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Welcome to the Guardian’s MLS Best Teams Rankings, where I have a problem with your team in particular and your team in particular only. Please direct your complaints to Garth Lagerwey’s office, which really has nothing better to do. He’ll have time to respond to every complaint, I’m sure, because he certainly doesn’t have a roster to reorganize, a manager to hire, and a whole new front office vacancy to fill.
As a reminder, this isn’t a standard ranking. We always rank teams from worst to best. But in addition to the rankings, we’re taking a deep dive into a handful of teams around the league that are doing particularly interesting things.
Related: Aging stars still vital to MLS despite ‘retirement league’ criticism
What to do when you have nothing to play
29. Earthquakes in San Jose
28. CF Montreal
27. New England Revolution
26. Sporting Kansas City
25. Chicago Fire
24. Nashville SC
Forgive me for being blunt, San Jose, but you have nothing to play for. You’re last in points in both conferences. A public postseason probability model gives you a less than 1% chance of making the playoffs, which is about as close to flashing a big neon sign that says “ELIMINATED” as you can get with a single number and a percentage sign. When despair sets in, where do you turn? In MLS, a league with no real consequences for being bad enough that you start to feel hopeless, you turn to next year.
Over their final seven games, San Jose will have to figure out how to use Hernán López, the club’s record signing, before turning the page on 2025.
The Quakes paid $6 million for the Argentine No. 10 earlier this season. The problem? He doesn’t create many chances. He advances the ball through midfield at a high level, but he’s not productive in the final third. One way to improve Lopez’s usage is to feed him more often. He takes 15.1 percent of his team’s touches in the final third, according to American Soccer Analysis, well below the league’s top attacking midfielders. Lucho Acosta averages 23.7 percent. Carles Gil averages 21.7 percent. Evander averages 18.7 percent.
Encouraging Lopez to stay higher up the pitch – and encouraging the players around him to find the Argentine more often – could be the first step towards a brighter future for the Quakes.
The best bubble team in the West
23. Toronto FC
22. DC United
21. Austin FC
20. FC Dallas
19. City of Saint-Louis
18. Minnesota United
There are a few teams that I watch every week simply because they are amusingI didn’t expect Minnesota United to be one of those teams when Emanuel Reynoso left the club earlier this year, but here we are.
Related: From Manchester United to Minnesota: Eric Ramsay on adjusting to life in MLS
Under first-year sporting director Khaled El-Ahmad and first-year manager Eric Ramsay, the Loons have become more tactically complex than they were at any point under former boss Adrian Heath. And having added several key pieces in the summer transfer window, they are also building a fairly deep and balanced squad.
Ramsay has opted for a 3-5-2 system. In this setup, Minnesota United want to move the ball forward quickly when in possession. According to Opta, they have the seventh-fastest direct attack speed in MLS.
Ramsay wants his team to play fast forward, but it’s not just about spamming long, hopeful balls into the opposition’s half. No, Minnesota almost always seems to feel like they’re in control of possession. With a slew of players comfortable breaking lines with the ball and forwards who like to break in behind, including new Designated Player Kelvin Yeboah, Minnesota United can break through an opposing block at any time:
In ninth place in the West, they are still far from a playoff berth. But make no mistake: Minnesota United are dangerous. They are significantly stronger now than they were before the window opened, and that was before the debut of new DP central midfielder Joaquín Pereyra.
The Loons are the most entertaining (and best) playoff team in the West.
Change, change and more change
17. Philadelphia Union
16. Seattle Sounders
15. Orlando City
14. Charlotte FC
13. Atlanta United
12. New York City FC
Atlanta United has house cleaned This year. The latest individual to leave the club is vice president and technical director Carlos Bocanegra. Bocanegra joined Atlanta United as technical director in 2015, helping build their roster for the 2017 expansion season and beyond.
Although the Five Stripes enjoyed tremendous success in their early days under then-president Darren Eales, vice president of soccer operations Paul McDonough, manager Tata Martino and Bocanegra, success became elusive after winning the MLS Cup in 2018 and finishing second in the East in 2019. Since 2019, Atlanta United have finished 23rd, ninth, 23rd and 10th in the Supporters’ Shield standings. This year, they are 20th.
Of that group of founding leaders, Bocanegra was the only one who could continue until 2024. He undoubtedly deserves some credit for the initial formation of the squad. But things have gone awry since then.
Atlanta’s huge spending on failed players like Ezequiel Barco, Pity Martínez and Luiz Araújo didn’t pay off. The same goes for more expensive players like Jürgen Damm and Matheus Rossetto. They botched the U22 Initiative signings. Their managerial signings didn’t work. Bocanegra didn’t even recall Marcelo Bielsa, for God’s sake.
With club president and general manager Garth Lagerwey in his second season, it’s no surprise he wanted to wipe the slate clean and start over. Lagerwey inherited a mediocre team last year, one that had Bocanegra’s fingerprints all over it.
It seems that Bocanegra has been a factor in holding Atlanta United back in recent years, so his departure should help them move forward. Knowing Atlanta, they will be pushing hard to climb back up the standings as quickly as possible. The Inter Miami sporting director, who worked with Lagerwey in Seattle, could end up replacing Bocanegra. But the pressure and to-do list are growing around Lagerwey as he takes more and more control.
There is a technical director to hire. There is a manager to hire. There are two technical directors to sign. There are several players from the U22 Initiative to recruit.
Atlanta United aren’t back yet, but they’re sure to be busy.
Love and Pain in Houston
11. New York Red Bulls
10. Houston Dynamo
9. Portland Wood
8. Vancouver Whitecaps
7. Colorado Rapids
6. The real salt lake
Ben Olsen’s Dynamo are setting teams on fire. Not far from their promising Leagues Cup performances, Houston absolutely dominated LAFC in Los Angeles last week. Of course, there’s important context around LAFC’s performance: This was their sixth game in three weeks, and they’ve expended a lot of emotional energy in the Leagues Cup final and US Open Cup semifinals.
But when I watch this sequence from the 24th minute, all that context seems to disappear. It is. Beautiful.
The Dynamo control games with possession better than any team in this league not coached by Wilfried Nancy. They are second in MLS in possession, behind the Crew. So far this year, all that possession has primarily acted as a defensive mechanism. Houston is eighth in MLS in non-penalty xG allowed per 90 minutes, according to FBref.
But now? After adding some key players and having some time off after the Leagues Cup? Now they’re starting to turn their possession into chances. They conceded three goals against Real Salt Lake last month, scored twice against Toluca and narrowly beat LAFC.
Things are looking good for Houston. Or at least, they were until newly signed 22-year-old winger Lawrence Ennali suffered an ACL injury over the weekend. Ennali, along with forward Ezequiel Ponce, was a crucial addition to the Dynamo this summer, scoring the game-winning goal against LAFC. His injury is a blow to both the player and the club.
Houston and LAFC meet again on Saturday. How the Dynamo responds after an up-and-down week will tell us a lot about their status as a potential contender.
Related: No Messi, no problem: Inter Miami continues title race without talisman
More than a flash in the pan
5. Los Angeles Galaxy
4. FC Cincinnati
3. FC LA
2. The Columbus Crew
1. Inter Miami
Whatever your opinion, dear MLS fan, on Inter Miami, you cannot deny this simple truth: they are never boring.
Inter Miami wasn’t good when it joined MLS as an expansion team in 2020, but it broke a few roster rules by playing with five defensive players, two more than allowed. They got caught and punished, which doesn’t sound boring to me. They certainly weren’t boring when Lionel Messi and co arrived last summer. And now, even though Messi still isn’t quite back from injury, they’re still not boring. They’ve won an insane amount of games without him and have three fingers on the Supporters’ Shield.
The latest example of the constant stream of intrigue swirling around Inter Miami is the most enduring of all: Miami Freedom Park.
The Herons have been considering moving from their temporary home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Miami for some time now. But rumours emerged, along with new images earlier this week, that the new 25,000-seater soccer stadium will be the club’s new home from 2026.
Between Inter Miami opening a soccer-specific stadium and New York City FC doing the same in Queens in 2027, MLS continues to march toward an era of permanence that seemed impossible when the league began play in 1996.
There are plenty of other MLS teams in big markets with less-than-ideal stadiums — New England Revolution and Chicago Fire come to mind. But seeing one of the league’s most ambitious clubs get close to one of the league’s best stadiums? That’s progress.
Even though Messi and his friends (and perhaps even the man who paved the way for them) are no longer here, Inter Miami are positioning themselves as an attractive long-term destination. They are not about to leave the headlines.
