The Whitecaps have had success against Miami, so they're hoping the MLS Cup is no different

Vancouver has already bested Inter Miami in a big competition this year, so the Whitecaps feel there's really no reason they can't do it again in the MLS Cup final.

Back in late April, the Whitecaps downed Lionel Messi & Co. 5-1 on aggregate in the two-legged CONCACAF Champions Cup semifinals. The first game ended in a 2-0 Vancouver victory at B.C. Place, followed by a 3-1 win in Florida.

“We’ve just got to trust our game. We’ve gone down there before and played them here, too, this year and put on a great performance, got two really good results. So we’ve proved that we can do it when the stakes are already high in a semifinal. Now, it’s the final," midfielder Ryan Gauld said. "So we have to go do it again.”

At that time, Vancouver was on a roll, sitting atop the league standings with just one loss through 10 games. Striker Brian White already had six of his team-leading 16 goals this season.

The Whitecaps would go on to finish 18-7-9, second in the Western Conference to FC San Diego — the team they beat 3-1 in the conference finals last weekend to reach Saturday's championship match in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

It is the first time Vancouver will play for the MLS Cup. Gauld and his teammates already know the challenges posed by a team featuring Messi, Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets and Luis Suarez.

“I think the threat they bring is obvious with the individuals that they’ve got that can make a piece of magic out of nothing. They’re the kind of players you can keep quiet for eight, nine minutes, and then they just spark into life," Gauld said. "So it’s going to be about staying switched on and then doing our job for the 90, 120 minutes, whatever it is.”

Last season, the Whitecaps finished eighth in the standings and routed Portland in a wild-card game before falling to LAFC in the first round of the playoffs.

Vancouver has qualified for the playoffs in three of the past five years but hasn't advanced out of the first round in that span. Since the Whitecaps joined the league in 2011, the furthest they’ve gone is the quarterfinals, in 2015 and 2017.

This is Vancouver's first season under Danish coach Jesper Sørensen, who has kept the team focused amid the uncertainty of a possible sale and the addition of a German superstar.

Vancouver's owners announced late last year that the club was for sale. Greg Kerfoot has been the owner since 2002, when it was part of the North American Soccer League. Steve Luczo, Jeff Mallett and former NBA star Steve Nash joined Kerfoot in 2008 before the Whitecaps became part of MLS in 2011.

Mallett suggested in August that the group's strategy may have shifted to adding a new partner.

The Whitecaps also added World Cup winner Thomas Müller this summer after 17 seasons with Bayern Munich. But rather than upstaging his teammates, Müller has taken on the role of facilitator.

“We have not only one player, we have so many strong guys, so many qualities,” Müller said after the victory over San Diego. “We have to bring it together, and we are growing, we’re learning. I’m very happy to be part of this, to bring my experience to the group.”

Sørensen said he never really expected the Whitecaps to be playing for the MLS Cup.

“But as the season went by, you start seeing that you have the quality to maybe take it far," he said. "And now here we are.”

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Vancouver Whitecaps midfielder Ryan Gauld (25) and defender Édier Ocampo (18) hold up the trophy after winning the MLS Western Conference final soccer match against San Diego FC, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

Vancouver Whitecaps' Mathias Laborda (2) celebrates with his teammates after defeating Los Angeles FC during penalty kicks in the MLS Western Conference semifinal playoff soccer match, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025. (Ethan Cairns/The Canadian Press via AP)

Vancouver Whitecaps' Thomas Muller looks at the MLS Cup trophy as he arrives for a news conference Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., ahead of Saturday's of the MLS Cup soccer match against Inter Miami. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via

Vancouver Whitecaps head coach Jesper Sorensen walks past the MLS cup trophy as he leaves after a news conference Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., ahead of Saturday's of the MLS Cup soccer match against Inter Miami. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Michael Jordan and Joe Gibbs' daughter-in-law were expected to testify Friday on the fifth day of the federal antitrust case the Basketball Hall of Famer filed against NASCAR over claims the series has acted as monopolistic bullies.

Heather Gibbs, the chief operating officer of Joe Gibbs Racing, wrote an impassioned letter to NASCAR chairman Jim France in May 2024 imploring him to make charters permanent for the sake of strengthening the family business.

Charters are the equivalent of the franchise model used in other sports and in NASCAR it guarantees every chartered car a spot in all 38 races, plus a defined payout from NASCAR. The system was created in 2016 and during the two-plus years of bitter negotiations on an extension teams begged for the renewable charters to become permanent.

When NASCAR refused to make them permanent and gave the teams six hours in September 2024 to sign the 112-page extension, 23XI and Front Row Motorsports were the only two organizations out of 15 to refuse and instead filed an antitrust suit.

23XI is owned by Jordan and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, and Front Row is owned by fast food franchiser Bob Jenkins.

The discovery phase of the trial revealed a letter Heather Gibbs sent to France, who is now chairman of the series his father founded 76 years ago.

“We’ve put 32 years into investing and building a dream, building careers, building families, and building NASCAR. If the financial model made sense, we would not have had to work with an outside investor," she wrote. "If our teams were financially healthy and did not solely rely on sponsorship, I would sleep better at night, not worrying about when the torch is passed on.

“We have invested not only our time but our family in this sport. We have raised champions and buried their leaders, all while continuing to embrace the historical roots of NASCAR," she continued in the two-page emotion-packed letter. "So, with all due respect, please understand that when you tell us it doesn’t make sense to partner with us after 7 years is dejecting and truly disappointing.”

The letter came up in Thursday in testimony by NASCAR President Steve O'Donnell, who was called as an adverse witness. O’Donnell in a text message told Ben Kennedy, nephew of Jim France, “Jim is now reading Heather’s letter out loud and swearing every other sentence.”

Pressed by plaintiffs attorney Jeffrey Kessler as to what France was saying as he read the letter, O’Donnell said the chairman never swore. Kessler tried to force O’Donnell to reconcile what he wrote to Kennedy, but O’Donnell maintained that his boss was not cursing.

“That’s what I wrote, but he was not doing that,” O’Donnell testified. “We were all taken aback by the letter. I think Jim was frustrated, as we all were.”

Joe Gibbs ultimately signed the charter agreement, but Jenkins testified his rival team owner apologized for doing so.

On Thursday, Kessler attempted to portray France as “a brick wall” in negotiations. The teams had made specific requests in an attempt to improve their financial position, but the deal ultimately given to them on the eve of the start of the 2024 playoffs lacked most of their asks.

NASCAR was founded in 1948 by the late Bill France Sr. and to this day is privately owned by the Florida-based family. Jim France is his youngest son.

Kessler had a contentious session over more than three hours with O'Donnell and at times was shouting at the executive. He used internal communications among NASCAR executives to demonstrate frustration among non-France family members over the slow pace of negotiations and Jim France’s refusal to grant the teams permanent charters.

The internal communications among executives showed the mounting frustration over the prolonged negotiations. As O’Donnell, Commissioner Steve Phelps and others tried to find concessions for the teams, they all indicated they were met by resistance time and again by France and his niece, vice chair Lesa France Kennedy.

“Mr. France was the brick wall in the negotiations,” Kessler said to O’Donnell.

“Those are your words, not mine,” the executive replied.

Earlier Thursday, O’Donnell testified that teams approached the sanctioning body in early 2022 asking for an improved revenue model, arguing the system was unsustainable.

O’Donnell was at the meeting with representatives from four teams, who asked that the negotiating window on a new charter agreement open early because they were fighting for their financial survival. The negotiating window was not supposed to open until July 2023.

O’Donnell testified that in that first meeting, four-time series champion Jeff Gordon, now vice chair of Hendrick Motorsports, asked specifically if the France family was “open to a new model.”

Kennedy, great-grandson of NASCAR’s founder, told Gordon yes.

But O’Donnell testified that chairman France was opposed to a new revenue model.

The extensions that began this year upped the guaranteed money for every chartered car to $12.5 million in annual revenue, from $9 million. Hamlin and Jenkins have both testified it costs $20 million to bring a single car to the track for all 38 races. That figure does not include any overhead, operating costs or a driver’s salary, and Jenkins admitted he doesn't spend that much.

NASCAR has argued it has made huge improvements for the teams as it works to grow the sport. O’Donnell testified that NASCAR lost $55 million in the three years it held a race on the downtown streets of Chicago, and $6 million when it raced in June in Mexico City. But he said those events were critical in widening viewership and signing Amazon as a media partner.

“It was a strategic investment because if not for that, Amazon would not have become a broadcast partner,” he testified.

Judge Kenneth Bell admonished both sides over the slow pace of the trial, which was initially expected to take two weeks. Kessler said he didn’t anticipate wrapping up the teams’ side until the middle of next week.

NASCAR plans to call Roger Penske as a witness. Penske, who is reluctant to testify, has said he’s only available next Monday. Christopher Yates, lead attorney for NASCAR, asked that Penske be allowed to testify that day but Kessler objected because it would disrupt the flow of his presentation.

Bell sided with Kessler and told NASCAR to figure it out with Penske because “federal trials are an inconvenience.”

The judge also said stretching the trial to three weeks is not acceptable, and while he’s hesitant to step in to push the pace along, he urged both sides to counsel their witnesses to stop being “reluctant to answer even the most harmless questions.”

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

FILE - Front Row Motorsports owner Bob Jenkins, left, and 23XI co-owner Denny Hamlin arrive in the Western District of North Carolina on Monday Dec 1, 2025 in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Jenna Fryer, File)

NASCAR chairman Jim France enters federal court in Charlotte, N.C., on Wednesday Dec 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jenna Fryer)

FILE - Michael Jordan, co-owner of 23XI Racing, sits in his pit box during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Talladega Superspeedway, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Talladega, Ala. (AP Photo/ Butch Dill, File)