MLS Cup 2025

MLS Cup 2025 was the 30th edition of the MLS Cup, the championship match of Major League Soccer (MLS), the top-flight soccer league in the United States and Canada. The match was played on December 6, 2025, at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States, and determined the champions of the 2025 season. It was hosted by Eastern Conference champions Inter Miami CF and played against Western Conference champions Vancouver Whitecaps FC. The match also marked the conclusion of the MLS Cup playoffs, which was contested by the top nine teams in each conference based on their regular season records.

MLS Cup 2025

Chase Stadium, the host venue
Event	MLS Cup
Inter Miami CF Vancouver Whitecaps FC 3 1
Date	December 6, 2025 (2025-12-06)
Venue	Chase Stadium, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S.
MLS Cup MVP	Lionel Messi (Inter Miami CF)[1]
Referee	Drew Fischer[2]
Attendance	21,556
Weather	Sunny 84 °F (29 °C) 60% humidity
← 2024 2026 →

Inter Miami CF won 3–1 with two assists by Lionel Messi, who was named the match's most valuable player, and clinched their first MLS Cup title.^[3]

Road to the final

Further information: 2025 MLS Cup playoffs

The MLS Cup is the post-season championship of Major League Soccer (MLS), the top-flight club soccer league in the United States and Canada. The 2025 season was the 30th in MLS history, and was contested by 30 teams organized into the eastern and western conferences. Each team played 34 matches during the regular season, which runs from February to October, twice against each intra-conference opponent and six times for inter-conference opposition in an unbalanced schedule. The regular season included a month-long break for the FIFA Club World Cup and CONCACAF Gold Cup, which were hosted by the United States.^[4][5] The nine clubs in each conference with the most points qualified for the MLS Cup playoffs, which was played over five rounds from October to December. Most rounds were a single-elimination match hosted by the higher-seeded team; the exception was Round One, which was a best-of-three series with the first and third (if necessary) match hosted by the higher-seeded team.^[6]

Both of the finalists, Inter Miami CF and Vancouver Whitecaps FC, appeared in their first MLS Cup final and joined MLS as expansion teams.^[7] They played each other earlier that year in the semifinals of the CONCACAF Champions Cup. Vancouver won the first leg 2–0 at home and 3–1 in the second leg for an aggregate score of 5–1.^[8] The Whitecaps were also the first Canadian team since MLS Cup 2019 to reach the league's championship.^[9]

Two of Miami's veteran European players, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets, had announced their intent to retire from professional soccer at the end of the season.^[10]

Summary of results

Note: In all results below, the score of the finalist is given first (H: home; A: away).

Inter Miami CF				Round	Vancouver Whitecaps FC
3rd place in Eastern Conference MLS Eastern Conference table (2025) Pos Team v t e Pld Pts 1 Philadelphia Union 34 66 2 FC Cincinnati 34 65 3 Inter Miami CF 34 65 4 Charlotte FC 34 59 5 New York City FC 34 56 6 Nashville SC 34 54 7 Columbus Crew 34 54 8 Chicago Fire FC 34 53 9 Orlando City SC 34 53 Source: MLS      Qualified for playoffs      Qualified for CONCACAF Champions Cup				Regular season	2nd place in Western Conference MLS Western Conference table (2025) Pos Team v t e Pld Pts 1 San Diego FC 34 63 2 Vancouver Whitecaps FC 34 63 3 Los Angeles FC 34 60 4 Minnesota United FC 34 58 5 Seattle Sounders FC 34 55 6 Austin FC 34 47 7 FC Dallas 34 44 8 Portland Timbers 34 44 9 Real Salt Lake 34 41 Source: MLS      Qualified for playoffs      Qualified for CONCACAF Champions Cup
Opponent (Games)	1st leg	2nd leg	3rd leg	MLS Cup playoffs	Opponent (Games)	1st leg	2nd leg	3rd leg
Nashville SC (2–1)	3–1 (H)	1–2 (A)	4–0 (H)	Round one	FC Dallas (2–0)	3–0 (H)	1–1 (4–2 p.) (A)	—
Opponent	Score				Opponent	Score
FC Cincinnati	4–0 (A)			Conference semifinals	Los Angeles FC	2–2 (a.e.t.) (4–3 p.) (H)
New York City FC	5–1 (H)			Conference finals	San Diego FC	3–1 (A)

Venue

MLS Cup 2025 was hosted by Inter Miami CF at their home venue, Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The team won the right to host the match by virtue of their higher finish in the regular season standings; Miami had 65 points, while Vancouver earned 63 points.^[11] Chase Stadium is a soccer-specific stadium that has a capacity of 21,550 spectators and was constructed as a temporary stadium for Inter Miami CF until the completion of Miami Freedom Park near Miami International Airport in 2026.^[12] The stadium had been expanded with temporary bleachers immediately following the signing of Lionel Messi by the club in 2023.^[13] MLS Cup 2025 was the final match for Inter Miami CF at Chase Stadium, as the team will move to Miami Freedom Park at the beginning of the 2026 season.^[14]

Inter Miami CF announced a two-day presale of tickets for the match for season ticket holders beginning on December 1, which is set to be followed by a release of tickets to the general public on December 2.^[15] The lowest prices on the resale market had been $831 prior to the conference finals, but later ranged from $359 to $2,211 at the end of the public sale; by December 5, the lowest ticket price was $179.^[16][17] Ticket retailer TickPick estimated that the average cost of a ticket on its platform for the 2025 final was $464, the second-highest figure for an MLS Cup after the 2022 final in Los Angeles.^[18]

The Whitecaps hosted a watch party at their home stadium, BC Place, for the MLS Cup final using its large video screens. By December 2, the team had already sold 16,000 tickets for the event.^[19]

Broadcasting

The MLS Cup final was broadcast worldwide in English and Spanish on MLS Season Pass, a subscription streaming service operated by Apple.^[20] The MLS Season Pass commentary team was led in English by play-by-play announcer Jake Zivin and analyst Taylor Twellman; the Spanish team was led by Sammy Sadovnik and Diego Valeri. The service was also carrying pre-game and post-game shows from a studio crew.^[21] The match was also being broadcast on U.S. terrestrial television by Fox Sports in English and Fox Deportes in Spanish. The Canadian television broadcast was carried by TSN in English and Réseau des sports (RDS) in French.^[7] In Mexico, the match was broadcast on TNT Sports. MLS Productions is using more than 30 cameras to broadcast MLS Cup 2025, including a referee cam and footage from four iPhone 17 Pro Max smartphones for fan reactions.^[21][22] The match was also displayed on a digital billboard in Times Square, New York City.^[22]

Match

Details

December 6, 2025 (2025-12-06)

2:30 p.m. EST

Inter Miami CF	3–1	Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Ocampo 8' (o.g.) De Paul 71' Allende 90+6'	Report	Ahmed 60'

Chase Stadium, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Attendance: 21,556

Referee: Drew Fischer

Inter Miami CF

Vancouver Whitecaps FC

GK 34 Rocco Ríos Novo  90+9' RB 17 Ian Fray  90+1' CB 37 Maximiliano Falcón  48' CB 32 Noah Allen LB 18 Jordi Alba CM 7 Rodrigo De Paul  86' CM 5 Sergio Busquets CM 11 Baltasar Rodríguez  13'   57' RF 21 Tadeo Allende CF 10 Lionel Messi (c) LF 24 Mateo Silvetti  78' Substitutes: GK 19 Oscar Ustari DF 2 Gonzalo Luján DF 6 Tomás Avilés DF 57 Marcelo Weigandt  90+1' MF 8 Telasco Segovia  57' MF 42 Yannick Bright  78' FW 9 Luis Suárez FW 14 Fafà Picault FW 29 Allen Obando Manager: Javier Mascherano

GK 1 Yohei Takaoka RB 18 Édier Ocampo  45' CB 33 Tristan Blackmon  66' CB 6 Ralph Priso  68' LB 2 Mathías Laborda  86' CM 16 Sebastian Berhalter  90+4' CM 20 Andrés Cubas  74'   82' RW 11 Emmanuel Sabbi  90+1' AM 13 Thomas Müller (c) LW 22 Ali Ahmed  68' CF 24 Brian White  17' Substitutes: GK 14 Daniel Ríos GK 32 Isaac Boehmer DF 23 Joedrick Pupe  68' DF 28 Tate Johnson MF 17 Kenji Cabrera  82' MF 25 Ryan Gauld  68' MF 59 Jeevan Badwal FW 7 Jayden Nelson  90+1' FW 75 Rayan Elloumi Manager: Jesper Sørensen

MLS Cup MVP: Lionel Messi (Inter Miami CF)[1]
Assistant referees:[2] Cory Richardson Nick Uranga Fourth official:[2] Pierre-Luc Lauziere Reserve assistant referee:[2] Jeremy Kieso Video assistant referee:[2] Carol Anne Chénard Assistant video assistant referee:[2] Tom Supple	Match rules[23] 90 minutes 30 minutes of extra time if necessary Penalty shoot-out if scores still level Maximum of nine named substitutes Maximum of five substitutions Maximum of three substitution opportunities

Post-match

Inter Miami CF became the sixteenth MLS team to win the league championship and the fifth new winner in the past five editions. Lionel Messi was named the MLS Cup most valuable player for his two assists during the match and won his 47th overall trophy.^[24] He also set a record for the most combined goals and assists in MLS Cup playoff history, with 15 total goal contributions (6 goals and 9 assists). Miami co-owner David Beckham became the first person to win the MLS Cup as both a player—winning twice with the LA Galaxy in 2011 and 2012—and owner.^[25] Tadeo Allende's goal in stoppage time was his ninth during the 2025 MLS Cup playoffs and set a new league record.^[3]