"I feel comfortable": After whirlwind week, Thomas Müller shows signs of promise in Whitecaps debut
After a whirlwind couple of days, Thomas Müller finally got to do what he loves doing most - playing football, as he made his Vancouver Whitecaps debut vs. the Houston Dynamo on Sunday.
Naturally, it was far from a normal debut for the 35-year-old Müller, who came off the bench to a standing ovation in front of a packed lower bowl at BC Place, but once he was on the field, all looked just right for Vancouver’s new #13.
Müller’s first minutes in blue & white. 🔥#VWFC x #TM13 pic.twitter.com/imzQTAnhWq
— Vancouver Whitecaps FC (@WhitecapsFC) August 18, 2025
Immediately, he found his position as an attacking midfielder just underneath Brian White, and started barking out tactical instructions, looking like someone who had been part of this team for years, not 72 hours.
From there, it didn’t take long for him to get involved in the play, either. Even though his every touch was met with a sense of anticipation from the crowd, many of them wearing #13 Müller Whitecaps kits along with other Germany and Bayern Munich-related paraphernalia, Müller settled into the match and started doing his thing.
He didn’t have the ending he’d hoped to have on his debut, as his Whitecaps side squandered a 1-0 lead to draw 1-1 off a late banger from Arthur, dropping points despite dominating nearly the entire match while up a goal.
They came close to finding that second goal on several occasions, hitting the woodwork twice in the first half, before Müller himself nearly had a storybook moment when he scored a thunderous half-volley, one that was chalked off for an offside in the build-up.
Offside in the build-up...
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) August 18, 2025
But Thomas Müller nearly had his first goal within SECONDS. 😳 pic.twitter.com/wzDihNdCIg
Unfortunately, all of those missed opportunities kept Houston in the game just long enough to produce some late drama, however, much to the frustration of the fans who were hoping for a victorious Müller debut. 
Overall, though, the Whitecaps will be pleased with the debut of their new star, as he did not look out of place despite playing his first club match for a team not named Bayern Munich. In his 30 minutes on the field, he touched the ball 27 times, with two of them coming in the box, while also completing 19 out of 23 passes, including five into the final third, helping orchestrate a few swift attacking moves.
In typical Müller fashion, he did well to find the space available to him quite quickly, too, showing that the ‘Raumdeuteur’ will continue to interpret the open areas of the pitch even with a new team, which is huge for a Whitecaps team looking to hit a new level offensively.
“I’ve always played during my career, between the lines, in the pockets,” Müller said of his offensive involvement on his debut. “Even if I started on the right wing, I always found gaps in the box, and did my runs and my work against the ball, so this was normal stuff. I tried to be dangerous to strike towards the goal, either to score a goal or make the last pass.”
“I feel quite comfortable in this role, to find gaps on the left flank, right flank, centre.”
Then, for good measure, he also got stuck in defensively, making one tackle, one interception and four recoveries, with his one tackle being a beauty of a sliding effort that got the BC Place faithful off their seats. For all of the good he did on the ball, that stands out as he is also joining a Whitecaps team that have been a defensive force when at their best this year.
Once again, though, that shows why this move is so exciting for the Whitecaps - not only are they getting an excellent player, one that can push their attack to a new level, but they are also getting an excellent leader, someone who doesn’t mind setting an example for those around him.
“Jesper expected that from me,” Müller said afterwards of his leadership. “He knew that before when they brought me, that’s it’s a natural behaviour of mine, when I’m on the pitch, I try to organize my own position first, but when I see something good for the team to adapt about our positioning, intensity or passing gaps, I will communicate with my teammates directly. That will never change, even in my first game.”
"I’m now fresh into this team, new into the league. I need a few weeks to figure out what is right or wrong but to be honest, I feel very good after this game.”
— Vancouver Whitecaps FC (@WhitecapsFC) August 18, 2025
Thomas Müller on his MLS debut. 🎙️#VWFC | #VANvHOU pic.twitter.com/SYYX4acJEs
That’s arguably been the story of Müller’s first few days in Vancouver, however - he’s stepped up in a big way as a leader on and off the field. Unlike many of the stars that have come to MLS in recent years, who often like to maintain a lower profile, Müller has embraced the responsibility that has come with his arrival at his new club.
From taking the time to meet with fans to fulfilling all of his media obligations, he’s done everything asked of him, doing so with a smile every time. Granted, for those who have followed his career, that’s not surprising to see, but it’s certainly been a welcome sight regardless.
At the same time, for all that he does off the pitch, most Vancouver fans are hoping he shows up and takes care of business on the field, and his debut seems to indicate that will be the case - that he was willing to slide around on the BC Place turf shows that.
Fittingly, however, he already set the tone in that regard a few days earlier. There, in his first training session with the club, which came on a cold and miserable rainy Vancouver day more befitting of November than mid-August, Müller was out there sliding around and making tackles like it was the Champions League final (and don’t forget that he’s played in four of those, winning two of them and scoring in another).
Then, during and in between drills, he was also quick to grab a teammate and offer words of wisdom whenever the right moment came up, doing well to quickly bring his veteran savvy to what is still a decently young Whitecaps side, almost acting like another assistant coach.
“It’s so valuable,” Whitecaps head coach, Jesper Sørensen, said after that first session. “We had our first drill here, and Thomas went up to apply pressure, but then Yohei Takaoka played a pass behind him, and we were not there behind him. So right away, he took (midfielder) Jeevan (Badwal) and said ‘If you want me to go up and press, you have to follow; if not, you have to call me back.”
“Jeevan is quite young, he's 19, so this is new for him, but this helps him out to have that on the pitch and to speak together, he and other young guys can learn from a guy who who brought himself in a position where he has achieved what he has by the way he has behaved throughout his career and with his talent. If you can’t learn from that… It's going to be difficult to learn, period.”
DEBUT ✅#VWFC https://t.co/h8jo5z84C3
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) August 18, 2025
What that shows, however, is that Müller isn’t treating this move like a vacation, as he’s coming to Vancouver because he wants to win trophies and to push this club to another level, as he said last week.
It’s one thing to say that, too, but he continues to back up that sentiment through his actions, and his debut proved that.
Yet, it’s important to remember that at the end of the day, this is also a new chapter for Müller, and that perhaps is also fuelling him to hit the ground running. Not to say he ever got comfortable in his nearly two decades at Bayern Munich - there’s no such thing as comfort at a club of that size with their ambitions - but it can be easy to settle into certain routines and habits.
A move like this can push someone in many ways, and Müller is embracing those early challenges, both on and off the pitch (to that last point, Müller joked Sunday that he’s enjoyed being able to go to the supermarket without attracting much extra attention from outsiders, to get a look at how he’s felt about this new chapter).
“It’s great to see. I’ve said it many times, and I’ll say it again: Thomas is a champion on the pitch, and there's a reason for that,” Sørensen said on Friday. “That’s why he’s played as many games as he did for Bayern Munich, and won all of those trophies, it’s because of his quality, yes, but also his mentality and his character. He gives everything on the pitch, and that's who he is.”
“He wants to compete every day. He wants to push himself to the limits of what he can achieve as a football player. We’re all excited for his arrival, and I imagine he’s excited to come to a new club for the first time in his career, too. It’s a challenge as well for him as it for us, so he wants to show his teammates that he is all-in with everything, and that’s great for me as a coach, because that's what we want from the best players, that they go for it every day, even putting their mark in training sessions.”
A warm welcome to your new home. 💙 #VWFC x #TM13 pic.twitter.com/dJagWCTdAj
— Vancouver Whitecaps FC (@WhitecapsFC) August 18, 2025
For a Whitecaps team that’s shown a similar mentality in their group this season, helping them push to new heights under Sørensen, Müller’s already been able to fit into this group quite seamlessly, and that’s not gone unnoticed by their players, either, as they know that this could be a move that pushes them to another level.
“It shows the growth of the club, that a player of his profile wanted to come to Vancouver,” Whitecaps winger, Ali Ahmed, said of Müller’s arrival. “Now, I think it's going to bring a lot of attention, and who knows, maybe going forward, other similar profiles of players will want to come here.”
“That’s a testament to the winning we’ve done this year; we’ve put ourselves on the map, and that's what winning does, so I'm not surprised. But we’ve got to keep pushing forward, and maybe we’ll see more situations like this. Typically, you always see the big names wanting to go to LA, New York or wherever, but Vancouver’s coming now.”
Now, however, the big goal for the Whitecaps will be to ensure they find some form as they approach a pivotal stretch. On the field, they’ve been mired in a bit of a funk in MLS play, sitting with a record of 4W-2D-5L since the start of June.
Because of that, they’ve fallen a bit in the table, dropping to third place in the Western Conference and seventh in the Supporters Shield race. Thanks to their hot start to 2025, they remain very much in the race to win the Shield still, sitting just six points back of San Diego FC - and they also carry a game-in-hand over the expansion club, which is important to remember.
With five of their last eight regular-season games coming at home, including a crucial head-to-head match against a Philadelphia Union side just ahead of them in the Shield standings, the Whitecaps have every reason to still believe they can push for that trophy.
Then, in the MLS Cup playoffs, they’ll expect to be one of the favourites to win it all, even despite their recent slump, as their roster is right up there with the other contenders. Thanks to Müller’s arrival, the return of some key players from injury and the expectation that some further reinforcements are on the way, this team is hoping to start peaking again over the next few weeks, as they’ll be a force to be reckoned with if they find a bit of form.
Given that they’ve got about as full a squad to pick from as they’ve had since they fell to Cruz Azul in the Concacaf Champions Cup final back in June, having dealt with a raft of injuries, international absences and departures since, they feel they’re now in a good position to go find that form.
Now, the two big things they need to do going forward are to build some chemistry while finding a bit of momentum.
Their performances continue to remain quite solid - they’re sixth in MLS in xG for, second in xG against and fifth in xG difference - and they’ve maintained those numbers despite the absences of the last eight weeks.
Because of that, look for them to now put in a lot of silent work on the training pitch over the next month with their full squad mostly intact, as they try and find their mojo again.
Certainly, having Müller fully integrate into the team will be crucial in helping them with that, and what he showed in his first few days with the club is a good sign - and there appears to be a lot more still to come from the veteran attacker.
“It’s going to be important,” Sørensen said of his team’s upcoming stretch. “We can now see that we have very good quality from the start, but also from the bench coming in, it looks very interesting now. We need to get on the training pitch and make sure that we have good quality there, so that we can build towards a good finish to the season, that’s obviously what we want.”
“We also need a bit of a spark with our results, perhaps today had we won and scored that 2-0 goal, we could’ve gone harder for another goal, as when you’re up 1-0, it’s a balance, and we did well, they didn’t create many chances, but sometimes they strike it the way they did and that’s how football is, we did enough to win.”
“We’re going into an interesting part of the season, and we’ll be ready for it, but we’ll be doing well on an everyday basis to become better.”
