The Western Conference semifinal presents an all too rare opportunity for two world class talents to face off in a single elimination game in MLS.
There's a clip from almost exactly 10 years ago from the German cup semi-final between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich. Before kickoff, Marco Reus looks across the center circle and cheekily grins at Robert Lewandowski. The Polish striker offers a smirk back. It has since become subject to the internet and memeified to death. But it is also emblematic of a dynamic, the two central figures of a big game acknowledging the fact that they are set to do battle for 90 minutes.
It wasn't the only drama in the fixture. That was one of the final battles of Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp – at least in Germany. Bayern were on the hunt for a treble. Dortmund were looking to save face after a miserable season. But the lasting image of that game was the capturing of a rivalry, a duo of transcendent talents squaring off – albeit in an amusing way.
That's the kind of thing that MLS is missing. There are no rivalries between stars at big moments in this league, no battle of rough equals, with brands bigger than the clubs they play for, facing off at the biggest moments. Enter LAFC's Son Heung-Min and Vancouver's Thomas Muller, who will play in the Western Conference Semifinals this weekend. Ask many outside of the immediate MLS sphere, and they couldn't tell you who each player suits up for. But they would certainly recognize the names: Asia's all-time best footballer versus one of the most decorated players of his generation.
It's a tasty matchup, one that will define an already nicely-poised game. Chances are, whoever has the better game – Son or Muller – will decide the final score. And in a league that has the biggest player in the world yet lacks consistent interest in the region, it could be a model for encapsulating the way the league can grow. MLS, in short, needs more of these.
Getty Images SportSon, the transformative attacking presence
Son was here first. It was pretty clear, by the end of the 2024-25 season, that he was sure to leave Tottenham. The Korean winger had been there for a decade, survived numerous iterations of the team. He had won with Harry Kane and without. And when the club didn't present him with a new contract, one of their greatest ever players decided to close a wonderful chapter in a glittering career.
His next move was up for debate. He was never going to put himself in a situation where he would play Tottenham. But at 33-years-old, it was tricky to see another European side picking him up. Within a few weeks of him hoisting the Europa League trophy, it became a question of which MLS side would pick him up. LAFC bit. They shelled out a league record transfer fee of $26.5 millionto bring the South Korea national team captain to Los Angeles. And it already looks like a piece of marketing and footballing genius. Much has been written about his connection to the local Asian community. But the football has been wonderful, too. He is averaging over a goal contribution per 90 minutes, and had he been in the league for more than just two short months, would surely be in the running for MLS Newcomer of the Year.
LAFC needed a boost, too. Manager Steve Cherundolo is soon to leave. The Olivier Giroud experiment was a disaster. Son has breathed new life into the team, and made them almost immediate Cup contenders – especially with Denis Bouanga rounding into form alongside him up front.
AdvertisementImagnMuller, Vancouver's transformative talisman
Muller's influence was perhaps a little more subtle – but no less impactful. The German has offered a different kind of quality. He is, after all, a different kind of player. If Son is the final piece of a team that needs a lift, then Muller is the X-factor to make a very good side a championship-contending one. Muller dubbed himself a "space interpreter" when he was young, and he still does that.
Muller is older and slower than pretty much everyone he plays with. Yet he thinks quicker than everyone else combined. Muller exists mostly in spaces as they open and close. He makes the right pass, engages in the right runs. He doesn't seem to like stardom or particularly acknowledge the fact that he is, arguably, the biggest name to have played for his club in recent years.
"The fact that he chose to go to Vancouver tells you everything you need to know, because no really global superstars ever choose to go to the Vancouver Whitecaps," Kaylyn Kyle said.
Muller is a dorky guy who lives a simple life and plays the game like a true purist.
He also has seven goals and four assists in seven games, which speaks to his impact.
Two contrasting styles
That contrast expands to the two teams at large. Vancouver and LAFC is perhaps the most exciting match-up, from a tactical point of view, of the four reamining MLS playoff fixtures. Vancouver, under a first-year head coach in Jesper Sorensen, and with the return of attacking midfielder Ryan Gauld, can pass you to death. They love having the ball, and with the engine of U.S. international Sebastian Berhalter in midfield, they are capable of dominating. They have shown clear championship credentials on multiple occasions, not least by battering Inter Miami in the CONCACAF Champions Cup. They didn't really Muller. He just makes them even better.
But that might play into LAFC's hands perfectly. There are questions to be asked about Cherundolo's tactical nous, but he has certainly figured out how to best use his talents. The solution? Strip everything down, win the ball, and hit on the break. It's a simple equation, really. Bouanga and Son are as dominant of attacking players as MLS can offer outside of Lionel Messi. Give them the ball, run forward, and terrify sides on the break. Throw in a strong spine and the smarts of another in U.S. international in Timmy Tillman just behind the duo, and LAFC are the wrong team to try and dominate.
This, then, could be a pure shootout. Vancouver need to have the ball. LAFC are comfortable enough surrendering it. And in front of a sold-out Vancouver crowd, everything seems poised nicely.
USA Today SportsWhere else does this exist?
It’s a shame, more broadly, that MLS can’t offer more of this. Global star power in the league is clustered in only three places: South Florida, Los Angeles and, somehow, the west coast of Canada. Big-name superstars, overall, are also far less common in MLS than they were a decade ago – and, in some ways, that’s a good thing. MLS should exist on its own terms, developing American players and selling on rising talent from Central and South America, not leaning on past-their-prime imports like Steven Gerrard or Kaká. If MLS were filled with 100 Cucho Hernandezes – whom Columbus flipped to La Liga last year – it would mean the system is working.
But those aren’t the names that draw eyeballs, especially in a sports landscape where MLS is competing with the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL. The league still needs headline acts to cut through. And no other playoff fixture offers anything close. Messi and Luis Suárez lead Miami. Evander and Kevin Denkey are phenomenal players, but they aren’t global brands. Chucky Lozano moves the needle in Mexican football, but in Minnesota, he’ll be up against a team defined more by its collective than its stars.
The same goes for NYCFC and Philadelphia, a contest between two nicely built teams – without main men who can take over a game. There is one real star-based matchup here.