There will be a new name carved into the MLS Cup trophy this December.
Inter Miami and the Vancouver Whitecaps will meet on Saturday in the 2025 edition of the league final. Both teams advanced to December 6th’s final after picking up their first conference championships in club history on Saturday.
Lionel Messi and Inter Miami rolled past visiting NYCFC 5-1 in Saturday’s Eastern Conference Final. Tadeo Allende registered a hat trick in the result, continuing a blistering run of form in the postseason.
Adende leads all players in the MLS Cup Playoffs with eight goals in five appearances.
Messi picked up one assist in Saturday’s win, taking his playoff tally to six goals and five assists for Javier Mascherano’s squad.
The Herons have now outscored their opponents 17-4 through five playoff matches this fall.
As for the Vancouver Whitecaps, they used a brace from Brian White and an own goal from San Diego FC goalkeeper Pablo Sisniega to claim a 3-1 road victory in the Western Conference Final.
Jesper Sorensen’s squad have outscored opponents 9-4 through four playoff matches. They eliminated FC Dallas over two matches before edging LAFC on penalty kicks in the conference semifinal round.
White became the seventh different player to score for Vancouver in the postseason, leading the team with two goals.
German legend Thomas Muller has contributed nine goals and four assists in 12 appearances for the club since joining from Bayern Munich.
The MLS Cup Final showdown will also pit international stars Messi and Muller against one another for the 11th time. Muller has won seven of the previous 10 matchups against Messi for club and country, including the 2014 FIFA World Cup Final.
I would say this will be a good match up. Vancouver has the fire power to hurt Miami.
Watched ’em both. The Inter Miami/NYCFC game was…bad. NYCFC erased Messi and both teams were disjointed all night, and there were times when Miami was flat-out terrible, making facepalm-inducing turnovers all over the pitch, and gifting NYCFC chance after chance they somehow never converted. That 5-1 scoreline definitely flattered, and they did pour it on towards the end with some of that trademark Inter Miami flash, but it was a long time coming and NYCFC was thoroughly deflated after the third goal…they missed a whole bunch of gifted chances at 2-1 and should have equalized repeatedly. They didn’t. That third Miami goal – against the run of play – broke them.
In contrast, Vancouver was…incredibly dangerous and dominant, all night. The gulf between their roster quality and San Diego’s was obvious. Vancouver’s put together a really, really good team, very technical and athletic, and exceptionally disciplined defensively…which San Diego absolutely was not. The Whitecaps’ press is a thing of beauty and it’s stifling; it all runs through Thomas Muller and everything flows seamlessly through him…and even when they took Muller off, they also now have Ryan Gauld coming back from injury and they just subbed him in for Muller around the 60th minute, and that’s a very different threat profile. I thought Gauld was one of the top 2-3 guys in MLS before he got hurt and while he’s not close to 90-minutes-fit yet the guy can clearly still play. That is a dangerous Vancouver Whitecaps squad.
Miami is going to have to play a heckuva lot cleaner or Vancouver is going to murder them with that press. And Vancouver’s wingers, Ahmed and Sabbi, are going to give Miami’s outside backs fits. So this is not a slam-dunk for Miami, or even close. It’s hard to bet against Messi and the offensive firepower he has around him but I don’t like the matchup for Miami. At all. If Vancouver comes in with the same energy and intent they did against San Diego it could be a fascinating game.