2024 Leagues Cup Round of 16 Preview

We have just wrapped up the Round of 32 in the Leagues Cup, taking four of the Mexican teams out of the way in a bad round for the Liga MX. Even in the best-case scenario for the Mexican sides, one of the six left in this Round of 16 will have to go out, as Cruz Azul and Mazatlán face. If it were the same case for the MLS teams, three teams would have to go out even if all matches possible had a Northern winner.

This makes all things more interesting, as we get multiple clashes between strong teams, including tight matches between MLS and Liga MX representatives, and that is just what we are getting ready to cover.

We got interesting clashes between top MLS teams, like Cincinnati vs. Philadelphia, along with Columbus vs. Inter Miami. Then, we will also focus on interesting clashes like Tigres vs. New York and América vs. St. Louis, which we believe will be the most interesting clashes out of the 8 possible games.

There are no more Canadian representatives left, and we fear that one of the sides is bound to be reduced in numbers quite hard this time around, so we can’t wait to see how things unfold and how things keep themselves interesting.

2024 Leagues Cup Round of 16: Cincinnati vs. Philadelphia

FC Cincinnati advanced to the round of 16 phase of the 2024 Leagues Cup after beating Santos Laguna on penalties. It’s kind of surprising that they didn’t manage to get a win in the regular 90 minutes as they completely dominated the game.The Orange and Blue created 22 goal chances while the opponents only 8.

We have to note that is something that should worry them as their next opponent is Philadelphia Union, whose strongest weapon is its defense.

The Union has conceded only two goals in their last five games. However, the last time they played against FC Cincinnati at TQL Stadium, they lost 4:3.

Despite failing to score more than one goal against Santos Laguna, we start to think that Cincinnati has enough offensive power to do better than that this time around.

We expect them to beat the Philly team without needing to go all the way to penalties

Cincinnati vs. Philadelphia Betting Pick: Cincinnati

2024 Leagues Cup Round of 16: Columbus vs. Inter Miami

Lionel Messi is very close to making his comeback after missing all of Inter Miami’s previous 2024 Leagues Cup games due to an injury. They’ve been doing alright even without their best player on the field.

In the first game of the knockout stage, they beat Toronto FC 4:3. It was a tense match, but the main reason is that Inter played with 10 men for more than an hour after center-back David Martinez got sent off.

Now, they’re facing a much tougher opponent, a team coming off a big win over Sporting Kansas City. The Crew beat them 4:0 on Friday evening.

This is going to be quite a fun one to watch, as both teams are going out strong, but the thing is that we expect Inter Miami to go all out on this one, which should allow them to take the victory here.

Columbus vs. Inter Miami Betting Pick: Inter Miam

2024 Leagues Cup Round of 16: Tigres vs. New York City

UANL Tigres won both of their games in the group phase of the 2024 Leagues Cup. They beat Puebla 2:1 and Inter Miami by the same score. In the first round of the knockout phase, they beat Pachuca 1:0.

Sure, they’ve won every single game so far, but no one can say that they’ve been overly dominant. Their games were dull with not too many exciting chances for goals.

New York City is more about defending than attacking. The New Yorkers played 1:1 with the New England Revolution in the previous round, advancing to this stage only after winning the penalty shootout.

Before that, we saw them get hammered by FC Cincinnati 4:2 in the group, as well as beat Queretaro by penalties after 0:0 in regulation.

This might be looking like an easy shot for the Mexican team to make it into the next phase, and we believe they will be taking it.

Tigres vs. New York City Betting Pick: Tigre

2024 Leagues Cup Round of 16: Club America vs. St. Louis

Club América is Mexico’s most valuable team, with a roster price of over $100 million. In comparison, the total value of St. Louis City’s squad is somewhere in the ballpark of $50 million.

América’s most valuable player is midfielder Erick Sanchez, who scored the first goal in the game with Atlas. The other goal was the work of this team’s captain, striker Henry Martin.

St. Louis City’s most expensive player is Eduard Lowen, a midfielder who’s been in great form since the start of the 2024 Leagues Cup. Unfortunately for the MLS team, their arguably best striker, Joao Klauss, is out with an injury. Still, despite that, they’ve been scoring a lot of goals lately. In their previous game, they Portland Timbers 3:1.

That was the seventh time in a row that they allowed a goal, which is kind of strange given that they’ve got a very good goalkeeper, Romain Burki, who’s also their captain.

We believe that even though we will see action from both sides, Club América will land the victory.

Club América vs. St. Louis Betting Pick: Club América