MIAMI - Lionel Messi will aim to crown his MLS revolution by leading Inter Miami to their first domestic championship on Saturday in a blockbuster season finale against the surging Vancouver Whitecaps.
Two years after reshaping the landscape of Major League Soccer following his arrival in Florida, Messi is on the brink of delivering the title that Miami have craved since the club joined MLS as an expansion team in 2020.
After a rocky start to the season, the 38-year-old Argentine superstar has masterminded a dazzling Miami playoff run, with the club rattling in 17 goals in five games.
But blocking Messi and Miami's path is a vibrant Vancouver side powered by German great Thomas Mueller, who has given added potency to an already dangerous Whitecaps attack since joining the club in August.
Mueller and Messi are two of four World Cup-winning players, along with Inter's Sergio Busquets and Argentina's Rodrigo De Paul, who will take to the field at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale in an MLS Cup final that is a marketing man's dream.
Mueller though has been at pains to play down suggestions of Saturday's game being a duel between him and Messi.
"It's not about Messi against Thomas Mueller," he said after Vancouver's scintillating 3-1 defeat of San Diego in the Western Conference final on Saturday. "It's Miami against the Whitecaps."
Miami's presence in the final would have been unthinkable in April, when Javier Mascherano's ageing side picked up only two wins in eight games and looked desperately short of energy.
That sequence of results included a 5-1 aggregate defeat by Vancouver in the CONCACAF Champions Cup.
Messi, who has rarely spoken publicly in his two years in Florida, told ESPN Argentina in an interview published on Thursday that he believes playing at home on Saturday could tip the final in Miami's favour.
"We're in a very good moment, the team is solid and excited," he said.
"Playing at home is a plus. Even though we went through a stretch where we were very inconsistent and struggled to win back-to-back games, at home we always stayed strong."