FORT LAUDERDALE, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- Vancouver Whitecaps forward Thomas Muller said Thursday that his track record against Lionel Messi will not matter when the Canadian side plays Inter Miami in the MLS Cup final.
Muller has been on the winning side in eight of his 11 previous encounters with the Argentine forward at club and international level dating back to 2010.
"I look back in the past, and I feel very comfortable with that, because that's already in the books, and I had a lot of great experience in these games with my teams, so it was fun," the veteran German attacker said ahead of Saturday's title decider at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale. "But it doesn't really matter for Saturday, it's a new game."
The pair's prior meetings include Germany's 1-0 win over the Albiceleste in the 2014 World Cup final and Bayern Munich's 8-2 rout of Messi's Barcelona in the 2020 UEFA Champions League quarterfinals.
"Maybe it gives you the feeling that I always have my confidence to beat someone or to compete with someone as a team and as an individual. So I don't need my history that much to be confident," said Muller, who joined the Whitecaps in August after more than 17 years at Bayern Munich.
The 36-year-old also played down the impact of Vancouver's back-to-back victories over the Florida outfit in the CONCACAF Champions Cup in April.
"[We] won against Inter Miami twice this season. But what does it mean?" Muller said. "It gives you a little bit of a good feeling. But in the end, the game is decided on the pitch and on Saturday, in the future."
"So it's a nice thing to talk about, and I hope we can continue to talk about it Saturday after the game," he added. ■
