The 2019 summer soccer schedule in the United States has been ridiculously busy already — with MLS, NWSL, and U.S. Open Cup games, the Gold Cup, international friendlies, and the International Champions Cup taking up plenty of bandwidth for fans of the beautiful game in America. And that's before even mentioning the Women's World Cup, which dominated headlines all around as the USA women won their fourth star in France earlier this month.

As if there wasn't enough going on, this week marked the start of the first Leagues Cup, a competition between MLS and Liga MX sides. Since the demise of the North American SuperLiga back in 2010, there have always been whispers about the two leagues getting back together for a summer tournament. Those whispers finally became a reality, with four MLS teams facing off against four Liga MX sides this week.

The results had a similar feeling to them, with the Mexican sides taking three out of the four games, mirroring usual results from the Concacaf Champions League. 

Which begs the question: What is the potential usefulness of this tournament, especially for the MLS clubs?

There were definitely some outstanding moments from those games, too. You had DeMarcus Beasley rolling back the clock once again, scoring a stunning goal for the Houston Dynamo against Club America. That game was also noteworthy for Giovani Dos Santos taking the field for the first time for Las Águilas. After being unceremoniously dumped by the LA Galaxy just before the season, it was the first time in his career that Dos Santos had suited up for a Mexican club team, after spending most of his career in Europe.

And then there was the cat that made the darting run on the field during the run of play during the game between Real Salt Lake and Tigres. Despite being oh-so-close to the action, inches away from the ball, the cat avoided danger and managed to not disrupt play.

The Mexican sides, a week into the Apertura season, fielded strong sides, using the opportunity to give their first teams more playing time. MLS teams, meanwhile, slogging their way through the first version of the condensed MLS calendar, played teams that featured some regulars and some reserves looking for minutes.

You can't blame those MLS managers for making such personnel decisions, given that they have to worry about making the playoffs over a friendly tournament. Losing in the Leagues Cup won't do much to harm an MLS manager's job status, but missing the playoffs — when 14 of the 24 teams make the postseason — could cost a manager his job.

And the much-scrutinized tournament, already under the microscope for a multitude of reasons, caught even more flak earlier this month. Judging that there was already plenty of success with the tournament before a ball was even kicked, MLS and Liga MX announced that the next version of the tournament would be expanded to 16 teams, eight from each league. 

There won't be any overlap with teams in both the Champions League and the League Cup. But that means that potentially (read: likely) 13 MLS teams will be involved in extra tournaments in 2020. It's one thing to play in the Champions League, but throwing in extra games for so many teams will certainly have an adverse effect on the level of play within MLS itself. Participation in Champions League usually throws MLS sides off-kilter during the regular season, and the Leagues Cup has the same potential.

Maybe there is a way that the Leagues Cup can end up working for both MLS and Liga MX teams. If not, there's a chance that the Leagues Cup can go the same way as its predecessor, the SuperLiga. For now, we will have to just settle for what will likely be an all Liga MX final, unless the LA Galaxy can push their way past Cruz Azul.