Say what you will about the sporting merit of Leagues Cup, a fair amount of value has been assigned to it by the powers that be. Here’s a rundown of what it means:
Concacaf Champions Cup berth
Not only have the Sounders punched their ticket for the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup — along with Inter Miami and the LA Galaxy — but they receive a bye into the Round of 16 as one of the five pre-seeded teams. This is the same deference given to the eventual MLS Cup winner, the Caribbean cup winner, the Central American cup winner and the top team from Liga MX. Those five teams will then be ranked based on their Concacaf club ranking index to determine where they fall in the bracket. The Sounders are currently 12th, but that doesn’t seem to reflect the latest Leagues Cup results.
Allocation money
By qualifying for Champions Cup, the Sounders will receive a $200,000 General Allocation Money bonus. While that’s not exactly a budget-making amount, every bit helps when trying to build a roster and that amount is roughly equivalent to trading an international roster spot.
Prize money
Although updated numbers have not been released, in each of the past two tournaments the winning team received a $2 million prize. In addition to that, players get CBA-mandated bonuses of $100,000 per game and $50,000 per win. The Sounders played six games and won all of them, meaning they will get at least $900,000 in bonuses.
The players’ total prize pool is now more than $2.5 million after they collected $1.4 million from the Club World Cup and another $212,500 for getting to the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup Round of 16. If that money were to be split perfectly evenly, each player would get almost $85,000 before any bonuses from MLS competition are added in.
Opta ranking
The Sounders have moved to the top of Opta’s rankings for Concacaf and are the third-ranked team from outside Europe. Overall, Opta has them as the 81st best club in the world, which is a 22-spot improvement over the last seven days.
History
The Sounders were somewhat accused of erasure when they were called the “first MLS team to win Concacaf Champions League” due to both the LA Galaxy and D.C. United having won the old version of the regional title. But no one else has a claim to becoming the first MLS team to win all five available North American trophies. Just for fun, the Sounders can even toss in their four A-League/USL championships.
Even including Mexico, the only other team in North America to lay claim to a similar achievement is Club Leon, who has won Copa MX, Concacaf Champions, Liga MX and Campeon de Campeones.
Experience
This is obviously harder to quantify, but just about everyone connected to the Sounders credited the 2021 run to the Leagues Cup final as an important part of preparing them for their 2022 Concacaf Champions League win.
Although there’s still significant holdover from that squad, 10 of the 15 players who featured for the Sounders on Sunday did not participate in that previous title run. Among the 11 starters, only three started either leg of the CCL final. That they were able to look down a group as talented as Inter Miami will surely pay dividends down the road as the Sounders compete in other continental tournaments.
Good vibes
While we’re at it, let’s also consider what this win did for the constitution of each and every one of us who simply got to watch. It’s admittedly hella greedy to say this, but it had been 39 long months since the Sounders last won a trophy. I know that’s not actually very long ago, but it felt longer in part because there was a sense that MLS was starting to pass the Sounders by. I really don’t know how anyone can make that argument with a straight face right now.
The Sounders dismantled the best team in Concacaf, dominated the reigning MLS Cup champions on the road and then significantly outplayed the most star-studded and expensive team in league history on an international stage. They did this with a core of players who were developed locally. This is a team that was not only built to win, but potentially built to last.
It feels damn good to be a Sounder right now.
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