Best XI, Awards Ballot & final Power Rankings vote of the year!

Here was my awards ballot for 2025:

• MVP: Leo Messi

Messi’s everything you want in a DP. If anything he cares too much. Take a sub every now and again, dude.

• Defender of the Year: Michael Boxall

There were three guys on the Union who all had an argument, which… kind of took away from the overall argument.

In the end I went with Boxall for the same reason I voted Steven Moreira last year: he is essential to what they were as a (very successful) team, not just in terms of quality but in terms of how he played the position. What he brought couldn’t really be imitated by anyone else. “Box dominance and long throws” is who Minnesota are, and no one did more to make them so.

• Goalkeeper of the Year: Dayne St. Clair

The rubric I use for GKotY is “best underlying numbers + legit good team + eye test.”

DSC passed all three of those tests. Sean Johnson was excellent this year but TFC weren’t, so… that’s that.

• Coach of the Year: Jesper Sørensen

Any other year Mikey Varas is the easy pick, but to me Sørensen might’ve just logged the single most-impressive season of any coach in MLS history. Not just making two finals (and winning) one, or putting up 63 points, or surviving a half-dozen injuries that would’ve killed most teams1. Not just developing early-career guys like Pedro Vite (who was subsequently sold), Jayden Nelson and Seb Berhalter, or truly young guys like Rayan Elloumi, Jeevan Badawl and Tate Johnson, or slotting in a legendary veteran like Thomas Müller while changing the team’s shape. Or the fact that he did that all on the fly.

It’s that he did all of the above while also overhauling the game model to make the ‘Caps one of the most progressive and resilient teams in the league, and the one that did the best against other playoff-caliber sides. Even, as was the case this weekend, when down to 10 men.2

Varas did an incredible job; as I said, most years he’s the easy pick. B.J. Callaghan and Bradley Carnell are worthy of mentions, and would be deserving winners during many seasons.

Sørensen was a cut above. The season he just put in as a coach is as special as the season Messi just logged as a player. I’m serious.

• Newcomer of the Year: Anders Dreyer

Dude almost became the first player to put up a 20/20, and almost became the third player to put up 40 goal contributions.

Almost any other year (2015, 2019 and maaaaybe 2002 are the only exceptions) and he’s the MVP.

• Young Player: Owen Wolff? Alex Freeman? Olwethu Makhanya? Obed Vargas? Diego Luna? Chris Brady? Quinn Sullivan? Brian Gutierrez? Jack McGlynn?

So this was different from my 22 Under 22 vote, which I weighted more towards overall accomplishment rather than the young player who had the biggest impact in MLS – just MLS – this season.

I strongly considered Wolff, who was the best player on a playoff team full of veteran underachievers, and Brady, who was one of the handful of best goalkeepers in the league. Obed and Makhanya are two high-level starters on two of the six-best teams in the league, while Luna has had to be the focal point of a team in constant flux and fighting for their playoff lives. Sullivan and Gutierrez were both briefly considered, as was McGlynn.

In the end Freeman was the choice for both how he inspired a tactical change from Orlando, and then for how he made that change worth it.3

Actual Best XI:

Note that, like everyone else, I submitted my Best XI. Unfortunately the positional definitions were so rigid that I couldn’t submit what I felt was the actual best XI from this season, which you can find below:

• GK: DSC
• DEF: Najar, Boxall, Glesnes, Wagner
• MID: Tvserkov, Berhalter, Messi
• FWD: Dreyer, Surridge, Bouanga

It’s a 4-2-3-14 with Messi as the 10. The only tough choices here were Andy Najar over Freeman at RB and Jeppe Tverskov over Danley Jean-Jacques at d-mid.

I also stuck with my usual cut-off of 2000 minutes, and generally try to have as few players from non-playoff teams as possible in any of these teams.

Second XI:

• GK: Johnson
• DEF: Freeman, Malanda, Blackmon, Alba
• MID: Jean-Jacques, Roldan, Evander
• FWD: Ojeda, Musa, Hany

At one point Tristan Blackmon had the inside track on DotY for me, but the way Vancouver just kept chugging along after his injury knocked him out of the running and down to the 2nd team here.

Also, note that I am getting slightly wonky with the positions: I have Martin Ojeda as a right winger, when in reality he’s a 10 who drifts to the left. And I have Hany as a left winger, when in reality he’s a 2nd forward who roams. But the point is I would still be entirely comfortable playing this XI together.

Also note that I think Cristian Roldan is a better player than Berhalter or Tvserkov, and had a better year overall. But the 8 points in the league standings matters for the first-team/second-team cut-off.

Third XI:

• GK: Coronel
• DEF: Palencia, Ragen, Robinson, Markanich
• MID: Nagbe, Delgado, Gil
• FWD: Zinckernagel, Martinez, Rossi

It’s kind of incredible that the ‘Caps have such little representation on these teams, but guys like Brian White, Ranko Veselinovic and Andres Cubas just missed the minutes cut-off, while Edier Ocampo and Mathias Laborda just weren’t quite good enough to crack the top 3.

Hardest call for this team was Alonso Martinez over Hugo Cuypers at the 9. The rest of it all kind of fell into place, including Miles Robinson – forever extinguishing fires the Cincy midfield starts – on the backline.

Also, Anthony Markanich is the Dennis Rodman of set piece second balls.

This is a little redundant since the year is over and I’ve already filed my annual playoff tiers piece, which you can find here:

• 2025 MLS Cup Playoffs tiers: How do teams stack up?

You get a pretty good sense, from that, of where I think these teams truly stand.

That said, I’m a completionist by nature, and I’ve been doing this particular weekly update all year long. Not gonna stop now.

So for the final time in 2025, here’s my vote for this week’s MLSsoccer.com Power Rankings:

1. Inter Miami: Do I think they’re the best team? No. But they’re close to the best, and they have Leo Messi. And that’s enough.

2. Vancouver Whitecaps: This is actually the team that I think is the best, but they are missing each of their top five center backs to start the playoffs. I think they’ll beat FC Dallas anyway, it I wouldn’t be totally shocked if Dallas shithouse just enough and Petar Musa dominates in the box and that’s that.5

3. LAFC: Kind of scuffled to the finish line. I’m curious to see if they’ll handle Austin’s approach – mirroring the 3-4-2-1 – better in the playoffs than they did two weeks ago (without Son and Bouanga, to be fair).6

4. Philadelphia Union: Only one home loss all year. I don’t think they’re as good as Nashville or the Sounders, but home field advantage matters.

5. Seattle Sounders: The Pedro de la Vega injury is devastating. He’s been a high-level match-winner in big games, and is one of the few wingers they have who reliably beats guys 1v1 then turns that into end product.

6. Nashville SC: I still think they’re really good, but holy hell was that second half brutal. Slightly worried!

7. San Diego FC: Chucky Lozano missed the Decision Day win at Portland game via “an internal situation we’re working through.” Excellent season, excellent game model, very good team. But that doesn’t sound promising.

8. FC Cincinnati: They won one of their final six games against Eastern Conference playoff teams. I don’t think that’s a mirage.7

9. NYCFC: Faced a woodchipper of a schedule over the second half of the season and mostly acquitted themselves well, but lost three of their final four (4-0 to Miami, 1-0 at Philly, and then 2-1 at home to the Sounders). Feels like they’re a year and one more high-level attacking piece away from true contention.

10. Chicago Fire: Did you know they have only two losses in league play since early July? Definitely left points on the table over the final two weeks, but they earned that spot above the line.

11. Columbus Crew: Man I thought they looked really good over the final two matchdays of the season. And if Daniel Gazdag has suddenly remembered where the goal is…

12. Club Social, Cultural y Deportivo Charlotte: If Kristjian Kahlina gets on a heater they can go far. But folks, this team posted a negative xG differential this season, and are without two of their three match-winners (in attack) for the first game of the first round. Be wary.

13. FC Dallas: Everything since Lucho left has been so impressive. That includes the way they’re rediscovering their roots by getting more homegrowns onto the field in big moments.

14. Minnesota United: They’ve lost their way and are flailing a bit with this new 4-4-2 with dual false 9s.8

15. Austin FC: The idea is to just strap in, try to be tough to play against, and then find a winner on either the break or set pieces.

16. Real Salt Lake: Somehow a 3W-6L-1D record down the stretch was good enough to sneak in. If they were playing anyone but Portland I’d expect their postseason journey to last 90 minutes. But against the Timbers? They’ve got a shot.

17. Orlando City: Down to their 4th-string d-mid and it’s showing. Lost Robin Jansson and it’s showing. Pedro Gallese’s playing maybe the worst ball of his career, and Luis Muriel has disappeared. Feels like their season ended against Miami in the Leagues Cup semis.

18. Portland Timbers: One win in their last 16 against playoff teams, a streak that worryingly includes a home loss to RSL.

19. San Jose Earthquakes: When they kept dropping late points this summer Bruce Arena kept saying “these are the kinds of things that will keep us out of the playoffs.” He was right.

20. LA Galaxy: Record since June 1 across all comps: 11W-8L-6D. They’re a playoff team again next year – and potentially more than that if Riqui’s 100%.

21. Colorado Rapids: Never developed the CBs they needed to, and never figured out how to stop the ball through central midfield. Awful late goal to concede and see their season end.

22. RBNY: That Philly win two months ago was the high point. Won just once in their final seven and looked like a team happy to hit the offseason.

23. St. Louis City: If they don’t have a CSO then why are huge decisions – like signing Roman Burki to a DP extension – being made? That’s not trivial.9

24. Toronto FC: Only one loss since July and closed out the year with one of their very best performances of 2025. Things are pointing in the right direction.

25. New England Revolution: Appreciation post for Carles Gil. What a player.

26. Montreal Impact: How much of a rebuild will this be?

27. Houston Dynamo: This one should be a BIG rebuild.

28. Sporting KC: Even bigger.

29. Atlanta United: Ronny Deila out. Tata Martino in? There is smoke, and where there is smoke, there is fire.10

30. D.C. United: And now the great experiment begins.

Some notes:

• Wiebe and I are still doing most of the match previews during the playoffs. They’re fun, and we try to treat them like 4-minute versions of Extratime. You can find them on AppleTV if you navigate to the game tile.

• The post-mortems are slowly trickling out for the teams that failed to qualify for the post-season. Here’s the West, and here’s the East.

There’s obviously more to come in the weeks ahead. And I’m toying with the idea of doing a more comprehensive team-by-team wrap (and 2026 lookahead) here as a series during the offseason, just as a way to keep up the weekly cadence.

• I filled in for Alexis on Monday’s episode of The Cooligans, which you can catch on Yahoo! Sports or any of the usual pod-catchers. Spoiler alert: Christian and I figured out a plan to make him a billionaire. It’s gonna work!

• I’m going to write one more newsletter this week with my playoff bracket. Look for that Wednesday afternoon.

• And finally, I went on Soccerwise last week to revisit my preseason over/under lines and predictions. Really, really enjoyed that show, and will be doing Kickback tomorrow with Gass and Sooz.