- Lionel Messi, the eight-time Ballon d’Or award winner and 2022 World Cup champion, has won 46 trophies for club and country.
- Inter Miami and the Vancouver Whitecaps are playing in MLS Cup for the first time.
- Both Inter Miami (Javier Mascherano) and the Vancouver Whitecaps (Jesper Sørensen) feature coaches in their first seasons with their respective teams.
Inter Miami will take on the Vancouver Whitecaps in a fascinating MLS Cup matchup, which will take place at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Saturday, Dec. 6 (2:30 p.m. ET on Apple TV and FOX).
With the soccer G.O.A.T. Lionel Messi, as well as his former FC Barcelona buddies, involved on one side, and German legend Thomas Müller on the other, there’s plenty to dive into on the pitch. Yet, there is plenty of intrigue off the pitch, as well as big-picture opportunities for MLS moving forward and players looking toward next summer’s World Cup.
Here we present 30 storylines for the 30th MLS Cup:
1. Both Inter Miami (Javier Mascherano) and the Vancouver Whitecaps (Jesper Sørensen) feature coaches in their first seasons with their respective teams. Mascherano is in his first coaching gig with a top-flight club. Mascherano also has history with Lionel Messi. The two played together for eight seasons at FC Barcelona. Mascherano and Messi also were teammates for Argentina, including on the squad that reached the 2014 World Cup final. Sørensen was a familiar name if you happen to follow the Danish Superliga, where he briefly coached Brøndby IF before getting fired a month before being named Vancouver’s coach in January 2025. Things have worked out better for Sørensen in MLS.
2. Both teams are playing in MLS Cup for the first time, as Inter Miami and the Vancouver Whitecaps are the 20th and 21st different clubs to appear in MLS Cup.
3. Both clubs still have hardware in the trophy case. The Whitecaps have won four consecutive Canadian Championships. Inter Miami won the 2023 Leagues Cup shortly after Messi’s arrival, and then won the 2024 MLS Supporters’ Shield.
3a. With an MLS Cup win, what will be Inter Miami’s place among the best championship dynasties in MLS history? Would Messi’s club already belong among the league’s all-time best teams?
3b. With a win, will the Vancouver Whitecaps’ triumph over Messi and the legend-laden Herons of Inter Miami be considered one of the biggest upsets in MLS Cup history? Inter Miami (-135 per BetMGM) are betting favorites over Vancouver (+290). Inter Miami have been the MLS Cup favorite of USA TODAY Network experts throughout this year’s playoffs.
4. Vancouver could win its first major sports championship. The NHL’s Canucks are 0-3 in their Stanley Cup Final appearances. The NBA’s Grizzlies never made the playoffs in their six seasons in Vancouver before locating to Memphis, where the franchise hasn’t made it to the Finals. In the CFL — a major sport in Canada, but not so much in the U.S. — the BC Lions have made 10 appearances in the Grey Cup, winning it six times, most recently in 2011.
5. Vancouver does have a team-of-destiny feel after winning an epic playoff encounter with Los Angeles FC in the Western Conference semifinals. The Whitecaps overcame a stoppage-time golazo from LAFC star Son Heung-Min, and then LAFC’s extra time assault on goal, to prevail in a penalty shootout. The Whitecaps then went on to rout San Diego FC, 3-1, in the Western Conference final.
6. Inter Miami’s Tadeo Allende enters MLS Cup in a goal-scoring groove. Allende’s eight goals so far have tied Carlos Ruiz for most in a single postseason. In 2002, Ruiz’s goal-scoring run helped the LA Galaxy lift the first of their record six MLS Cups.
7. Which famous faces will be in attendance at Chase Stadium for MLS Cup? Notable celebrities and sports figures have shown up to watch Messi play. This is the biggest game Messi will play in since he joined Inter Miami, so it should be a star-studded affair in South Florida.
8. One famous face who will certainly be at Chase Stadium for MLS Cup will be David Beckham, co-owner of Inter Miami. Part of the original contract to get Becks to join the Los Angeles Galaxy and play in Major League Soccer was a unique option to purchase an expansion team for $25 million after he retired. That team turned out to be Miami. Becks now can win an MLS Cup as both an owner and player. Beckham and the Galaxy won MLS Cup in 2011 and 2012. Inter Miami turned out to be a good investment for Beckham; the club is valued at $1.19 billion, per Sportico.
9. Three players on the 2025 MLS Best XI will be playing in MLS Cup: Messi, and the Vancouver Whitecaps’ Sebastian Berhalter and Tristan Blackmon.
10. Messi — the eight-time Ballon d’Or award winner and 2022 World Cup champion with Argentina — has won 46 trophies for club and country. MLS Cup would make it an astonishing 47.
11. With six goals and seven assists in Inter Miami’s five playoff games, Lionel Messi set an MLS playoff record for goal contributions.
12. Behind the record-setting offensive production of Lionel Messi and Tadeo Allende, Inter Miami have outscored opponents by a 17-4 margin during the playoffs.
13. Thomas Müller, the Germany and Bayern Munich legend, joined Vancouver in the summer and has produced 12 goal contributions (nine goals, three assists) in 13 games across all competitions.
14. Müller and Messi met in the 2014 World Cup final. It was Müller’s Germany which prevailed in extra time, 1-0. Messi missed a free kick in the final minute of extra time. Messi’s wait for World Cup glory lasted eight more years until Argentina hoisted the trophy in Qatar.
15. But, wait, there’s more: The Messi-Müller ties go deeper than that famous 2014 World Cup final encounter in Brazil. The two have squared off against each other a total of 10 times for club or country. In the 2020 UEFA Champions League quarterfinals, Müller’s Bayern Munich absolutely boot-stomped Messi’s Barcelona, 8-2. Ten years prior, Müller’s Germany routed Messi and Argentina in the quarterfinals of the 2010 World Cup, 4-0. Messi finally can exact some revenge on his German rival in MLS Cup. Though, it’s been a while since Messi got the best of Müller in club play, with his last win coming in Barcelona’s 3-0 victory over Bayern Munich in Leg 1 of the UEFA Champions League semifinals in 2015.
16. Rodrigo De Paul is another sign of Inter Miami’s all-in philosophy during its brief window of trophy-collecting opportunity with Messi wearing Herons pink. De Paul joined Inter Miami on loan from Atlético Madrid during the summer transfer window (there is an option to sign a permanent deal through 2029).
17. Lionel Messi and De Paul were teammates on Argentina’s World Cup-winning team in 2022.
18. MLS Cup will be the final game for legendary footballers Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets. Both players announced plans to retire following the 2025 MLS season. Both players won Euro 2012 with Spain. Busquets won a World Cup in 2010. Both won multiple La Liga titles while teammates with Messi at Barcelona. Together, Alba and Busquets won 19 trophies as teammates. MLS Cup would be a nice capper to two highly decorated careers.
19. There’s a good chance that Luis Suarez won’t be in Inter Miami’s starting 11 for MLS Cup. Since earning a one-game suspension during the best-of-three playoff against Nashville SC, Suarez has been a substitute for Mascherano’s squad. Instead, Tadeo Allende and Mateo Silvetti have started up top alongside Messi. It has proved to be a potent arrangement. In the three games since Suarez’s ban, Inter Miami has outscored opponents 13-1.
20. Fans might not get maximum Suarez in MLS Cup, but the longtime pest of the pitch has earned a role as an MLS villain. It’s been quite a 2025 for Suarez. Aside from an off-ball kick at Nashville SC’s Andy Najar that earned him a playoff suspension, the controversial star striker was suspended for six games for an ugly incident in Seattle following the Leagues Cup final.
21. Vancouver’s captain-turned-supersub Ryan Gauld could be an X-factor in MLS Cup. Gauld — who’d scored double-digit goals in the previous two seasons — suffered a knee injury early in the 2025 season. Such a personnel loss would have incapacitated lesser clubs. Instead, the Whitecaps flourished with their playmaking attacking midfielder and designated player sidelined. Gauld returned in October to a new role as a late-game spark, a role he figures to have in MLS Cup as well.
22. Godspeed to the Whitecaps fans making the journey from British Columbia to South Florida. Vancouver against Miami represents the furthest away trip in Major League Soccer. At 2,801 miles, Miami and Vancouver are the furthest apart clubs in the league.
23. Just like the World Series, MLS Cup is a USA vs. Canada showdown. Will this championship matchup also go in America’s favor? MLS can only hope that its championship game brings excitement like the 2025 World Series, a seven-game all-timer won by the Los Angeles Dodgers over the Toronto Blue Jays.
24. This will be the second-to-last MLS Cup played in December. With the league shifting its calendar starting in 2027, the 2026 season will be the last in what had been the league’s familiar spring-to-fall setup. In the 2026 season, the MLS Cup Playoffs will kick off on Nov. 18.
25. MLS Cup 2025 figures to be the final moment of glory for Chase Stadium. Inter Miami’s temporary erector-set stadium in Fort Lauderdale will be replaced as the club’s main grounds when Miami Freedom Park hosts its first game on April 4, 2026. Inter Miami will play five road games to open the 2026 season before playing their first game at Miami Freedom Park against Austin FC.
26. What about the future of the Whitecaps in Vancouver? MLS commissioner Don Garber recently called the Whitecaps’ current arrangement at Vancouver’s BC Place ‘a suboptimal stadium situation.’ There’s real concern that the Whitecaps could relocate without a more optimal stadium deal. Further complicating matters is that the club has an ownership situation that is in flux.
27. Helping fuel the Whitecaps’ sensational 2025 campaign has been Sebastian Berhalter, the son of former USMNT player and coach Gregg Berhalter. His play both for club and country has bolstered the midfielder’s chances of being on the USMNT’s roster for the 2026 World Cup. Sebastian Berhalter’s on-field energy appears to have endeared himself to U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino.
28. Which MLS Cup participants might be competing at next summer’s World Cup? Berhalter’s Vancouver teammates Ali Ahmed and Jayden Nelson could be part of Canada’s World Cup squad. Vancouver midfielder Andrés Cubas could be part of Paraguay’s team as it plays in the World Cup for the first time since 2010. Messi and De Paul might be with reigning World Cup champion Argentina. Messi has yet to confirm his intentions to play in the 2026 World Cup.
29. The last time the Vancouver Whitecaps and Inter Miami met in a high-stakes match, it was the Whitecaps who emerged overwhelmingly victorious. In late April, Vancouver defeated Miami 5-1 on aggregate in the Concacaf Champions Cup semifinals. The two-legged tie included a 3-1 win for the Whitecaps in South Florida. The Whitecaps were defeated by Cruz Azul of Liga MX in the Champions Cup final.
30. Can MLS build momentum off Messi competing in its signature event? With Messi and Miami hosting MLS Cup, and the 2026 World Cup and 2027 MLS calendar shift upcoming, this is a seminal moment for the league to expand its fanbase in a crowded and ever-growing sporting landscape.
USA TODAY Sports’ 48-page special edition commemorates 30 years of Major League Soccer, from its best players to key milestones and championship dynasties to what exciting steps are next with the World Cup ahead. Order your copy today!
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