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Starting lineups
Inter Messi, er, Miami: Rocco Rios Novo, Sergio Busquets, Noah Allen, Maximiliano Falcon, Jordi Alba, Ian Fray, Rodrigo De Paul, Baltasar Rodriguez, Mateo Silvetti, Tadeo Allende, Lionel Messi.
A change from Miami’s semifinal win: Fray replaces Marcelo Weigandt.
Luis Suarez is available off the bench.
The only US player among the starters is homegrown player Noah Allen, though he has switched his allegiance to Greece.
Vancouver Whitecaps: Yohei Takaoka, Ralph Priso-Mbongue, Tristan Blackmon, Edier Ocampo, Thomas Müller, Andres Cubas, Sebastian Berhalter, Brian White, Ali Ahmed, Emmanuel Sabbi.
Laborda replaces Tate Johnson.
This squad is more domestic in nature, with a couple of Canadians and a smattering of players from across the long border with the US.
In a big country, dreams stay with you …
Or, in this case, two big countries, with the Vancouver Whitecaps representing Canada. These two clubs are in opposite corners of the continent. Unless MLS expands to Alaska or Hawaii, the distance between Miami and Vancouver is about as big as you can get.
How far?
A little more than 2,800 miles or 4,500 kilometers.
For perspective … Wilfried Nancy has just left the Columbus Crew to take over at Celtic. His new club would fly less than 2,000 miles if they were to go to Istanbul to take on Galatasaray. A comparable flight to Vancouver-Miami would be Glasgow-Baghdad. Or they could go the other direction and fly to Halifax, at the other end of Canada from Vancouver.
Also check out this stunning map comparing MLS distances with European distances.
The international roll call
Messi is certainly the biggest star MLS has had in its 30 seasons. But he’s hardly the first.
Jorge Campos, who went beyond the “keeper/sweeper” role into “keeper/striker,” was a massive attendance driver in the first couple of years of the league, dazzled in his colorful goalkeeping jerseys.
Bolivians Marco Etcheverry and Jaime Moreno were the driving forces in DC United’s early year.
Lothar Matthäus was a bit less successful in his tenure with the league.
Hristo Stoichkov was the 1994 Ballon d’Or winner after lifting Bulgaria to the World Cup semifinals, and no one could doubt the fiery forward’s commitment to winning wherever he played.
The rules changed, literally, with the “Beckham rule,” which allowed teams a giant exception to the league’s cumbersome salary cap rules. The beneficiaries included … well, David Beckham, of course. Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored at an absurd clip during his time with the LA Galaxy. Thierry Henry gave the New York Red Bulls some star power.
Preamble
Messi. Müller. It’s a World Cup rematch in which someone will be the first World Cup champion to add an MLS Cup to that virtual-yet-very-real trophy case.
But look past the big names. These are two exceptional teams. As MLS has expanded, the talent pool has been stretched thin, but these two teams would easily hang with the old-school DC United dynasty or the strong LA Galaxy teams.
Save that for your video games, though, and enjoy this matchup.
Beau will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s Luis Miguel Echegaray’s look back at Inter Miami’s road to the final.
