Let's hit the 2016 highlights so that we can get to the real story.

2016 Highlights

Seattle rode midseason addition Nicolas Lodeiro to an 8-4-2 record (28 pts, +8 GD) and their first ever MLS Cup.





In the finals they beat a suddenly-not-embarrassing Toronto FC team who had to overcome a 3-0 deficit to Montreal Impact in the semi-finals. That seemed to use up all their run-good however, as they were stymied by their former keeper Stefan Frei in the finals.

Both teams return almost all of their key players, with Seattle also getting Clint Dempsey back from a heart irregularity, and enter the 2017 season as 2 of the favorites for 2017 MLS Cup.


In the "Other Competitions" FC Dallas won their first trophy in almost 20 years as US Open Cup champs, and Toronto FC won their 5th Canadian Championship.





These two will join Seattle Sounders, Colorado Rapids, and New York Red Bulls in the 2017-18 CONCACAF Champions League.


Offseason Moves

The story of the offseason was the number of prime-age acquisitions joining MLS. Just a few examples:

Tito Villalba - 22 - Atlanta United FC
Miguel Almiron - 23 - Atlanta United FC
Josef Martinez - 23 - Atlanta United FC
Yamil Asad - 22 - Atlanta United FC
Carlos Carmona - 29 - Atlanta United FC
Nemanja Nikolic - 29 - Chicago Fire
Juninho - 28 - Chicago Fire
Jonathan Mensah - 26 - Columbus Crew SC
Cristian Colmán - 22 - FC Dallas
Carlos Cermeño - 21 - FC Dallas
Anibal Chalá - 20 - FC Dallas
Alberth Elis - 21 - Houston Dynamo
Romain Alessandrini - 27 - Los Angeles Galaxy
Francisco Calvo - 24 - Minnesota United FC
Josh Gatt - 25 - Minnesota United FC
Antonio Mlinar Delamea - 25 - New England Revolution
Miguel Camargo - 23 - New York City FC
Maximiliano Moralez - 29 - New York City FC
Alexander Ring - 25 - New York City FC
Yangel Herrera - 19 - New York City FC
David Guzman - 26 - Portland Timbers
Sebastian Blanco - 28 - Portland Timbers
Harold Cummings - 25 - San Jose Earthquakes
Marcos Ureña - 26 - San Jose Earthquakes
Jahmir Hyka - 28 - San Jose Earthquakes
Chris Mavinga - 25 - Toronto FC
Yordy Reyna - 23 - Vancouver Whitecaps
Fredy Montero - 29 - Vancouver Whitecaps


All of those players are DPs and/or have caps for their respective national teams, so there are a number of other promising players in their early-to-mid 20s who joined this offseason as well. And that is also leaving out a handful of 30+ established players returning to MLS like Jonathan Spector or Roy Miller.


New Teams

Awwwwww yeah. I've waited years for this, and now it's all coming to reality.



We've got an owner throwing cash around like it doesn't matter.



He's poured about a billion of that cash into a new stadium.





And the fans have rewarded him with nearly 30,000 season tickets sold to date.

We've got a coach whose last 2 gigs were Barcelona and the Argentine National Team. We've got 3 young DPs from South America. We've got capped internationals at every starting position. We've got the best young American prospect in the game, the Powder Springs Pulisic.

In all, we've got the most exciting team in MLS history according to some.

And hopefully we can make the playoffs.


There's also a team from Minnesota who are building in a more standard (read: boring) MLS way. They do have a real nice logo though.





2017 MLS Cup Odds
https://www.888sport.com/football/fo...otball/usa/mls
+400 Toronto FC
+500 Seattle Sounders
+500 New York Red Bulls
+700 FC Dallas
+700 Los Angeles Galaxy
+1000 Colorado Rapids
+1500 Sporting Kansas City
+2000 DC United
+2000 Portland Timbers
+2500 New York City FC
+4000 Philadelphia Union
+5000 Montreal Impact
+5000 Real Salt Lake
+6600 New England Revolution
+6600 Vancouver Whitecaps
+7500 Columbus Crew SC
+7500 Orlando City SC
+7500 San Jose Earthquakes
+8000 Chicago Fire
+10000 Houston Dynamo
+13000 Atlanta United FC
+20000 Minnesota United FC


If I'm making bets, FC Dallas has a ton of talent that is familiar with each other and a fantastic coach. It also feels like Montreal is not getting enough love at 50:1 given how close they were to making MLS Cup last year. Yes, Drogba's gone, but he wasn't a major factor by the end of 2016 anyway.


It's gonna be a good year.

Let's MLS.

Let me know when the meaningless regular season is over and the final happens. More than half the league still make the playoffs?

ya pretty happy that they finally did something, and that it was a proven player like Montero they were able to nab. did not expect that. this has the potential to be very nice indeed.



pretty sure i was there for the goal at 1:26, and that he had 2 that night lol

if Reyna can play it could be interesting this year. also some rumours linking them to Canadian CM Atiba Hutchinson, in the summer window i assume, but that seems like a stretch. i mean he just scored in Europa League the other day, think he can still find good paying jobs over there. was also some random Honduran international we were also linked with, that seems more reasonable.



plus options like Reyna, Andrew Jacobson (who might start in place of Teibert), David Edgar (when he returns from injury), rookie Jake Nerwinski (who apparently had a good preseason), and of course superstar in training Alphonso Davies, among others ... starting to resemble a real team!

+1 on both

Dallas seem super stacked once again, one of these years they have to put it all together

and yeah Montreal were much better with Mancosu than Drogba last year

I lived in Peru for a year so follow their NT quite a bit. Yordy Reyna was brilliant for their u20 team when they made a run in one of those SA competitions. Pretty cool to see he's in MLS. I'll definitely be making a point to watch when he's on tv. Good little player who has the potential to be really good.

Champions League returns this week with the start of the KO round

Those games on Facebook Live or available anywhere? Don't think I get Univision (if that's what UDN is). Wouldn't mind watching RBNY v. Yordy Reyna

Here for the ATLANTA UNITED

FB was streaming the group games, so yeah they very well might be doing the same for the KO rounds

Atlanta United, hope we don't blow a big halftime lead in the mls cup

update: Montero, Bolanos, Mezquida, and Reyna will all miss out tomorrow


'Caps will almost certainly do their bunker down away thing now, but it could be fun if Alphonso Davies gets the start on the wing opposite Kekuta Manneh

ATL at that price is tremendous value. According to Transfermarkt, they have the 3rd most valuable roster in the league (basically tied for 2nd with LAG).

Minnesota OTOH is dead last and Houston not too far ahead.

Ah this is disappointing. I was talking myself into taking a ride up to see Reyna

will miss like half the season at least

this is obv all your fault, LFC

3-0 NYRB

don't even know if i should bother...

FML

Was genuinely looking forward to watching him and even considering getting the tv package

Is there a youtube live stream (or legit stream) for this?

nm looks like it's on Facebook Live. Carry on

LOL RBNY. This game smh

and some LOL Sascha picking up right where we left off last year. Maybe he shouldn't be on pens anymore. That was an absolutely pathetic effort

BWP the hotness. Nice finish

I guess you could make an argument Atlanta shouldn't be 130:1 based on talent, but man it's hard to be an expansion team. Definitely think they'll be better than 130:1 during the season because they'll get a few wins, but not sure they're true odds are really that much better.

Hoping to be wrong though. We did just beat "Seattle" 4-2 though!

Losing Yordy sucks. I was really looking forward to watching him

1-1, guess i have no choice but to take it

they'll probably still find a way to screw up the home leg though

I got 150/1 for $25

Meh, with the new playoff format you just hope to make the playoffs, then it's a crapshoot from there. The first year of the format, Portland won it as a 3 seed in the West, and last year the final match was the West 4 seed beating the East 3 seed. So even earning the bye is not super valuable. Teams with the bye were 3-1 in their first tie in the playoffs 2 years ago, but only 1-3 last year, and as mentioned, 3 of the 4 MLS Cup participants have been non-bye teams as well as both champions.

I figure ATL has a solid shot of at least making the playoffs, and have a huge advantage over Minnesota by virtue of being in the East. Although maybe the balance of power has shifted a bit between the conferences. I haven't looked at the rosters too closely yet.

FC Dallas should smash Árabe Unido tonight to ensure 2 MLS teams in the semis, but I guess you never know. How the **** did Monterrey even lose to them twice in the group stage? Monterrey has 18 players who are individually more valuable on the markt than Unido's entire roster.

If there was an easy way to hedge "field" during the season I'm sure you would end up ahead on this.

Yeah, this is all entirely fair. Just trying to not get too hyped. The early season is not easy.

NYRB
@MNU
CHI
@SEA
@TFC
@MTL

That's probably 4 of the top-7 teams to kick things off (3 on the road), mixed with a home opener for the other expansion side and (thankfully) Chicago at home. Feels like anything over 7 points in the first 6 games is going to be a huge win.