Garcia and Industry saw designer Martine Rose creating soccer jerseys and hip-hop’s embrace of the soccer kit and saw a way to colorfully represent fandoms and rivalries such as Tijuana and LAFC or superstar “Chicharito” Javier Hernández’s current and former teams Chivas and Galaxy.

They also saw, after the success of the 2023 tournament, a willingness by the top echelons of Liga MX and MLS to improve the tournament. Valadez said Liga MX president Mikel Arriola and head of operations Victor Guevara joined MLS commissioner Don Garber and his deputy Gary Stevenson in reviewing edits of the ads, while the teams provided an extraordinary amount of access.

“Everybody from [Inter Miami owner David] Beckham giving access to players and old footage to [Austin FC owner] Matthew McConaughey, who wanted to be in it but couldn’t, giving us footage of him being hands-on in the stadium,” Valadez said. “America gave us their real La Monumental ultras fans, Pumas gave us their mascot, their stadium, Jorge Campos—everyone committed, and that shows, to me, that there’s momentum to go somewhere.”