MLS Cup final – Muller vs Messi… and Suarez? Plus: Ceferin may miss World Cup draw

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Hello! It’s been many years and many millions of dollars in the making. But are Inter Miami about to land a maiden MLS Cup?

Coming up:

🏆 Messi vs Muller in MLS final

⛔ UEFA boss to skip 2026 draw?

📏 Tyler Adams’ 47.4-yard lob

🏟️ The best view in football

Inter the final: Mascherano’s dilemma for Vancouver game after Allende hat-trick

Something about Inter Miami screams an appetite for world domination, but before they get to that, they need an MLS Cup. Six seasons of living at fairly great expense, and all they have to show for it is one Leagues Cup and one Supporters’ Shield.

It’s possible, however, that 2025 will be the one. In fact, Miami ticking an elusive box this year is heavily odds-on after another cakewalk against New York City. They aren’t just edging towards the MLS Cup, they’re careering there at a play-off average of 3.4 goals per game. They didn’t have to rely on a show from Lionel Messi on Saturday, just a regulation assist as Tadeo Allende’s hat-trick (you can see his second, above) was putting NYC to sleep.

Miami’s rise from a start-up team in 2018 to a franchise worth $1.2billion (£900m) today is no Cinderella story. They’ve spent a mint by MLS standards, compiling a team that resembles a throwback to Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona: Messi, Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba. The investment should have brought them to an MLS Cup final before now, but instead, an unintentional piece of tactical manoeuvring sparked them into life in the postseason.

Javier Mascherano started these play-offs with Luis Suarez up front. In his time as head coach, Mascherano has leaned heavily on the individual quality in his squad, and Messi’s most of all. But Suarez incurred a ban for Miami’s last match of their best-of-three series against Nashville, forcing Mascherano to plump for Allende and Mateo Silvetti on either side of Messi up front. It’s been an inadvertently killer formula, adding pace and fluency to their attack.

Parts of this Miami team are almost finished. Busquets and Alba will retire after this weekend’s final, and Miami have squeezed Suarez’s pips. It’s unlikely that the club are going to lose their appetite for big-name recruits, but the impact of Allende and Silvetti might give them pause about how a team can be greater than the sum of its individual parts. Not everything has to be stardust.

Hats off to Vancouver

(Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

Vancouver Whitecaps stand between Miami and the MLS Cup after a campaign that, quite honestly, is even more deserving of the trophy. They put a leash on San Diego on Saturday, halting an expansion year that seemed to have no limits. San Diego have been outstanding, and something tells me they’ll come again.

The Whitecaps, for their part, finished second in MLS’ Western Conference, behind San Diego on games won. They made it to the final of the Champions Cup (before taking a hiding from Mexico’s Cruz Azul). It’s worth saying that their best year on record was largely constructed before the arrival of Thomas Muller from Bayern Munich, although there’s no denying Muller has been a fabulous new string to their bow.

He celebrated their win over San Diego, above, by piling a stack of hats on his head, the sort of exhibitionism we’ve come to expect of him. It’s odd to describe any team with Muller in it as underdogs, but against Miami and on Miami’s turf (by virtue of a daft quirk which gives Inter home advantage in the final), that’s what the Whitecaps will be. Miami are almost too big to fail forever. Vancouver’s 2025 is more of a fairytale.

News round-up

(Olaf Kraak/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)

• Ajax were raging after fireworks set off by their supporters (above) forced last night’s Eredivisie game against Groningen to be abandoned in the sixth minute. The club described the pyrotechnics as “downright scandalous” (which is a fair comment, but also sounds like something my mother would say).
• Ballon d’Or winner Aitana Bonmati is set for a spell on the sidelines. The Barcelona star fractured a leg while training on international duty with Spain.
• A Young Boys fan was jailed for two months for assaulting a police officer during Thursday’s Europa League tie between the Swiss side and Aston Villa. A total of eight men were arrested amid violent scenes at Villa Park.
• Fifty stadiums and 35 cities or metro areas have been put forward by the United States, Mexico, Jamaica and Costa Rica as potential host sites for the 2031 Women’s World Cup, a tournament those four countries are expected to jointly stage.
• Billy Bonds, the legendary West Ham United captain who became their longest-serving player, has died at the age of 79.

Arsenal stall: Arteta’s side miss chance to pull clear after Caicedo red card 

The Premier League table makes pleasant reading for Arsenal, but considering how serenely they’ve been advancing this season, I’d have expected their lead to be greater than five points. It’s advantage them, no question, but it’s a long, long way from game, set and match.

A 1-1 draw at Chelsea yesterday was arguably a better result for Chelsea, given they lost Moises Caicedo to a red card for a bone-cruncher on Mikel Merino in the first half. The point keeps Chelsea in touch at the top, although I still can’t decide if Enzo Maresca’s squad have it in them to stick out a full title race. They caught Arsenal looking fatigued, perhaps the legacy of an excellent midweek win over Bayern in the Champions League.

But what of the other potential contenders?

Draw flaw: UEFA president Ceferin and others may not attend

The draw for the 2026 World Cup is this Friday (9am PT, 12pm ET, 5pm UK). TAFC will be all over the build-up and the event itself.

That’s more than can be said for UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, who, Adam Crafton writes today, isn’t planning to attend the Kennedy Center in person. That’s odd to say the least because not only is Ceferin UEFA’s main man, he’s FIFA’s vice-president, too.

This may or may not be directly related to Ceferin storming out of FIFA’s Congress in May, in protest at the late arrival of FIFA president Gianni Infantino (who, inevitably, had been moving and shaking with world leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump). A certain amount of testosterone is in the air whenever FIFA’s business collides with UEFA’s, and Ceferin’s no-show in Washington, D.C. would be seen as the latest round of it.

Other notable faces might also be absent from the draw. Iran, for instance, are minded to boycott it because the president of its federation, Mehdi Taj, has been denied a U.S. visa and cannot enter the country. Those delegates who have received visas intend to stay away out of solidarity. All this, and it’s only Monday.

Around TAFC

• Tyler Adams is the polar opposite of a goal machine. Before the weekend, he had scored eight in 338 games for various clubs and the USMNT. So where the hell did Saturday’s sensational lob against Sunderland come from — a pinpoint effort covering 47.4 yards?! Chris Weatherspoon broke it down.
• Konstantinos Karetsas’ name is one to pay attention to. The 18-year-old Genk winger has Europe’s top clubs on alert, and Jacob Whitehead bagged a rare interview with him. “With the right mindset, I can handle anything” is a great quote (and probably true).
• This was a top piece from Tom Williams on the resumption of Paul Pogba’s career after a doping ban. I’m intrigued to see what Pogba can make of the years he has left. Is he done at the absolute highest level?
• Friday’s quiz answer: the 11 players who scored for both Arsenal and Chelsea in the Premier League were Ashley Cole, Cesc Fabregas, David Luiz, Emmanuel Petit, Kai Havertz, Nicolas Anelka, Olivier Giroud, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, William Gallas, Willian and Yossi Benayoun.
• Friday’s most clicked in Friday’s TAFC: The Athletic’s 2026 Transfer Radar.

Catch a match

(Selected games, times ET/UK)

Championship: Birmingham City vs Watford, 3pm/8pm — CBS, Paramount+, Amazon Prime/Sky Sports.

La Liga: Rayo Vallecano vs Valencia, 3pm/8pm — ESPN, Fubo/Premier Sports.

Serie A: Bologna vs Cremonese, 2.45pm/7.45pm — Paramount+, DAZN/DAZN.

And finally…

Flamengo took the 2025 Copa Libertadores on Saturday, beating Palmeiras 1-0 in Lima, Peru. It’s their fourth title (and their third in seven years), the most of any Brazilian club.

If you’ve ever doubted the importance of the tournament or the fanaticism of South American supporters, take a look at the effort some of them went to in making sure they could watch the final (above). It’s like sitting among the stars.