Two major figures from the last 15 years of global soccer have largely met in big-game contexts. They’ll do so again in MLS Cup on Saturday
This was the matchup Thomas Müller wanted.
“My history with [Messi] forces me to hope for a final against Miami,” the former Bayern Munich and Germany star told Calen Carr in a recent interview previewing the MLS playoffs ahead for his new side, the Vancouver Whitecaps.
And what a history it is. The two giants of world soccer have met 11 times for club and country at senior level, with Müller’s team coming out on top in eight of those contests. Muller has scored seven times to Messi’s three. No wonder, perhaps, that the German keeps getting asked for his secret to stopping Messi, and how much, if any of it, can be passed on to his Whitecaps teammates ahead of the pair’s 12th meeting – barring injury – in MLS Cup this Saturday.
Messi place in history is so often positioned in relation to Cristiano Ronaldo, helped in part by the near-constant meetings between the two during their times at Barcelona and Real Madrid. Messi’s rivalry with Müller, such as it even exists, is a different animal. The two have not played against each other often, but when they have, it has usually meant a whole lot. Looking back over their past meetings, it’s striking how often a crushing defeat led to the end of one era or another, how a single goal shifted fortunes of the teams and teammates around them, and how through their matchups one can track the rise and fall of any number of players, coaches, and trends.
