MLS Preview Roundtable: Staff predictions for the 30th season of League

The 30th season of MLS starts on Saturday a few miles from where the 29th campaign of the competition ended. De La Galaxy won MLS Cup a shadow more than two months ago, but rival Lafc lifts the curtain on 2025 when they organize Minnesota United on Saturday afternoon.

It marks the start of a season with numerous new impactsignes (the outgoing transfer cost record of the competition was broken twice), a new club (Welcome, San Diego FC!), Some usmnt arrivals that are looking for a road to the top from Mauricio Pochettin’s depth map (Hello, Brandon Vázquez and Luca de la Torre) and a large, shiny spotlights On Lionel Messi and everything that does his Inter Miami on the road (at cold temperatures or otherwise).

A new season is an excuse to do our annual certainty, so we interviewed Athletics‘s football writers Paul Tenorio, Pablo Maurer, Jeff Rueter and Felipe Cardenas for their insight into a number of topics. Who wins it all? Who will be terrible? Who will surprise? Who deserves your attention?

We have all treated it below to take the rest of the road to kick in LA first

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Predictions: MLS Cup winner, supporters’ Shield Winner (Best Record), Wooden Spoon -receiver (worst record)

Tenorio:

• MLS Cup – Inter Miami: Messi and Co. Give priority to the Concacaf Champions Cup and the Play -offs and win one of those two trophies.
• Supporters’ Shield – FC Cincinnati: Losing Lucho Acosta, but adding Evander and Kévin Denkey should put a strong team over the top this season.
• Wooden spoon – Houston Dynamo: Toronto looks rough, and it seems that this is a tear-it-down year, but I really don’t like the sale that the Dynamo has made this out of season and the replacement value of the players who come back. Houston will be in trouble if they do not add talent.

Cardenas:

• MLS Cup – Inter Miami: Not Messi to have To win an MLS Cup title. His inheritance as (demonstrably) the best player ever has already been cemented. But I find it hard to believe that he will not win at least one while he plays in the United States
• Supporters’ Shield – FC Cincinnati: Miami will be better than they were during their record season in 2024. They could repeat as supporters’ Shield Champions. However, I think Cincinnati runs away with this (in a tight race).
• Wooden spoon – Nashville SC: Feels like Nashville is floating slightly above irrelevance in MLS. They have no stars and you need those players in this competition. The first full season of BJ Callaghan will be a difficult one that will reset the club’s strategy.

Maurer:

• MLS Cup – Inter Miami: Ambition gives you a long way in MLS, and Miami is too late at the moment. If they stay healthy, Messi & Co. finally lift their first meaningful trophy (with apologies to the League Cup.)
• Supporters’ Shield – FC Cincinnati: Acosta’s shock transfer stole the headlines, but on balance this team has only improved. Very competitive to view, and this year they win the shield.
• Wooden spoon – San Diego FC: A few spectacular signing sessions, yes, but also a very mess of unanswered questions. MLS has had a few from bijters, but at the end of the day life is difficult as an expansion team. Feel free to stick it up in the dressing room, Mikey Varas. “They don’t believe in us” is currently an MLS tradition.

Ruant:

• MLS Cup – Seattle Sounders: MLS’s most complete team is better built to compete on all fronts (well, next to the club World Cup). They have merged an unparalleled depth and MLS Nous under a selection of players from Prime-Agent.
• Supporters’ Shield – FC Cincinnati: Professionally navigated what a mission-critical Acosta-subplot could have been and got better along the way. It helps that they don’t have to worry about the club world cup.
• Wooden spoon – Toronto FC: Lorenzo Insigne is already the worst signature in the history of MLS, given his bloated wages and lack of impact, and I see no room for a late bounce back. A motionless franchise that needs time to dig out the mistakes of Bill Manning and John Herdman – but hiring Robin Fraser was a step in the right direction.

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Who will be the smashing summer signature?

Tenorio: Antoine Griezmann to Lafc. This has been going on rumor for a while and I don’t think Lafc is holding a DP spot open to not go in.

Cardenas: I agree with Paul. Griezmann to MLS is inevitable. He is an avid NFL fan (with a Spanish-speaking NFL podcast) who recently started his way to the Super Bowl in New Orleans. He seems to look forward to life in the US, especially in LA, just like for Kevin De Bruyne, you ask? The Belgian seems intended for Saudi Arabia.

Could Antoine Griezmann go to MLS this summer? (Florencia Tan Jun/Getty images)

Maurer: Gio Reyna to … Everywhere other than the Chicago Fire. This can feel far -fetched, but Reyna just needs minutes. The asking price of Dortmund has probably fallen considerably in the past year, so that it will be achieved for an MLS side. Whether Reyna would like to come back to the United States is a completely different story. Few would blame him.

Ruant: If Norwich City does not earn a promotion, Josh Sargent could be available for compensation that is comparable to what Atlanta Middlesbrough paid for Emmanuel Latte Late (more than $ 20 million). St. Louis City showed interest and playing through the summer (if he stays healthy) could strengthen his business for the 2026 World Cup.

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Take the most brave Messi for the season

Ruant: Messi helps Miami to reach the final of the conference, whereby an extra-time defeat ensures that Miami offers an even more lucrative package that will eventually bring him a year ago.

Maurer: Messi will do double, winning the MVP of the competition and also the Golden Boot. Not that the famous competitive Argentinian needs every extra motivation, but his ownership of the ownership in Miami – and the fact that this could be his last year in the competition – can simply give him the added push he needs. Burning take, I know.

Cardenas: Messi’s figures in 2025 will not be spectacular. He will slow down a bit and Miami will carefully monitor his fitness that will enter the club World Cup. He still has an MVP-Kaliber season, but he will not repeat as the winner of the prize.

Tenorio: I could see a scenario in which Messi announces a six -month contract extension with which he can open the new stadium, brings him through the end of the World Cup 2026 … And that’s it.

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The USMNT -Wildcard with a preference for the unpredictable

Biggest surprise team (for better or worse)

Maurer: The San Jose -Paves, 2024 Weuten Lep winners, will make the late season in 2025. Never underestimate the power of the greatest coach of American Men’s Soccer who fights for his legacy (adding Chicho Arango does not hurt either). The earthquakes will not set the competition on fire, but they will do enough to make the play -offs.

Tenorio: I second Pablo’s prediction. Never bet against Bruce Arena. I learned that lesson when he went to New England.

Luciano Acosta has its goals and helps Dallas for 2025 (Andy Lyons/Getty Images) to Dallas.

Ruant: With Eric Quill on the Touchline and Acosta that pull the strings, FC Dallas jumps to the fifth in the Western Conference in their most entertaining season since the heyday of Mauro Díaz and Fabián Castillo.

Cardenas: In the last season of Wilfried Nancy in MLS, the Columbus crew will miss the play -offs. The absence of Cucho Hernández will take back the attack of the crew, and by the summer Nancy will move abroad to start the next chapter of his coaching career.

Get deeply

In the cold, Greenland’s eyes Concacaf for sporting legitimacy

More/below: 0.5 ml clubs that come from the group phase of Club World Cup

(Inter Miami is located in a group with Porto, Palmeiras and Al Ahly; The Seattle Sounders are grouped with Paris Saint-Germain, Atlético Madrid and Botafogo)

Ruant: Below, but I am sure that both clubs will appreciate the extra allocation fee for their attempts.

Maurer: Under. MLS has always been given the opportunity to prove a ‘League of Choice’, but it still has a long way to go. It will be nice to look anyway.

Tenorio: Yes, I’m also going to take the under on this.

Cardenas: Miami can scrape through it, but if the sounders get it out of group B, well, the US can win the World Cup 2026. And we know that does not happen. Below.

(Top photo: Kevork Djansezian/Getty images)