular season has been the priority for MLS teams and fans alike. Sandwiched between crucial Western Conference contests versus LAFC and the Portland Timbers, the Galaxy didn’t even dress Zlatan Ibrahimovic or Jonathan dos Santos —its two best players — for its Leagues Cup win over Club Tijuana. The Chicago Fire, Houston Dynamo and Real Salt Lake also fielded reserve-heavy starting lineups in their Leagues Cup losses. “We understand that we’ve got enormous scheduling challenges,” Garber said. “Like everything with us, nothing is easy.”

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