The Rondo, MLS Cup edition: Can Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami win it, can the Vancouver Whitecaps finish in style, and is this the best final ever?
MLS’s dream contest should yield plenty of storylines, and seems finely-poised to be a highly watchable fixture between two well-matched teams
It’s MLS Cup time. Could things have gone any better for the league? Before the playoffs, if you polled 1,000 soccer fans and asked them to name their dream final, most would have picked this one.
On one side: Inter Miami and Lionel Messi. These guys are way more than eight Ballons d’Or and 10 others these days. Javier Mascherano has unlocked a bit of defensive quality at just the right moment, and there’s a real spine now – Sergio Busquets still dictating tempo, and Rodrigo De Paul arriving at exactly the right time to give Miami that extra bit of edge when matches get tight.
On the other hand, Vancouver. They’re harder to define, but they have all the right ingredients: a smart manager, a reliable supporting cast, and a star man in Brian White, who has spent all season proving he can score when it matters. Add in Sebastian Berhalter’s tireless midfield work, and you get a team perfectly built for this stage. They’ve already beaten Miami twice in knockout competition this year (even if that was a very different version of the Herons).
It’s obvious and fair to favor Miami, but in all likelihood, this will be far more than a Messi showcase. This will be a tight final, one that hangs in the balance.
So who are the key men? Who are the X-Factors? And, in the necessary act of MLS hyperbole, could this be the best MLS Cup final ever? GOAL U.S. writers break down the MLS Cup ahead of what should be a tantalizing fixture in another edition of… The Rondo.
