Thomas Müller came to Vancouver to win trophies. He’s aiming for Messi

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Obviously Thomas Müller knows what it takes to be a champion.

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He’s one of the most decorated players in history, after all, with World Cups, Bundesliga and Champions League titles to his name.

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He came to Vancouver not just for a holiday, but to win new trophies, he’s said.

He’s been a world champion, a continental champion, a German champion.

In October he became a Canadian champion. This week he has the chance to become what he did really come to Vancouver for: a North American champion.

After Saturday’s 3-1 win in San Diego, Müllers’ passion for playing, for winning, for his new club was evident. In a post-match interview with Apple TV, he pointed to the stands, smiled and said “this is why we do it.”

He was pointing at a group of German fans who had travelled all the way to Southern California to see their hero win again. Playing away, the Whitecaps were slight underdogs against a team they’d struggled to handle this season. Their performance, though, was perfect, taking an early lead and never giving anything away.

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Müller’s fans were thrilled they’d travelled as far as they did. The Whitecaps signed Muller to lead them to glory — but they also signed him to elevate the club’s name. They’re big in Germany now.

It’s with some irony that Müller, the greatest footballer to ever play in Vancouver, hasn’t had to lead his Vancouver Whitecaps to next weekend’s MLS Cup final: he’s been slowed by a leg injury the last two weeks and hasn’t been the standout player against the league’s toughest opposition that he was in earlier rounds.

But he also hasn’t had to be the standout No. 1 here either, a point he made Saturday night. In defeating the conference leaders, the only team that had really given the Caps fits this season, the well-balanced Whitecaps got brilliant performances from defensive stalwarts like Andres Cubas and Edier Ocampo, who gave San Diego no space in which to operate. That Müller was slowed on offence didn’t matter either, not with Ali Ahmed putting in one of the finest performances of his life on left wing.

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And that’s without mentioning that striker Brian White is fully fit and back to his finishing best.

As Müller himself quipped, which was also a potshot taken at Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami: “Maybe they rely a little bit more on him than we do on me, because we are such a good group, you know what I mean?”

We certainly do: Messi has been electric in the MLS Cup playoffs, scoring six times and collecting five assists. He had a pedestrian solo assist on Saturday, as Miami demolished New York City FC 5-1.

Müller’s Whitecaps are indeed built differently, which is the Raumdeuter’s point. Miami’s got cash to burn and they’ve built a squad that does nothing to squash the idea that Major League Soccer is nothing but a retirement league: both Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets have said this is the end of their careers, literally.

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When MLS was founded 30 years ago, the idea was to raise the quality of American soccer above all else. When you look at Miami’s squad, if there’s any national squad that’s benefiting it’s surely Argentina’s, no? There are four Americans listed in the Miami squad, with only defender Ryan Sailor really making any impact at all and even then just barely. On the other hand, there are 10 Argentines playing for Miami — plus their manager Javier Mascherano.

The Whitecaps on the other hand are still following the founding ethos of MLS: they’ve got a trio of current USA internationals in White, Sebastian Berhalter and Tristan Blackmon, plus capped Canadians like Ahmed, Jayden Nelson and the injured Sam Adekugbe.

Next Saturday will be the 11th meeting between these two all-time superstars; Müller’s teams, Germany and Bayern Munich, have won seven of the previous 10 times. And of course the Caps beat Inter over the two-legged Champions Cup semi final earlier this year, a dominant 5-1 effort.

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Both teams are very different now. Inter have more depth; the Caps have added Müller. His teammates have been effusive in their praise of what the German has added to the squad, beyond his offensive prowess. He’s reinforced their self-belief, they’ve said, while also serving as something of a player-coach both in training and in matches.

He brought with him a nickname of “Radio Müller” and he’s been exactly that, a non-stop chatterbox, driving his teammates to become ever better.

“Everybody asked questions, everybody was open for my advice. Also, the coaching staff brought me in to do that. And I think we were still growing, were still building it up step by step, but I have the feeling we are in a great shape as a group, and I try to let them join in with and learn from my experience, as I did from veteran players when I was young.”

Major League Soccer’s biggest match of the season will have its biggest stars standing on a global stage. This is why the Whitecaps sprang at the chance to bring Müller in.

They’ve already stolen Messi’s glory once this season. Can they do it a second time?

pjohnston@postmedia.com

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