FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The ball rolled across the goal line as MLS Cup hung in a most precarious and delicate balance.
Time has a tendency to stop — or at least slow — in these moments. Trophy-winning, career-defining moments. The moments you can’t control, no matter how badly you try to will the right outcome into existence.
On Saturday, the ball rolled in Inter Miami’s favor.
A shot fired by the Vancouver Whitecaps’ Emmanuel Sabbi hit both posts and slid away from the Inter Miami goal. Sabbi even scrambled to get near the rebound and, completing a collectors’ item of three-pronged heartache, saw that attempt hit the post too.
In the blink of an eye, a potential go-ahead goal for Vancouver at a time when it had all the momentum and then some in the MLS season finale disappeared in a cloud of misfortune. The score remained 1-1.
Minutes later, Lionel Messi played Rodrigo De Paul through for the go-ahead goal and Miami was on its way to securing the championship.
Sometimes, even the greatest of all time needs a little touch of fortune to fall in his favor.
“It was very lucky when the ball touched the two posts (and didn’t go in),” Miami head coach Javier Mascherano said. “It’s the luck you need to be champions.”
OH MY. Vancouver almost get another!@WhitecapsFC // MLS Cup pres. by Audi pic.twitter.com/LIC93ZzGDN
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) December 6, 2025
It was only a little bit of luck, of course, as Miami was a deserving champ. Messi and his pals blitzed through the Eastern Conference to host the final and then outlasted the Whitecaps 3-1 on a hot Saturday afternoon in South Florida.
“It was very close to us scoring and it could have been different, but that is football,” Vancouver head coach Jesper Sørensen said. “We have come out on top on different occasions with good fortune, but today we didn’t.”
Sørensen spoke of “moments,” and that’s how this game was – and finals often are – decided. When Messi is on the pitch, those few blinks of the eye that sometimes define everything typically go in his favor.
Messi had two assists on the day, including for De Paul’s game-winning goal. Messi counterpressed and won the ball off of Andrés Cubas, who had an uncharacteristic mistake to give Miami the chance. Cubas is one of the Whitecaps’ best players and was one of MLS’s finest midfielders this season.
“We made a few mistakes and they took advantage of them,” Sørensen said. “They have players who are really good at taking advantage in these situations.”
Added Thomas Müller: “We did our part to let them score. They deserved to win in the end.”
Messi may not have scored on the day, but with his two assists (and it was his released ball down the right that led to the opening Vancouver own goal), his playoff run ends with an extraordinary haul of 15 goal contributions (six goals, nine assists) in six games – a new MLS record for a single postseason.
“It was very special and very important (to Messi) to win this trophy,” Mascherano said. “He came here to win this trophy.”
Miami scored 20 goals in the playoffs, with Tadeo Allende, who clinched victory with a goal six minutes into stoppage time, setting a new record for most goals in one postseason (nine). In all, Miami scored 101 goals between the regular season and playoffs.
Tadeo Allende and Lionel Messi had plenty to celebrate during MLS Cup (Rich Storry / Getty Images)
“The team made a huge effort — it was a very long year, with many matches — and we were up to the task all season,” Messi said after winning MLS Cup MVP. “This is the moment I had been waiting for, and that we, as a team, were waiting for. It’s very beautiful for all of us.”
That moment very well could have belonged to the Whitecaps, who had long seemed like a team of destiny.
Vancouver was widely picked to miss the playoffs by most national media, but became a defining team of the 2025 season. The ‘Caps won the Canadian Championship and made a run to the Concacaf Champions Cup final, handily beating Miami in the semifinals of that competition 5-1 on aggregate.
On Saturday, Miami exacted revenge.
“During the whole year, I think we were the team that competed in the best way,” Mascherano said. “We deserved to win today.”
Miami is a much different team than the one that lost to Vancouver in May, particularly defensively following influential decisions made by Mascherano.
The manager changed goalkeepers, benching Oscar Ustari for Rocco Rios Novo. That proved vital, with Rios Novo making a number of crucial saves in both MLS Cup and the Eastern Conference final – those moments that can be just as crucial to a win as a goal that’s scored.
Noah Allen, meanwhile, became the preferred partner for Maxi Falcon in central defense. He handled Vancouver forward Brian White well on Saturday, even as he was often isolated. When Müller dropped into the midfield, Falcon followed him, leaving the smaller Allen alone with a physical forward.
Elsewhere, Ian Fray became the first-choice right back ahead of Marcelo Weigandt.
Each of those changes directly helped get Miami to MLS Cup, something it failed to do last season due to defensive frailties.
Mascherano’s boldest choice of all was to bench Luis Suárez during the postseason run – a choice that was first made for him by MLS.
Suárez was suspended for Game 3 of the club’s first-round series against Nashville SC after retroactively being punished for kicking out at Andy Najar, and with Allende and Mateo Silvetti flanking Messi, who took on a false nine role, the team was better both in and out of possession as Miami advanced with ease.
Suárez stayed rooted to the bench and was reduced to a substitute from that point on. Saturday he didn’t even play.
Emmanuel Sabbi follows his shot that hit both posts with an attempt off the rebound that also hit a post, under pressure from Maxi Falcon (Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
For all the great tweaks Mascherano made and Messi’s superhuman run, the final still came down to a few tiny windows of time. From Sabbi’s foot, to a pair of posts and back again, it all could have been so different.
As Sørensen conducted his postgame press conference, the room shared a wall with Miami players celebrating and singing. When the noise started, Sørensen joked he didn’t think it was Whitecaps players responsible for it.
Then Mascherano sat down in a jubilant, but respectful, mood. As he took questions, the door opened and three Miami players stormed in and doused the coach with a celebratory beer shower.
On another day, Sabbi’s shot may have found the bottom corner and it would have been the Whitecaps celebrating. But that’s the beauty and pain of sport.
“Today we cry, but it is proud tears,” Sørensen said.