1. San Jose Earthquakes

The ‘Quakes spent 2024 as bottom feeders, largely due to the injury of goalkeeper Daniel. The side that San Jose had in 2024 was not reflective of their place in the table. The outfield players they had could have made a playoff run with a consistently healthy starting XI. The coach, Luchi Gonzalez, could also potentially take some blame. Having fired Gonzalez and hired tenured MLS coach Bruce Arena, the Earthquakes had a very active winter in an attempt to return to their past glory. Signing five players from New England, re-working the starting XI, and picking up perennial MVP candidate Chicho Arango, San Jose seem to be looking to take a huge jump from their wooden spoon placement last season.

Ceiling: 4th place, Western Conference Finalists

Floor: 12th place, Arena fired by end of season

Player to watch: Chicho Arango

2. San Diego FC

Every time there is an expansion side, fans never know what to expect. A win away against the reigning champion Galaxy is a positive start for SDFC, but they still have work to do. San Diego have a back line of mainly MLS-experienced players with European talent in front of them. Rookie coach Mikey Varas signed three Danish players in the midfield and attack to play alongside star Mexican winger Hirving Lozano. The depth may be an issue with San Diego, but giving a lot of players with MLS experience a chance to prove themselves has worked well in the past. It will be hard to reach the debut season success a team like St. Louis generated, but San Diego seems better than bottom-dwelling debuts like Austin and Charlotte.

Floor: Wooden Spoon

Ceiling: 6th place, win one playoff series

Player to watch: Hirving Lozano and Andres Dreyer (alongside most of the team)

3. FC Cincinnati

MLS introduced a new transfer system that allows interleague transfers for cash. Before, moves in between teams would be classed as “trades”, which lead to a lack of interleague movement. In this new system, a few very big moves were made, two coming from Cincinnati. The first: selling 2023 MVP Lucho Acosta to Dallas. The second: buying 2024 MVP candidate Evander from Portland. That was not where the movement ended from Cincinnati, however. After selling star attacker Alvaro Barreal to Brazilian side Santos, they picked up 24-year-old striker Kevin Denkey from Cercle Brugge. Cincinnati also acquired defenders Lukas Engel, Gilberto Flores, and Luca Orellano. Returning some players from their MLS experienced backline in Miles Robinson, Deandre Yedlin, and Roman Celentano, the Cincinnati roster looks very strong on paper, but raises question marks on the success of a fully re-worked starting 11.

Floor: 8th place, Wild Card loss

Ceiling: Win Supporters Shield, MLS Cup finalists

Player to watch: Evander

4. Portland Timbers

The other side of the Evander deal was the Portland Timbers. Portland replaced their star midfielder with two players. Kevin Kelsey from Shakhtar Donetsk and David Costa from RC Lens. Portland had a very poor start to the season in a 4-1 loss to Cascadia rivals Vancouver Whitecaps, but don’t expect that to define their season. An attack of Felipe Mora, a returning Jonathan Rodriguez, and Kevin Kelsey adds onto a strong roster that includes Maxime Crepeau, David Ayala, Kamal Miller, and Ari Lassiter. This side might struggle to click, but Portland have a knack to overperform and fly under the radar. Don’t be surprised if they sneak into the MLS Cup like they did in 2021.

Floor: 10th place, miss out on playoffs

Ceiling: 2nd place, MLS Cup finalists

Player to watch: David Costa

5. Atlanta United

The annual most interesting narrative is “What in the world is going on in Atlanta?” There has been an MLS Cup level roster in Georgia for the past 3 years but have only produced a 6th and 8th place finish. Atlanta started 2024 with Thiago Almada and Giorgos Giakoumakis before letting go of both in the summer of 2024. Atlanta would still go on to beat Inter Miami in the playoffs despite selling their two best players, before eventually losing to Orlando. In the winter, Atlanta would bring in two MVP level players. Emmanuel Latte Lath and the returning Miguel Almiron. None of their front six have more than three years of MLS experience, but there is still an MLS Cup-level roster in Atlanta. Head Coach Ronny Deila has won an MLS cup before and could very well bring this side back to the top, but Atlanta have become one of the least reliable and predictable teams in the continent. 

Floor: 11th place, return 0 star players in 2026

Ceiling: Win Supporters Shield, Eastern Conference finalists 

Player to watch: Emmanuel Latte Lath