Major League Soccer doesn’t have a particularly strong record in international competitions. In the league’s 30 years of existence, MLS sides have won three continental titles: D.C. United (Concacaf Champions Cup and the short-lived Copa Interamericana) in 1998, the LA Galaxy (Concacaf Champions Cup) in 2000 and the Seattle Sounders (Concacaf Champions League) in 2022.
Is the tide turning? Six of the past eight Concacaf Champions Cup finals have featured an MLS club, though only the 2022 Sounders managed to best opposition from Liga MX in the competition’s showpiece event. In this year’s finale held earlier this month, the MLS-leading Vancouver Whitecaps were thoroughly dismantled by this past season’s third-best team in Mexico, Cruz Azul, by a 5-0 scoreline.
It was a disaster of a result for a league that aspires to be known as the best in North America, and yet, there may be worse to come.
The FIFA Club World Cup gets underway on Saturday, pitting 32 of the biggest teams in the world against one another. Inter Miami, LAFC and the Seattle Sounders will all participate, taking on some of the most decorated sides in the global game: reigning European champions Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea, Atlético Madrid, and winners of four of the past six South American championships in Flamengo and Palmeiras.
MLS is fresh off its league leader getting destroyed in a continental championship, and now with teams sitting sixth, 12th and 13th in its 30-team table facing the prospect of competing against the most talented sides from Europe and South America, a natural question arises: Is MLS going to struggle at the Club World Cup?
What happened to Vancouver?
MLS teams can afford to make the occasional error during a regular-season match, but up against an elite Liga MX side such as Cruz Azul in the Concacaf Champions Cup final, the margins for those slipups suddenly became much, much smaller.
“When we made mistakes, they punished us,” Vancouver’s Brian White said after the 5-0 thrashing by Cruz Azul in the championship match. “That’s what good teams do in big finals like this.”
Clearly overwhelmed by the high press of the Liga MX squad, Vancouver stumbled over defensive mistakes and were down 4-0 by halftime. Arguments could be made whether manager Jesper Sørensen was too cautious, but the harsh reality when analyzing both teams was the contrast in talent available to Cruz Azul, who had the know-how to capitalize on the Whitecaps’ errors.
For reference, without any of the roster limitations seen in MLS, Cruz Azul’s starting XI market value was approximately $21.8 million higher than that of Vancouver. In fact, Cruz Azul had six players in their XI with a “market value” (for transfers) that was higher than the Whitecaps’ lone designated player in the final, Andrés Cubas.
The pressure facing Inter Miami as the face of MLS
Since Lionel Messi joined the Herons on July 15, 2023, Inter Miami have represented MLS in various international competitions, tasking players such as Messi and Luis Suárez to improve the league’s image through participation in the likes of the Leagues Cup and the Concacaf Champions Cup.
MLS has generated a ton of publicity around Inter Miami since Messi and a trio of other former Barcelona players joined the team in the summer of 2023, with enhanced media coverage, marketing campaigns and publicity to increase the league’s visibility. Now, with the world watching through the Club World Cup, the league depends on the Herons more than ever.
Miami stands as one of three MLS ambassadors at the Club World Cup with arguably higher expectations than their peers to lift the league’s reputation around the world. Though the Seattle Sounders and LAFC will also compete, the league’s hopes for international recognition depend on a successful run into the later knockout stages from Inter Miami and Messi.
