Toluca FC overcame Club de Fútbol Monterrey Rayados A.C. to win the Leagues Cup final 2-0 at Shell Energy Stadium in Houston, on Sunday.
As the first non-MLS team to win the Cup since 2021, when León took home the honors, Toluca became the third Liga MX team to win it all, bringing the MLS-Liga MX battle to a 3-3 count all time since the tournament’s inaugural edition in 2019.
The four MLS teams to make it out of Phase One fell short in the knockout bracket, all losing to their Liga MX opponents in the quarterfinals to make way for an all-Liga MX semifinal.
Club Leon (LEO) def. Real Salt Lake (RSL), 3-0
Toluca FC (TOL) def. Austin FC (ATX), 2-0
Club de Futbol Monterrey Rayados A.C (MTY) def. Chicago Fire FC (CHI), 2-1
Club America (AME) def. Columbus Crew (CLB), 2-0
MTY def. AME, 2-2 (5:4 on PKs)
It took little time for Toluca forward Alexis Vega to get the team on the board, scoring in the fourth minute.
Vega followed up on a missed shot, sneaking past a defender before firing one into the bottom-right corner of the goal.
Three players received yellow cards in the first half, two for Toluca and one for Monterrey. Toluca missed one attempt while three were saved, while Monterrey missed four and had three saved.
Coming out of the break, Monterrey needed to make something happen to get back into the game, failing to execute on any of their shots on goal in the first half.
Instead, it was Toluca forward Helio Nunes who found the back of the net in the 70th minute, capitalizing on a blocked shot from the Monterrey goalkeeper to give Toluca a 2-0 advantage.
Monterrey could not make up the difference during regulation or the additional six minutes of stoppage time, allowing Toluca to walk away with the Leagues Cup win.
