The regular season was defined by …
If last season was defined by Lionel Messi, this one was about Inter Miami as a whole. The club built the plane as they were flying it, stretching the MLS rulebook to its absolute limit as it added players, shedded others, and ended the season with the best-ever points total in league history. Big spending and sporting success haven’t usually gone hand-in-hand in MLS, but 2024 was the year that Miami showed that era is well and truly over. AA
More fun, interesting teams than we’ve ever seen take the field in a single MLS season. In the league’s 29th campaign, four teams averaged at least 1.87 points per game (which translates to at least a 64-point pace across the existing 34-game schedule) for the first time. Hats off to Miami, Columbus, LAFC, and the Galaxy. JL
Inter Miami chasing – and achieving – history. Even when Messi wasn’t there over the summer, it was about whether Tata Martino could keep his team on track for the Supporters’ Shield. That Inter Miami were able to maintain consistent form over the full season says a lot about their impressive squad-building. It’s not all about Messi, as it turns out. GR
Best team that didn’t make the playoffs …
It’s pretty clear that the Philadelphia Union are a much better team than they showed this year. They still have a lot of talent, a productive academy system, and most of the key figures that made them a 2022 MLS Cup finalist and consistent threat for the last several years. The defending was too haphazard in 2024 though, resulting in a lot of lost leads – a league-worst 27 points dropped from winning positions. AA
You have to be pretty darn bad – or pretty darn unlucky – to miss the playoffs in a league where 62% of teams make the postseason. The Philadelphia Union, who finished with the eighth-best xG differential in the league according to FBref, probably fall into that latter category. JL
2024 could have been very different for FC Dallas had they been able to get their best players on the pitch more often. Injuries hit the Texans hard. Two (Alan Velasco and Jesus Ferreira) of their three Designated Players played under 1,400 minutes over the campaign. Even Petar Musa, who scored 16 goals, was bitten by a Frisco injury bug that compromised Dallas’s season. GR
Your dark horses are …
In the West: Vancouver. Wednesday’s 5-0 thrashing of…