Columbus Crew will meet Pumas UNAM on August 11 with a simple fact hanging over the match: it has already handled two Liga MX tests and still has not lost in this Leagues Cup. Laurent Courtois’ side opened with a 3-1 win over Atlas and followed with a 2-1 victory over Pachuca, giving the Crew six points and a clear edge in the closing match of the first phase.
That is why search interest is spiking now. This is not just another cross-league fixture in MLS and Liga MX. It is the last first-phase match for Columbus Crew and Pumas UNAM in Leagues Cup 2026, and the result shapes what comes next for both teams. Columbus has already shown it can dictate games against Mexican opponents, while Pumas arrives needing to change its tournament story in one night.
The reasons are built into the way Courtois has set the team up. Columbus plays a 3-4-2-1 designed to keep the ball, create superiorities and attack the spaces opponents leave behind. Mohamed Farsi and Malte Amundsen work as the carrileros, giving the formation width without losing control, while Dániel Gazdag and Taha Habroune find the interior pockets where combinations become dangerous. Habroune has three assists in the competition, and Brais Méndez has scored two goals. Patrick Schulte has also done his part with 10 saves and 12 recoveries, which helps explain why Columbus has been so hard to shake.
The Pachuca win showed how that control turns into pressure. Columbus scored first in the 18th minute, added another in first-half stoppage time at 45'+2, and still absorbed a second-half response from Oussama Idrissi before Sergio Barreto was sent off. That mix of possession, timing and discipline is why the Crew are averaging 2.55 goals per match in the tournament while allowing only 1.02. They are also averaging 449.58 passes per match, a sign that the system is not just holding the ball but using it to move opponents where it wants them.
Pumas is the uncomfortable counterpoint. It has not scored in the tournament, yet it is walking into a match that could still determine whether its Leagues Cup stays alive. The numbers underline the gap: Pumas is allowing 2.55 goals per match and averaging 416.58 passes, which suggests it can circulate the ball but has not converted that into danger. Against a Columbus side that has already beaten Atlas and Pachuca, that is a problem that cannot be hidden for long. If Pumas is going to salvage anything on August 11, it needs a positive result and, for the first time in this tournament, a goal to go with it.
The match is set up as a test of whether Columbus Crew’s structure can keep working against Liga MX opposition and whether Pumas UNAM can finally force a different script. The Crew have already taken six points from the first phase without a defeat. Pumas have not scored. On August 11, one of those records has to give.
