It is almost the time to start another MLS season, since the teams seek to catch the Los Angeles Galaxy that won the MLS Cup last season. With the San Diego FC joining the league as a 30th team before the 30th season of the League, things will look a bit different, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. Cucho Hernández is now back in the league, Miguel Almiron returned to Atlanta United, and the legend of Argentina Javier Mascherano is now the coach of Inter Miami.
With the sides of the MLS finishing the preseason and starting the game of the Concacaf Champions Cup this week, it is a good time to take a look why to know before the season began on February 22.
Where do the prolific 10 go?
At the end of last season, MVP finalist Evander published a thread on X on why he no longer wants to play for Portland Timbers due to broken promises. While that was eliminated, it has not yet moved, and with the new mechanisms of the MLS list about being able to pay in cash for the players inside the league, it is now realistic that a designated player moves nationwide where They would probably have gone abroad. There are some reasons why Evander, MVP finalist with 15 goals and 19 assists, has not moved and that is due to a dominoes around the League.
Atlanta United was able to fill her void in 10 bringing back to Miguel Almiron de Newcastle United, but another team that could be in the mixture is FC Cincinnati. Now they have seen Lucho Acosta move to FC Dallas in a historical movement for the league. It is a movement of $ 5 million with the potential of another million in accessories financed by the new cash rule for MLS players. In previous seasons, someone like Acosta would not move without going abroad and return to the MLs as he did when he left DC United, but now, the teams can be compensated quite a lot by their stars, maintaining the best talent in the league . Since Evander is younger than Acosta, there is no reason why a rate for him is not similar, if not higher, but it is also clear that we have entered a new era inside the league with former exchange equipment of exchange of MVPS
Change in Los Angeles
After winning the MLS Cup last season, the Galaxy will now look a little different. Not only Riqui Puig is still injured, which will exert more pressure on Marco Reus, but the star striker leaves Joveljic and his 21 regular seasonal goals are now leading the line for the sport of Kansas City. The galaxy could add a new striker in Christian Rameriez joining from the Columbus crew, but now it is the attack by Joseph Paintsil and Gabriel Pec. The duo has shown that the leaders can be in this attack, but the expectations will be higher than ever after the galaxy returned to the top of the MLS last season. The new version of the midfield of adding Lucas Sanabria, Elijah Wynder and Sean Davis should be enough to maintain the galaxy at the top of the West, but will have a lot of competition from their Crosstown rivals.
Mateusz Boguz has left the LAFC after they received an offer that could not reject Cruz Azul, but he is not the only game with Illie Sánchez, Stipe Buik, Omar Campos and some other players who leave. This is nothing new for black and gold, which have become accustomed to replacing multiple key players year after year, and the addition of Jeremy Ebobisse could add a lot to the attack. Olivier Giroud has not yet started running in the MLS, so knowing that there is a reliable striker behind him will be important with more pressure than ever about his leader Denis Bouanga. If you can keep this team at the top, it will be a key rival for Lionel Messi as a candidate for MVP, but when scanning the league for the biggest rivals for Inter Miami, both reside in Los Angeles.
Can Inter Miami recover?
It cannot be denied that last season was a disappointment for Inter Miami. Despite winning the followers’s shield and establishing a new record of a season with 74 points during the regular season, the Heron fought in the playoffs, being knocked out in the first round to Atlanta United. But it was not the absence of the MVP of the Messi League that slowed the brotherhoods during parts of the season, Sergio Busquets was actually missing that he left the defense without an answer for the approaching attacks. Under the new leadership of Javier Mascherano, this is something that Heron will need to discover how to handle if injuries arise.
Federico Redondo will have more time to his credit with the new firm of Fablasco Segovia. But it is difficult to judge Miami. Many teams will surround in the League, but the regular season almost doesn’t matter when a team will be judged that will be tried by cutlery. One of the only two teams that participate in three competitions that are not from the League with the Club World Cup, the Liga Cup and the Concacaf Champions Cup, this is a list that will run to its limits. Jordi Alba, Luis Suarez, Messi and Busquets are all older and Mascherano has a great job in his hands handling that while balancing the various competitions.
Chicago in the ascent
Almost the second in which Gregg Berhalter was hired as general manager and coach chief of the Chicago fire, had to reach the bottom of discovering his list with decisions about who would retain the fire. With the season around the corner, it has not yet stopped with the fire as one of the most active teams in the open market during the low season. In Hugo Cuypers, the fire already has a bonus star to build, but during the low season, Berhalter has shown one of its key attributes that helped the national male team of the United States: recruitment.
Adding to Jack Elliott, Jonathan Bamba, Philip Zinckernagel and Sam Rogers, this team does not resemble the fire that the playoffs was lost last season. Berhalter has a difficult job ahead so that these players get on the same page, but if you can do that, it is clear to see who will be the most improved MLS side, and it would be clear in the race for the coach of the year as well. We have seen the fire spend in the past without having results to show it, but this low season feels different.
