It has been a good weekend for Bayern Munich fans. Both the men’s and women’s teams celebrated clean sheet wins over Hamburger SV and RB Leipzig, respectively. On the other side of the Atlantic, meanwhile, club legend Thomas Müller celebrated his 36th birthday in style.
The Vancouver Whitecaps forward started against the Philadelphia Union, playing in his preferred position behind the striker, and donning the captain’s armband as well. Vancouver got off to a great start, going 2-0 up soon. Afterwards,
they earned a penalty, which Müller converted. In first half stoppage time, they earned another penalty, which Müller slotted into the same corner as before. The Whitecaps thus went into halftime with a 4-0 lead, just like Bayern against Hamburg.
But the Whitecaps were much more ruthless than Bayern, and they found themselves 6-0 up going into the final minutes of the game. Two minutes from time, some nifty combination play ultimately found Müller right in front of goal, and the Raumdeuter headed home from point blank range. Müller scored his fourth MLS goal this season, and his first ever non-penalty goal in Canada.
Vancouver won 7-0 and booked their ticket to the MLS Cup Playoffs this season, and Müller, in typical Müller fashion, filmed a celebratory clip with his signed match ball. In the video, he also paid tribute to his old Bayern teammates, especially Harry Kane. “Harry, now I know how you feel with a hat trick ball,” said the world champion with a grin.
This is Müller’s seventh career hat trick, not counting friendly matches. His last hat trick came against Bayer Leverkusen in the 2017/18 DFB-Pokal semifinals. Perhaps his most memorable hat trick came more than a decade ago, when he scored one against Portugal on the way to the World Cup title in Brazil.
Long live the Raumdeuter, and may he live out the rest of his career blissfully in the blue and white of Vancouver!
