5 Players Who Will Decide the 2025 MLS Cup: Inter Miami vs. Vancouver Whitecaps

The 2025 MLS Cup will feature star power like never before, with Lionel Messi, Thomas Müller and several others headlining the match.

Lionel Messi (left) and Andrés Cubas (right) will be vital for their team's hopes of winning the 2025 MLS Cup. / Anne-Marie Sorvin-Imagn Images

It’s rare that the MLS Cup playoffs end up with the two best teams in the final, but that’s what is on offer as Inter Miami host Vancouver Whitecaps FC on Saturday. 

Few MLS Cup matches have matched star power either, with four World Cup winners participating and at least one of them poised to become the first to win both the World Cup and MLS Cup.

Yet, it’s not all the generational stars of Lionel Messi, Thomas Müller, Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets, Rodrigo De Paul and Luis Suárez deciding the match, but those surrounding them as well. 

Sports Illustrated picks the five players whose performances could decide MLS Cup 2025. 

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Lionel Messi (Inter Miami)

Lionel Messi has been the key to Inter Miami's success in the 2025 MLS Cup playoffs. / Jeff Dean/Getty Images

When Lionel Messi decides he wants to play, he shows up. The most decorated player in the history of the sport, Messi is eyeing an MLS Cup as his third trophy with Inter Miami, having already led them to the 2024 Supporters’ Shield and 2023 Leagues Cup. 

He comes into the match amid great form as well. With 29 goals and 19 assists in 28 regular season games, he had the best campaign in league history, and in 48 games across all competitions, he has 43 goals and 24 assists. 

At the same time, he enters the match with an MLS postseason record 13 goal contributions, with six goals and seven assists, and is seeking revenge against a Vancouver side that became the first team to win their first two games against Messi in his career. 

If there’s any player who can single-handidly decide a game, it’s him. 

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Andrés Cubas (Vancouver Whitecaps)

Andrés Cubas has been one of the best defensive midfielders in MLS since joining the Vancouver Whitecaps. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

If there’s one player that knows how to handle Messi on the defensive side, it’s Andrés Cubas. 

A Paraguay international, Cubas has clashed with Messi four times, and has three wins and one loss. One of the best pure defensive midfielders in the league, he has helped form Vancouver's defensive spin and is a significant reason for their success this season. 

Messi had some words for Cubas in the first half of the Concacaf Champions Cup semis vs Vancouver 👀 pic.twitter.com/eXe0Ga0naJ

— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) April 25, 2025

He averages three tackles per 90 minutes and 1.6 interceptions, ranking among the best players in MLS in those categories. At the same time, he has formed a potent partnership with U.S. men’s national team midfielder Sebastian Berhalter and swiftly handled Messi in the Concacaf Champions Cup. 

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Tadeo Allende (Inter Miami)

Tadeo Allende scored three goals against New York City FC to tie the MLS record for most goals in a single MLS Cup playoffs. / Rich Storry/Getty Images

Few players have blossomed this season like Tadeo Allende, and the young Argentine winger has found another level in the playoffs, making the most of Messi’s creation and ability to play balls on the run. 

The right winger comes into the game with eight postseason goals, tying the record for the most in a single MLS postseason, previously set by Carlos Ruiz with the LA Galaxy in 2002. 

If Miami scores the first goal and Vancouver has to press higher, Allende’s speed and ability to drop underneath and make diagonal runs could put the game to bed for the Herons, as he did against FC Cincinnati and New York City FC. 

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Thomas Müller (Vancouver Whitecaps FC)

Thomas Müller is hoping to push Vancouver Whitecaps FC to their first MLS Cup title. / Omar Vega/Getty Images

No player in the world knows how to beat a Messi team like Thomas Müller, who hopes to extend his record as the most decorated German player of all time, having captured that honor with the Canadian Championship in September. 

In eight competitive games against Messi for club or country, Muller has won seven. His form with Vancouver has been great as well, with nine goals and four assists in his first 12 games across all competitions. 

He will help the Whitecaps control possession, and his “Raumdeuter,” space-interpreting style, will be unlike anything Miami’s restricted defense has faced, making him a mysterious challenge.

However, he might not have long to make that impact. Nursing a slight injury, he could sub out for Ryan Gauld, another influential and potentially game-deciding player around the hour mark.  

Next. Messi vs. Muller. Greatest Lionel Messi vs. Thomas Müller Clashes—Ranked. dark

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Jordi Alba (Inter Miami)

Jordi Alba will retire after MLS Cup, regardless of the result. / IMAGO/Nicolo Campo

Few left backs can influence the game like Jordi Alba and the former Spanish international will look to show off everything he’s got in the final game of his career. 

He scored Miami’s lone goal against the Whitecaps in the Champions Cup and had six goals and 15 assists in the MLS regular season, before finding another five assists in the MLS Cup playoffs. 

Given his abilities to get into the attack and link up with Messi and other difference makers, he could overwhelm Vancouver’s fullbacks, who are likely to be rookie Tate Johnson, and 22-year-old Édier Ocampo.

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