{"id":65590,"date":"2025-11-30T18:07:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T18:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/65590\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T18:07:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T18:07:08","slug":"thomas-muller-and-lionel-messi-set-for-showdown-in-mls-cup-final-between-vancouver-and-inter-miami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/65590\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas M\u00fcller and Lionel Messi set for showdown in MLS Cup final between Vancouver and Inter Miami"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not about Messi against Thomas M\u00fcller,\u201d he told reporters after <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/vancouver-whitecaps-san-diego-fc-mls-cup-1b75a816fbbf5f7baa9c5dd1851dcaff\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Vancouver\u2019s 3-1 win over San Diego<\/a> in the Western Conference final on Saturday night. \u201cIt\u2019s Miami against the Whitecaps.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/indicator-big.gif\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Then he added, \u201cMaybe they rely a little bit more on him than we do on me, because we are such a good group.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What Messi thinks of the matchup \u2014 he\u2019s gone head to head with M\u00fcller 10 times in various competitions, and his side has won only three of those \u2014 is a bit of mystery and likely may stay that way. Inter Miami rarely makes Messi available for interviews.<\/p>\n<p>This much, however, is known: Messi came to Inter Miami midway through 2023 with the goal of winning an MLS Cup, something that seemed far-fetched at the time considering when he joined the club it was at the bottom of the league. A win on Saturday would fulfill his quest and would cap a season when <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/mls-decision-day-playoffs-429a64944ad0fc9aa72b1a580e25434f\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Messi also won MLS\u2019 Golden Boot<\/a> as the top scorer \u2014 plus, more than likely, a second consecutive league MVP award.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven though he\u2019s the best in history \u2026 it\u2019s unfair to believe that he\u2019s going to win every game,\u201d Mascherano said after <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/messi-inter-miami-nycfc-mls-score-bf7cb60214d226e5e32c3f1c77288a25\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Inter Miami\u2019s 5-1 romp past New York City FC<\/a> in the Eastern Conference final on Saturday night. \u201cEverybody has raised their level.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not like either Messi or M\u00fcller needs a win on Saturday to complete some sort of validation. Their resumes and legacies were secured long ago: Both are World Cup winners, both are Champions League winners, both are Club World Cup winners.<\/p>\n<p>But like Messi, M\u00fcller came to MLS \u2014 he joined Vancouver four months ago \u2014 seeking a title in that league to add to the list. The chance has arrived.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI enjoy watching him,\u201d M\u00fcller said in an on-field interview for Apple TV following Vancouver\u2019s win Saturday night. \u201cI have the feeling Miami\u2019s a very strong team. We saw them beating New York in quite a really strong manner. It\u2019s a big final. I wished for this final. And here we go. I think it\u2019s great for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>AP MLS: <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/major-league-soccer\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/major-league-soccer<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s not about Messi against Thomas M\u00fcller,\u201d he told reporters after Vancouver\u2019s 3-1 win over San Diego in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-65590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}