Season 23 of MLS kicks off with a clear favorite. You could say Toronto FC won the domestic treble last year: Canadian Championship, Supporters Shield, and MLS Cup champs. Years and years of underachievement are all forgotten as the big-spending Reds finally came through with top honors, with key signing Victor Vazquez providing the consistent link to spring Sebastian Giovinco and co to a record season point total in 2017.



The only other team defending silverware are Sporting KC, who continued their trophy winning ways under Peter Vermes in 2017 with another Lamar Hunt US Open Cup.

And as the rest of the league wound down preseason this February, 5 MLS teams have already started official competition with the Concacaf Champions League. The quarterfinal stage will continue in March with Toronto, Red Bulls, and Seattle still alive with ties versus Mexican clubs Tigres, Tijuana, and Chivas, respectively.



23 seasons, and now 23 teams. Welcome LAFC, looking to rise from the ashes of Chivas USA and provide a competent foil to the Galaxy in LA. Welcome Banc of California Stadium, centrally located up the Harbor Freeway from Carson’s Stubhub Center. Welcome Mexican Superstar Carlos Vela. And welcome back Bob Bradley.



The other new venue this season will be the new home of DC United, who are abandoning its perennial home RFK for Audi Field in July.

Speaking of original 8 teams making a change, will this be the final season for the Crew in Columbus? Through an agreement with the league not previously disclosed to the public, it seems owner Anthony Precourt has both the means and desire to move them to Austin Texas for the 2019 season. Expect to see #SavetheCrew trending frequently this season.

For the first time in a long time, 2017 saw the rise of the Eastern conference dominance. We saw marked improvements from Chicago Fire and New York City, respectively led by Golden Boot winner Nemanja Nikolic and runner-up David Villa. Also, this is thanks in no small part to Tata Martino’s Atlanta United.

In their inaugural seasons last year, while Minnesota disappointed Atlanta grabbed all the headlines. Not only did they set all kinds of attendance records, they shone on the field as well, led by South American imports Miguel Almiron and Josef Martinez. As it is monkey see, monkey do in this league, several other teams have looked for younger talent down south. Some of the new faces to look for in 2018 include :

Ezequiel Barco, M, Atlanta United - ** record-breaking transfer of $15 million** The Argentine teenager will miss the start of the season, but never has there been more buzz around a player *starting* their career in MLS
Josue Colman, M, Orlando City
Kaku Gamarra, New York Red Bulls
Felipe Gutierrez, M, Sporting Kansas City
Efrain Juarez, D, Vancouver Whitecaps
Santiago Mosquera, M, FC Dallas
Andy Polo, W, Portland Timbers
Diego Rossi, W, LAFC
Saphir Taider,, M, Montreal Impact
Gregory van der Wiel, D, Toronto FC

...and a few new managers

Colorado Rapids-- Anthony Hudson, recent New Zealand manager
Montreal Impact-- Remi Garde, formerly of Lyon and Aston Villa
New England Revolution-- Brad Friedel, in his coaching debut
Portland Timbers-- Giovanni Savarese, 3 time NASL(RIP) champ with NY Cosmos
San Jose Earthquakes-- Mikael Stahre, experienced Swedish guy


One final storyline for 2018: will USMNT goat Chris Wondolowski become the MLS GOAT (goalscorer, at least)? The current SJ Earthquake is currently sitting on 134 MLS goals, starting the season 11 behind former Earthquake, Evertonian, Galaxy, USMNT GOAT, and Liga MX retiree league signee Landon Donovan.






5dimes lines for MLS Cup

Toronto FC +350
Atlanta United +750
Seattle Sounders +800
New York City FC +1000
Portland Timbers +1200
FC Dallas +1600
LA Galaxy +1700
New York Red Bulls +1800
Houston Dynamo +2000
Sporting Kansas City +2000
Columbus Crew +2500
Chicago Fire +2500
Vancouver Whitecaps +3300
Los Angeles FC +3500
Orlando City +3500
Montreal Impact +3500
Real Salt Lake +4500
San Jose Earthquakes +5000
Colorado Rapids +5500
Philadelphia Union +6500
New England Revolution +6500
Minnesota United +7000
DC United +7000



It all starts again Saturday. Let’s mls.

Taken from last year's thread, only going back through last year's thread.


Atlanta
CDL
dkgojackets
hard2tel
JudgeHoldem
mmbt0ne
TJEckleburg12

Chicago Fire
iron81

Colorado Rapids
702guy?

#SavetheCrew
flabucki09

FC Dallas
candykreep
UpnAdam720?

Montreal Impact
El Rata
Fossilkid93
vomit

New England Revs (RIP)
BobboFitos
Green Kool Aid

New York Red Bulls
LFC_USA

Philadelphia Union
lacticacid

Portland Timbers
Rapid_Fire

San Jose Earthquakes
Klingbard

Sporting KC
mutigers
Schlitz mmmm

Toronto FC
lumberajack
MediocrePlayer2.0
bigt2k4?

Vancouver Whitecaps
72off
Bobo Fett


who'd i miss?

In for the LOLs and Gio dominance with some ATL GOAT on top

I think you got the wrong odds on LA Galaxy, should be +17000 not +1700

Look for Marc Rzatkowski to make an impact for RBNY. He's a good player.

nice OP


so Vancouver has signed Jordan Mutch on loan. he was a decent EPL like 5 years ago. more recently he's done nothing, which explains how he ended up here.

they also traded CB Tim Parker to NYRB for Felipe and $500k in allocation money. the money will probably be used for more random MLS jobber trash like Felipe, or nothing. probably the latter.

Parker is a decent player, but probably overrated, and now overpaid. probably a good move to lock down a young, American career MLS CB though. doubt he'll be going anywhere, like Miazga. anyway, look for Parker to be a bigger part of the USMNT now that he plays for a team in New York, rather than the obscurity of Vancouver. unless he sucks and gets exposed there, then not so much.

I got a chance to see the US u17s play against the Atlanta silverbacks in 2017. Sargent, Carleton, goslin, etc. The most impressive player imo was Chris durkin (dc United). Hope that kid gets playing time. He’s strong and very stable

Lineups are out for the first game, rematch of the Eastern Conference Finals:






And, games in the US are free on MLS Live, until they get their new streaming service with ESPN sorted out:

Sign up here if you don't already have an account from previous years.

the rest of today's lineup:

Atlanta at Houston, 3:30 pm, Univision
New England at Philadelphia, 7 pm
DC United at Orlando, 7:30 pm
Salt Lake at Dallas, 8 pm
Minnesota at San Jose, 10:30 pm

Seattle/LAFC on ESPN
SKC/NYCFC & LAG/Portland on FS1

great OP.

nice goal


Lol TFC

Well it doesn't appear the goalkeeping standard in this league has improved in the off-season. How do you not save that?

it's a salary cap league


what's Plop's excuse?

helluva ball by Santos

Shame, I had Michael Bradley in the 1st LFC_USA rant pool.

more lololol TFC

season off to a strong start

think I like Zardes a lot more as a 9 than a winger fwiw

Giovinco still good though...

loltidore

Seemed like Vasquez got injured as well, so now TFC have an excuse when they get pumped by Tigres

Oh well, they'll always have 2017...

The team whose kept a clean sheet in 3 of their last 4 games? Karius has been quite good. LOL at mentioning the 2nd best team in the 2nd best league itw in the MLS thread

houston dynamo: liquid football.

Bump

Most people can get the game on Univision and English commentary by playing with your audio settings.

Talking about the season bro. Gio GOATness will once again overcome Bradley and loltidore WIL.

Since you felt compelled to quote and call me out will offer you action on either of these teams h2h against a team of your choosing for a season long bet. Pick any 2 teams and choose which when you want h2h v ATL and which h2h v TOR. I'll even spot you the first week

PHILLIPE SENDEROS

should be like 6-1 already

(andrew) WENGER IN

might be a long year for minnesota. but so far, so good. hard for me to remember a better team goal from San Jose.