On paper the game is Inter Miami vs Vancouver Whitecaps. The Major League Soccer final can easily be reduced to the duel between two world champions: Lionel Messi against Thomas Müller.
The focus is on exclusive attention Major League Soccer no value. This was already noticeable in the summer when the MLS played, although Real Madrid, Paris St Germain, Manchester City and FC Bayern were in the USA to crown the club world champions.
On the weekend when the 2025 champions will be crowned, the entire football world will be looking to the United States. However, this is for a different reason than the MLS Cup game. The World Cup for national teams will be drawn. For the first time, 48 teams will play for the title that Argentina has to defend.
Thomas Müller – world champion for eight years longer
The tournament in the summer of 2026 is likely to be the last major one for Lionel Messi, who has been able to call himself world champion since December 2022 after being denied this title eight years earlier.
Argentina lost the World Cup final against Germany on July 13, 2014 in Rio de Janeiro. Since that day, Thomas Müller has been world champion. Like Messi, the former German international has also won many other titles with the club.
However, both football greats are missing a championship with their current club. One of them will erase this small flaw on Saturday, because one day after the draw for the World Cup, the final for the MLS title will take place on a much smaller stage in Fort Lauderdale. Messi scores too InterMiami on the Vancouver Whitecaps with Müller.
“That’s a good headline, right?”
The North American league is happy that it has two such prominent protagonists with whom the drum for the final (kick-off 8:30 p.m. German time) can be beaten louder.
Drumming for the MLS Cup
Thomas Müller was in a great mood before the dream finale. “We want to achieve the really big thing. Right now the final is the most important game in my life”said the 36-year-old and added with a broad grin: “That’s a good headline, right? Boom!”
Müller enthused at a media event: “It’s a perfect final. There’s nothing better than playing against the GOAT, against Messi – and beating him? If you’re the best, you’re the hunted.”
“This has been the final that everyone has been talking about since I started playing in MLS. And now it’s here. This will be a madhouse in Miami, a real football festival in my style.”said Müller. But, the Bayern icon added: “It’s not about Messi against Thomas Müller, but about Miami against the Whitecaps. We’re playing against a team, not against a player.”
Messi’s bitter defeats against Müller
But Inter Miami is, above all, Messi, and the 38-year-old Argentine is inevitably reminded of some of the bitterest defeats of his great career when he thinks of Thomas Müller. In ten duels with Müller, the seven-time world footballer has lost out seven times so far. In particular, the 1-0 defeat after extra time in the 2014 World Cup final is likely to still give Messi sleepless nights. In addition, the Argentine’s “horrible” record against Müller includes a cracking 0:4 in the 2010 World Cup quarter-finals, as well as an embarrassing 2:8 in the quarter-finals of the 2020 Champions League or a 0:4 in the semi-finals of the 2013 premier class with Barcelona against FC Bayern.
Now the German wants to become a party crasher for Messi again. After the semi-final against San Diego FC (3:1) it was immediately clear: “Job is not done. One step is still missing”says Müller: “I liked that. That’s what I know from FC Bayern – a semi-final is nice, but of course it’s always about the whole thing.”