the best, worst and most fun teams to watch in 2022 — by the numbers

For better and for worse, Major League Soccer is the ultimate “zig when they zag” soccer league. Instead of the typical August-to-May schedule, it goes from February to November. Instead of the customary 18- to 20-team league with round-robin scheduling and relegation, it just keeps on adding teams to the first division. (Hello, Charlotte FC, the league’s 28th new team. See you in a year, St. Louis.)

Capped spending in MLS means that it ends up with few standout teams, good or bad — it’s got plenty of Tottenhams and Crystal Palaces, but few Manchester Cities and Norwich Cities, if you will. While it does have the same chaotic, single-elimination FA Cup-style national tournament running throughout the league (the U.S. Open Cup makes its triumphant return at the end of the month after a two-year break due to the coronavirus pandemic), it also packs the most American of flourishes to the end of its season: a single-elimination playoff tournament that tends to assure that the league’s best team doesn’t actually win the league.

MLS is raucous, weird and increasingly well-followed, and it doesn’t follow the accepted rules that soccer tends to set. Its 27th season has only just begun, so let’s set some expectations for 2022.

– MLS on ESPN+: Stream LIVE games, replays (U.S.)
– Soccer on ESPN+: FC Daily | Futbol Americas
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Which teams are likely to rule the land?

Last season, the five best teams of the MLS regular season were the New England Revolution (2.1 points per game), Colorado Rapids (1.8), Seattle Sounders (1.8), Sporting Kansas City (1.7) and Portland Timbers (1.6). None won the MLS Cup.

In 2020, there was a different top five: the Philadelphia Union (2), Toronto FC (1.9), Sporting KC (1.9), the Columbus Crew (1.8) and Orlando City (1.8). The Crew won MLS Cup. The year before that, it was Los Angeles FC (2.1), New York City FC (1.9), Atlanta United (1.7), Seattle (1.7), and Philadelphia (1.6), and Seattle won the MLS Cup.