San Diego, Vancouver, Inter Miami and New York City are the last four standing after a semi final round that managed to cram just about every possible storyline into two days: an expansion club’s breakthrough, a nine-man epic in Vancouver, a Messi clinic in Ohio and another big-game reminder from Maxi Moralez in Chester.
Here is how each tie actually played out – and what it all means for the Conference Finals and the race for MLS Cup 2025.
San Diego FC 1–0 Minnesota United – Snapdragon Stadium
San Diego’s first playoff run could easily have stalled here. Minnesota arrived with the greater playoff pedigree, but they only got to this point by the skin of their teeth, and for an hour this looked like exactly that sort of nervy, even matchup.
Mikey Varas’ team had the better regular-season story – 19 wins and 63 points, the best expansion campaign in league history – but in this one they needed their stars to dig them out when the game started to drift.
The decisive moment came on 72 minutes. Anders Dreyer, already the league’s Newcomer of the Year and part of the Best XI, drifted inside onto his left and thumped a finish into the top corner after neat combination play with Corey Baird and Jeppe Tverskov. It was his fourth goal of the postseason and felt like the first truly iconic moment in San Diego’s young history.
Behind him, Pablo Sisniega justified his surprise status as playoff starter. He only made four regular-season starts, but produced three saves here – including a big one on Bongokuhle Hlongwane just after the hour – to preserve a second straight postseason clean sheet. Minnesota, who had already knocked out Seattle, created enough to feel frustrated about another exit at the semi final stage, but lacked the quality in both boxes that San Diego now clearly possess.
The upshot: San Diego look like a proper one-seed. They’re defensively solid, have real structure under Varas and, in Dreyer and Amahl Pellegrino, have two of the top four scorers in the playoffs so far.
Vancouver Whitecaps 2–2 LAFC (Vancouver win 4–3 on penalties) – BC Place
If San Diego’s win was controlled, Vancouver’s was chaos in the best possible way.
The Whitecaps led 2–0 by half-time thanks to Emmanuel Sabbi and Mathías Laborda in front of a club-record crowd of 53,957. It should have been enough. Instead, the tie turned into one of the wildest playoff games MLS has seen in years.
Heung-Min Son dragged LAFC back from the dead with two second-half goals – the second a stoppage-time free-kick into the top corner after Tristan Blackmon, recently named MLS Defender of the Year, was sent off for a last-man foul in the 90+2 minute.
Extra time somehow made things more extreme. Vancouver lost centre-back Belal Halbouni to injury after using all their substitutions and finished with nine men, clinging on while LAFC rattled the woodwork three times in one frantic passage.
The shootout added one last twist. Son hit the post with the opening kick, Mark Delgado later cleared the bar, and Laborda – already on the scoresheet – rolled in the winner as Vancouver advanced 4–3 on penalties to their first ever Western Conference Final.
Beyond the drama, there are important takeaways. Vancouver have already shown this year they can live with elite attacks – they reached the CONCACAF Champions Cup final and hammered Philadelphia 7–0 in the regular season – and this win over LAFC finally removed their recent playoff block against the same opponent. Thomas Müller’s leadership and Ryan Gauld’s influence between the lines give them a high ceiling. The flip side: two red-card suspensions and a huge physical effort could leave some scars before a trip to San Diego.
FC Cincinnati 0–4 Inter Miami – TQL Stadium
On paper this was an upset: the second seed in the East dismantled in their own stadium. In reality, it looked like what happens when the team with Lionel Messi at this level hits top gear.
Messi scored the opener on 19 minutes and then assisted all three of Miami’s remaining goals – Mateo Silvetti on 57 minutes and a Tadeo Allende brace on 62 and 74 – to complete a four-goal involvement performance. It took him to 12 goal contributions (six goals, six assists) in this year’s playoffs alone, a new single-postseason record, and to around 1,300 career goal involvements when you add in his Barcelona, PSG and Argentina numbers.
Tactically, Javier Mascherano got almost everything right. Miami sat in a compact 4-4-2 without the ball, trusted Messi to run transitions and flooded the half-spaces with Silvetti and Allende arriving from wide areas. Cincinnati had more of the ball early but created little of real quality, and once the second went in their body language suggested a side who knew they were done.
The broader context matters too. Miami had already come through a tricky first-round series against Nashville and arrive in the Conference Final with Messi in career-best MLS form, Tadeo Allende as the playoffs’ second-highest scorer and a deeper rotation than they had a year ago.
Philadelphia Union 0–1 New York City FC – Subaru Park
If you were looking for a shock this weekend, this was it. Philadelphia had just lifted a second Supporters’ Shield and hadn’t lost at home since March. NYCFC arrived without leading scorer Alonso Martínez, Andrés Perea or Aiden O’Neill – and still found a way.
The match hinged on Maxi Moralez doing what he has done to the Union for years. In the 27th minute, NYCFC sprung forward on a quick transition, Nicolás Fernández slipped a pass into the inside-left channel and Moralez timed his run and finish perfectly, sliding a first-time shot inside Andre Blake’s left-hand post.
From there it was about resilience. Philly finished with a 20–6 advantage in total shots and forced Matt Freese into five saves, including a big one late on from Frankie Westfield, but never found a way through. Blake, meanwhile, had to leave after appearing to injure his hamstring racing back to tip a long-range effort over the bar; Andrew Rick came on for the final half-hour.
For NYCFC, this is now three Eastern Conference Finals in five seasons. Even patched-up, Pascal Jansen’s side are tactically clear, press with structure and have enough individual quality in Moralez, Fernández and Martínez (if he returns) to hurt good teams. They go into Miami as clear underdogs, but they will not fear the occasion.
Eastern Conference Final: Miami’s Firepower Versus NYCFC’s Control
Inter Miami will host New York City in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday 29 November, with the Eastern title and an MLS Cup place on the line. Miami have home advantage thanks to their higher finish in the overall Supporters’ Shield standings (third compared to NYCFC’s lower position).
On the Miami side, the headline writes itself: Messi plus an in-form supporting cast. Allende’s movement from the left and Silvetti’s emergence as a secondary creator mean defences can no longer just swarm Messi and hope for the best. If Luis Suárez is used from the bench rather than from the start, it also gives Mascherano a different profile to throw at tiring defences.
NYCFC’s path is clear: stay compact, slow the game and trust their structure. Against Philadelphia they were content to concede some territory, then break with precision when the moment arose. Their double pivot protects a back line that has quietly been one of the better units in the East, and Freese is playing like a keeper capable of stealing a match-up by himself.
On paper, Miami are justifiably favourites – especially at home – but if NYCFC can turn this into a slower, more attritional game and limit Miami’s transition moments, they have a real puncher’s chance.
Western Conference Final: San Diego’s Structure Versus Vancouver’s Big-Game Instinct
San Diego’s reward for beating Minnesota is a home Western Conference Final at Snapdragon Stadium against a Vancouver side that has already played (and survived) one epic this postseason.
San Diego finished top of the West and fourth in the overall Shield race, one place ahead of Vancouver, which is why the game is in California. Varas’ side are one of the more balanced teams in the league: aggressive pressing, good use of width and a clear plan to funnel attacks through Dreyer between the lines and Pellegrino’s movement off the last shoulder.
Vancouver bring different weapons. They have big-game experience from this year’s Champions Cup run, a genuine on-field coach in Thomas Müller and one of MLS’s most dangerous creative midfielders in Ryan Gauld. The question is how much physical and emotional energy they will have left after 120 minutes plus penalties against LAFC, played largely with 10 and then nine men.
Expect San Diego to try and move the ball quickly around Vancouver’s ageing core and test their legs in transition. For the Whitecaps, controlling tempo, winning set-piece battles and getting Müller on the ball between San Diego’s lines will be key.
Who Is The Team To Beat For MLS Cup?
With four teams left, there is a clear hierarchy in terms of both underlying quality and potential to host the final (the MLS Cup host is the finalist with the higher finish in the Supporters’ Shield table). Of the remaining sides, the overall regular-season ranking is:
- Inter Miami – 3rd overall
- San Diego – 4th overall
- Vancouver – 5th overall
- New York City – lower down and therefore unable to host MLS Cup under the current rules.
On that basis, plus current form, the picture looks like this:
- Inter Miami: The logical favourites. Best player in the league, most explosive attack in this playoff field, and the clearest chance of hosting MLS Cup if they get there. Their only obvious vulnerability is at the back – better counterattacking sides than Cincinnati have hurt them over the past two seasons – but when Messi is operating at this level, they can often simply overpower teams.
- San Diego: The best bet to stop Messi in a one-off game. They have the league’s breakout star in Dreyer, serious attacking depth and a defensive structure that rarely gets pulled apart. The unknown is how they handle these occasions; everything about this run is new for the club and coach.
- Vancouver: The high-variance option. On their day they have already shown they can take apart strong teams – from that 7–0 regular-season destruction of Philadelphia to their Champions Cup run and this LAFC tie – but they also live close to the edge. Over 90 minutes, especially away from home in San Diego, that volatility could be a weakness.
- NYCFC: The outside shot. Structurally sound, resilient and with a goalkeeper and a number 10 who can swing tight games. If they shock Miami away and then face a bruised Western champion, the path is there – but it would likely require two more near-perfect defensive performances.
From here, anything from an all-expansion-era final (San Diego v Miami) to an old-world-meets-new-world clash of Messi v Müller in MLS Cup is still genuinely in play. For now, though, the bracket feels like it runs through south Florida – and the burden is on everyone else to prove otherwise.