FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – No matter the result in MLS Cup 2025 presented by Audi on Saturday, history will be made at Chase Stadium (2:30 pm ET | MLS Season Pass, Apple TV; FOX, FOX Deportes; TSN, RDS).

Inter Miami CF or Vancouver Whitecaps FC will become the 16th different club to lift the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy, capping the league’s 30th season with its grandest prize.

Additionally, a FIFA World Cup-winning player will become an MLS Cup champion for the first time. That possibility awaits Vancouver superstar Thomas Müller (Germany 2014), as well as Miami’s trio of Lionel Messi (Argentina 2022), Rodrigo De Paul (Argentina 2022) and Sergio Busquets (Spain 2010).

“Hopefully it can be three,” Miami head coach Javier Mascherano joked in Thursday’s pre-match press conference.

“But I think it’s very, very interesting for the league, for this country, for this sport to have these kinds of games. We do good things where we were fighting during the whole season. We met in the Champions Cup semifinals this season. So the two teams were competing very, very well during the year.”

Rematch time

Miami and Vancouver have some familiarity, as Mascherano noted. Before the Whitecaps contested the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup final, they stormed to a 5-1 aggregate victory over the Herons in the continental tournament’s semifinals – including a 3-1 road victory.

But there’s consensus among coaches and players that much has changed since those April meetings. Miami added De Paul on loan from LaLiga’s Atlético Madrid and acquired forward Mateo Silvetti from Argentina’s Newell’s Old Boys. Meanwhile, Vancouver made a statement by signing Müller as he departed Bundesliga powerhouse Bayern Munich and replaced the outgoing Pedro Vite with Peruvian attacker Kenji Cabrera.

As strong as the Whitecaps were before Müller’s August arrival, they’ve since found new levels.

“He's so loyal to the way we want to play,” said Whitecaps head coach Jesper Sørensen, “and he's so interested in getting to know all the details of how we play because he wants to help his teammates on the pitch. He wants to know what my thoughts are, how we're going to play, and how we want to do this, and how's the pressure, and then how he can on the pitch help his teammates.

“It's been great having him in. He’s given back to everybody, and then also a couple of times, people also laugh at his jokes. Maybe one or two times also because they're funny, huh?”

Messi vs. Müller

MLS Cup will mark the 11th all-time meeting between Muller and Messi, a matchup that Germany’s all-time winningest player has dominated with seven victories to three. Those include UEFA Champions League semifinals between Bayern and FC Barcelona, and most famously the 2014 World Cup final decided by Mario Götze’s game-winner for Die Mannschaft.

But Müller, who’s provided 9g/4a in his first 12 Whitecaps games (all competitions), has downplayed the past despite playfully warning Messi “I will hunt you” upon his arrival in British Columbia.

“When I look back in the past, I feel very comfortable with that because that’s already in the books,” Müller said. “I have a lot of great experience in these games, with my teams. So, it was fun.

“But it doesn’t really matter for Saturday. It’s a new game. I always have my confidence to beat someone or to compete with someone as a team and as an individual. I don’t need my history that much to be confident.”

Historic year

All week, Vancouver have been careful not to add motivation for Messi.

The iconic No. 10 has tallied an Audi MLS Cup Playoffs record 13 goal contributions (6g/7a), and capped the regular season by winning the MLS Golden Boot presented by Audi with 48 goal contributions (29g/19a). Soon, he could become the first back-to-back Landon Donovan MLS MVP.

Messi is also looking to extend his world record by winning a 47th trophy. Since joining Miami in July 2023, he’s already become a Leagues Cup and Supporters’ Shield champion.

“It's going to be a very, very tough game,” said Messi, an eight-time Ballon d’Or winner. “And the addition of Müller coming to that team makes them much better still. It brings more awareness to the game, to the team.

“It will be a very, very special final, which we hope will be in our favor."

All for the Cup

The storylines don’t stop there.

Miami hope to send out Busquets and Jordi Alba as champions; both Spain and Barça legends previously announced that they plan to retire after this season. The Herons have found improved balance in the playoffs, too, outscoring opponents 17-4 ahead of their league-record 58th game of the year. Silvetti (2g/3a in the playoffs) could again keep Luis Suárez on the bench, and Tadeo Allende has equaled the single-postseason goals record (eight).

Vancouver are amid their best-ever campaign, evidenced by a club-record 63-point regular season, CCC final appearance and fourth straight Canadian Championship title. Rising USMNT midfielder Sebastian Berhalter earned MLS Best XI honors alongside Tristan Blackmon, the MLS Defender of the Year. Club captain Ryan Gauld is back healthy after a long-term knee injury, and striker Brian White is one goal behind Camilo Sanvezzo (25 in 2013) for the club's MLS era single-season record.

Summed together, MLS matches don’t get much more high-profile than this.

“It’s all or nothing,” said Mascherano, who was hired last November. “I think it’s a great prize for the work the players have put in all year as a group. The main course is on Saturday. It’ll be a matter of us wanting to eat it or not. Hopefully, we wake up hungry on Saturday.”

Noted Sørensen, who joined the Whitecaps in January: “It's great being here. I didn't expect it at all when I started out, but as the season went by, of course, then you start seeing that we have the quality, maybe to take it far, and now here we are.”