Mic’d Up: McCarty breaks down the MLS Cup – why benching Suárez was a “career-defining” call, how Müller made Vancouver must-watch, and which side he thinks has the edge.
In the lead-up to the 2025 MLS Cup, Dax McCarty was asked to pick a combined XI from the two finalists: Inter Miami and the Vancouver Whitecaps. It’s a familiar exercise before a big game, largely because it’s an easy way to spotlight players to watch and the matchups that could ultimately decide things.
This one, though, wasn’t so easy. McCarty genuinely struggled. There was simply too much talent to choose from, he says. It stressed him out – and, oddly enough, made him even more excited for the final.
“Both of these teams are loaded,” the longtime MLS midfielder turned Apple TV analyst told GOAL. “It’s one of the hardest things I’ve had to do as an analyst. You go through both teams and it’s impossible. If everyone had to put together a combined XI for these teams, I think they’d all be different.”
Such is the nature of this final. On one side: Lionel Messi and friends, leading an Inter Miami team chasing immortality. On the other hand: Vancouver, no plucky underdog, but a group headlined by Thomas Muller and supported by Sebastian Berhalter, Andrés Cubas, Tristan Blackmon, and Emmanuel Sabbi – all playing the best soccer of their careers.
McCarty previewed the matchup in the latest edition of Mic’d Up, GOAL’s recurring feature that brings the perspective of analysts, announcers, and other voices on the state of soccer in the U.S. and beyond.
Getty Images SportON THE MLS PLAYOFFS
GOAL: Every year, there's this debate and discussion about what the MLS Cup Playoffs should look like and, every year, that doesn't really matter because they turn out to be chaotic and entertaining anyway. What has been your big takeaway from this postseason, given everything we've seen?
MCCARTY: The playoffs have been dramatic. They've been exciting. I couldn't have asked for much more, to be completely honest. I think we've seen drama. I think we've seen great games. I think we've seen great coaching. I think that's a kind of a big out thing that sticks out for me in terms of, I think, where we're at in MLS.
Of course, we've had great players throughout Major League Soccer's existence, and we've had superstars, and we've had really good teams, but I think one thing that's definitely been an outlier this year, but also in these playoffs, because we just saw it in the conference finals, is that the level of coaching has improved dramatically. That's not to say that we haven't had great coaching in the past. I just think that the teams now, especially the teams in the conference finals, that's a proof of concept that you don't necessarily need to have a manager who has all this knowledge of the quirky MLS rules and calendar to be successful. That was kind of a narrative that a lot of people bought into, and certainly with the likes of Bob Bradley and Bruce Arena, the Sigi Schmids, the Brian Schmetzers, that holds a lot of water: the success that domestic coaches have had in MLS.
I think this year, specifically, especially if you look at the conference finals and all four coaches being in the conference finals in their first year, I don't think that that's necessarily the case now anymore. I think that you can look outside the box. You can be a little bit more creative. The global market is certainly true for a player pool, but I think now that's shifting to also being true for a coaching pool as well.
AdvertisementGetty Images SportON MESSI AND INTER MIAMI
GOAL: You've been around this team for a long time, but none of us have ever seen anything like Messi and Inter Miami. They're an outlier in the sense that they can just outscore you, and there's not much you can do to stop it. What do you think about them?
MCCARTY: Yeah, they certainly seem to be a juggernaut right now, the likes of which we haven't seen, especially in the playoffs. Inter Miami had an up-and-down season. If we want to take their season as a whole, yes, they had some very high highs, but they've also had some lows, and they've also not won a trophy this year. You have to obviously take their season in totality to really judge everything that's happening, but if we want to break it down in just their playoff run, it's been spectacular.
I think Javier Mascherano made the biggest and best decision of his young coaching career to put Luis Suarez on the bench. I've been vocal that that was the right decision, and it must have been a difficult decision, but Inter Miami is certainly finding their best form at the right time, and it's because they have balance now. They've got young legs around Lionel Messi. He's always had a sort of free role, but now, with younger legs around him, it's even more free. He's free to do what he does best, which is score spectacular goals, but he's also free to create and to drop a little bit deeper in midfield and kind of be that conduit between midfield and attack.
One thing you said that really stands out is that you're not going to really be able to keep Inter Miami off the score sheet. That doesn't seem to be something that is likely to happen, so you're going to have to outscore them. You're going to have to hope that their back line, which has been significantly better recently, kind of reverts back to the mistake-prone back line that we saw a few months ago, but your focus has to be on Messi.
GOAL: How do you stop them? If you're playing in a one-game cup final, what do you do about it?
It frustrates me to no end when I see teams just giving Messi time and space on the ball in midfield and not tracking his runs into the box. Go back to the first goal that he scored against FC Cincinnati in that Eastern Conference semifinal, and it's unacceptable for Messi to be scoring a header in that type of situation. It's a great play. It's a great ball by Silvetti, so don't take anything away from the actual attacking movement in play, but you have to make sure that when Messi gets the ball in the final third, he's going to look to pass it and then get the ball back at some point in the box so he can finish in one touch. It frustrates me when teams don't game plan for that, and when players lose track of where he is, because he's going to get his chances and he's going to beat you in certain ways, but don't let him beat you in the obvious ways.
That's kind of where I'm at with it. Look, Vancouver, they've done it already this year, right? So if there's one team that I think matches up really well with Inter Miami, and who won't be scared to go in there and go toe to toe with them, as far as goalscoring is concerned, it's definitely this Vancouver Whitecaps team.
GettyON PRESSURE
GOAL: Whenever you get to a cup final, there's pressure, right? For Inter Miami, though, it's a different beast because the world is watching Messi, fairly or unfairly. How much pressure are they under?
MCCARTY: Inter Miami is under a different level of pressure, and anyone who thinks differently is kidding themselves.
This is a team that's been built to win trophies, been built to win every single trophy that they compete for. Full credit to David Beckham and the Mas brothers and their ownership group for swinging for the fences. You couldn't have made a better signing, obviously, with Leo Messi. If he's not still the best player in the world, he's certainly still in the top five or 10, and he's definitely the best player in Major League Soccer. So now it's about how you maximize his time here in Major League Soccer by filling that trophy cabinet up.
Lionel Messi has been a transcendent signing for the league. I think his legacy and his career are set in stone in terms of being the greatest player that's ever lived, but with that comes an added responsibility that, if you take his MLS legacy and put it off to the side, he's going to be judged on on the trophies that he's won, an MLS Cup being one of the most important. So there is an extra amount of pressure on Inter Miami now, especially with the form they're in and them being able to host the final and play at home. Then you add in the fact that Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba, two of the greatest players of this generation, are retiring after this. It would be seen as a massive, massive disappointment if they do not win MLS Cup. There's no other way to put it. You shouldn't sugarcoat it. I don't know if I'd go as far to say the season would be some sort of catastrophic failure, because I believe that Lionel Messi is going to win back-to-back MVPs, but certainly you expect them to win trophies, and if they go a whole season without winning a trophy, that has to be seen as a disappointment.
ImagnON MULLER'S IMPACT IN VANCOUVER
GOAL: You know what it's like to play with a superstar, and I'm sure there were times with that Red Bull team that you looked around and said, 'We have Thierry Henry and they don't, so we'll be fine'. The Whitecaps brought in their superstar, Thomas Muller, and added him to a team that was already very, very good. How does bringing in someone like that make a team go from very good to great?
MCCARTY: Yeah, there's a different level of confidence that flows through that locker room when you know you have a superstar you can rely on….I've been impressed with Thomas Muller on the field. How can you not be? His goal-scoring return has been excellent. He's fit in tactically with exactly what Jesper Sorensen wants to accomplish, but it's also off the field where you're more impressed.
The fact that he has come in and he has elevated the level of every single player around him, he has raised the expectations for what that club is. Vancouver has always been a really good club. They've been a well-run club that has had success in the past. They've won multiple Canadian championships. They've been a pretty consistent qualifier for the playoffs, but they haven't really been able to get over the hump and get over the line when it comes to really challenging and being, I think, in the spotlight within the national conversation of Major League Soccer. They're firmly in that conversation now. It's not just because they've gone on a good run this year. They have so many fun storylines to talk about all throughout that team, and Muller is absolutely one of them in the way that he's changed that team and galvanized them to be more confident. Sebastian Bearhalter, the steps that he has taken this year. Sorensen, how impressive he has been in replacing a very good coach in Vanni Sartini, and almost taking that team to another level.
The way that I'll end the conversation about Vancouver is the fact that they are a must-see team every time they are on the field. They are fun to watch. They have a distinct identity and style of play, and they play the same whether they're at home or on the road. That is something that is rare to find in Major League Soccer. You won't find a more well-balanced team in terms of a team that can hurt you and outscore you in attack, and then also a team that can defend and has an identity to keep clean sheets. Talk all you want about Inter Miami and the talent they have and the way that they're playing an attack. Absolutely, it's deserved, but Vancouver has been the more impressive team throughout the season in terms of their balance and in terms of the fact that they can beat you in a multitude of different ways.