LAFC’s Son Heung-Min vs. Whitecaps’ Thomas Muller: The blockbuster playoff showdown MLS needs more of

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 against 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. 

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. 

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 need 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.

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.

Of course, there are guardrails in MLS to stop them from multiplying. Son and Muller (eventually) are on hefty Designated Player contracts. They are, in effect, paid top dollar by their clubs to simply exist in the league. And when owners spend big on one singular entity, cash is sucked away elsewhere. Vancouver and LAFC, in fairness, have done quite a wonderful job in building around the two. They are both the razor-sharp edges of accomplished teams.

But other sides aren't so flexible or intelligent. Salary cap rules are good for parity, but they limit wallets - and sometimes restrict imaginations, too. Removing a limit altogether would be risky - and certainly lead to some competitive disadvantages if rich owners empty their pockets. But MLS does need to do something to allow for more big-name matchups. The league also has to push for a higher floor for its teams, as the disparity between the top spending teams and its modest ones is more dramatic than the NBA or NFL, for example. Messi, for example, makes more than 20 teams in MLS and Son makes almost as much as the entire team of CF Montreal, whose payroll comes in at $12.9 million. 

The league's decision to switch to a calendar that aligns with the top leagues in Europe should help in bringing more quality players to MLS. But ensuring that all clubs share in that ambition will be key. 

And perhaps that's all you need in this modern age, new signings coming to clubs, one at a time. Neymar might be next. Christian Pulisic is the post World Cup dream. And maybe, in 10 years time, there might be a clip of two superstars, grinning at each other before they take the stage in the biggest game of the year.