Preseason Predictions for SKC and MLS

The 2025 MLS Season is starting. By the time you read this, games will either be imminent or already underway. Every year we see MLS pundits predict where teams will finish and other various precognitions. We thought why not do the same here for fun? We asked our staff to make a few predictions with no limit on length or format. Answer which ones they wanted with as much or as little as they wanted. Where will Sporting Kansas City finish? Who will win the west? Which team will earn the Wooden Spoon? Who will win MLS Cup? Who will be Sporting KC’s MVP? Make a wild and a “safe” prediction.

Read these and leave a comment with your thoughts and predictions.

Robert Rusert

SKC places 11th, after considering the 6 and the central defender positions, I am moving away from my Shades of Blue podcast prediction of playoffs for SKC.

Joveljic will lead the team in scoring, but Garcia will lead in goal contributions and be a dark horse contender for MLS Newcomer of the Year and will win SKC MVP.

The west will be won by LAFC with Seattle close on their heels.

The popular pick for the wooden spoon is TFC, why break tradition?!

MLS cup will be won by Inter Miami , as they fix their defensive issues from ’24.

Safe prediction is SKC will frustrate fans most of the season.

Wild prediction is that games SKC players will miss due to hamstring injuries will be less than 15.

Jacob Adams

SKC will finish 5th in the West: Manu and Dejan add much need quality to the attack to pair with Thommy, but defense will let us down and will drop needed points to make a push for a top 4 spot.

Who will win west: LAFC has been consistently a top team.

Wooden spoon: St.Louis just haven’t found a true culture or style of play and not enough activity in the winter window.

MLS cup winners: Seattle Sounders: I don’t like the sound of the Sounders winning, but something about their roster fits the mold to win the cup.

SKC MVP: Manu Garcia, Peter and Burns went and got him for a reason, and Peter has good history of signing good 10 (Thommy, Kinda, Benny).

Wild Prediction: Miami misses out on the playoffs, no explanation needed. and a “safe” prediction: Galaxy don’t make playoffs because of salary cap issues and can’t fill a line-up of quality

Jough Donakowski

Okay! Sporting should be better this year. But that doesn’t mean everyone else won’t improve also. I can’t see a dramatic jump happening, even with some moderately exciting signings. The defense is still a question mark to me, and so is consistent form. I think Sporting finishes ninth in an up and down season and gets bounced in the wild card game.I liked Jake Davis last year and I will like Jake Davis this year. He can get it done on offense and defense and that’s an asset that Sporting will need. Either LA team is really good but I think LA FC has the edge. I think LAFC wins the west. I think San Jose just looked helpless last year, and I don’t think they got much help. San Jose wins the wooden spoon. I’m going to go with Inter Miami to win the Supporter’s Shield. Let’s say the LA Galaxy winds up in good form and win the MLS Cup.

Wild bet: Saint Louis goes far in the playoffs, conference semi-finals or maybe even finals.

Safe bet: It’s another high goals per game season, with more than 3.0 average goals across the league across the season.

Carrie Robinson

SKC – 8th
Wins the west: Seattle
Wooden spoon: Toronto
MLS Cup: Cincinnati
SKC MVP: Manu García
SKC Dark Horse: Stephen Afrifa

Safe Prediction: 11 goals for Dejan Joveljic
Wild Prediction: Our pk drought will be broken by Jacob Bartlett

Stacy Fulk

Predictions:
SKC in West: 7th
Win West: Seattle
Wooden Spoon: Toronto
MLS Cup: Atlanta
SKC MVP: Joveljic
Wild Prediction: Chicago make the playoffs for the first time since 2017 with a Top 5 finish in the East
Safe Prediction: Miami repeat as Supporters Shield winners

Juan Cisneros

SKC: I’m bouncing back-and-forth between whether SKC will make or miss the playoffs, but I’ll go with finishing 9th and sneaking in. The rebuild has officially begun, but I think it will take a full season before we see real potential to make a deep run.

West: I’m picking LAFC to win the west. Their roster is too good not to, despite losing some big names.

Wooden Spoon: Part of me wants to pick D.C. United, but it’s too tough not to pick Toronto to lift the Wooden Spoon

MLS Cup: It’s the safe pick, but Inter Miami is just too good and keeps getting better.

SKC MVP (wild): Manu

SKC MVP (safe): Erik Thommy

Wild prediction, Thommy scores 10+
Safe prediction, Manu leads the team in assists

Jimmy Mack

Where will SKC finish in the West?

Call me optimistic, but I think Sporting KC can legitimately compete for a playoff spot this year. I know a number of MLS analysts have them missing out on the postseason, and I can’t really blame them considering last year Sporting finished 13th out of 14th in the West and 16 points off the final postseason spot. However, ownership put their money where their mouths were this offseason, nearly entirely remaking the attack and getting significantly younger with the additions of Dejan Joveljic, Manu Garcia and Shapi Suleymanov. I expect the attack to be more consistent in 2025 once the new additions build some chemistry with their teammates, and if the defense can be even mildly better and more consistent than 2025 this team will be much improved. All it takes is a bit more defensive effort and concentration, and this team may find finishing as high as 6th or 7th in the West.

Who will win the West?

As much as it pains me to say, the Seattle Sounders look poised to challenge for the top of the West once again. LAFC may have something to say about it, but I like what Seattle has done with the additions of Jesus Ferreira and Paul Arriola. The Galaxy likely won’t be in the conversation given Riqui Puig will miss most, if not all, of the season with his ACL injury. It once again looks like it’s Seattle’s conference to take.

Who will win the Wooden Spoon?

It may be the obvious choice, but sometimes it’s best not to overthink these things. San Diego FC is the new team this year, and though they have some known names like Hirving “Chucky” Lozano on the roster, it’s very hard for MLS expansion teams to hit the ground running. What St. Louis did in their inaugural season tends to be the exception, not the rule. Until they give me reason to think otherwise, I’m taking San Diego FC as the Wooden Spoon favorites.

MLS Cup Winners

Nobody outside of south florida and the league offices wants to see it, but it’s going to be Inter Miami CF. I just don’t see a way that Lionel Messi doesn’t win an MLS Cup before he retires, and in his third season now in the league it seems Miami is primed to take that final leap and win the League’s most coveted prize. The only thing that could really derail Miami’s season is injuries, but assuming they stay relatively healthy they have to be the favorite to win MLS Cup.

SKC MVP

My SKC MVP is also going to be my newcomer of the year: Manu Garcia. The Spanish designated player showed brief flashes of what we can hope to see from him on Wednesday night against Inter Miami. A true No. 10 has been missing from the squad since Benny Feilhaber, and if Garcia can live up to the potential many of us see in him, he’ll unlock the attack in a way Sporting fans haven’t seen in years.

Wild Prediction

Here it goes: Dejon Joveljic will score more goals in 2025 league play than Alan Pulido did in his best season at Sporting KC. Pulido’s career season in 2023 saw him score 14 goals in league play, which is a respectable number but too low for a club-record signing DP’s best year. Joveljic netted 15 goals in 2024 with the LA Galaxy, and sure he won’t have Riqui Puig or Gabriel Pec feeding him this year, but I see him scoring at least 15 goals in league play for SKC this season and establishing himself as the clear No. 1 striker in Kansas City.

Safe Prediction

The club will noticeably improve this season but will still be at least two transfer windows away from legitimately competing for a trophy. Like I mentioned above, I am thoroughly impressed with the start of the rebuild that Peter Vermes and Mike Burns pulled off this offseason. When they mentioned the idea of a three window rebuild, I certainly did not expect two new DP attacking players and a TAM winger to go along with it right off the bat. It’s wonderful to see ownership following through on their commitment to spending more on the team, and Sporting KC will absolutely be much improved in 2025 for it. They may even challenge for the most improved team in the league.

However, for as much depth and excitement there looks to be in the attack, there still is something to be desired both in the midfield and back line in terms of quality and depth. Nemanja Radoja, Khiry Shelton, Dany Rosero, Tim Leibold, Joaquin Fernandez, and John Pulskamp are all out of contract after this season. Depending on how each of them performs this year, SKC is set up to move on and potentially replace each of them next year if Burns and Vermes deem it necessary, further advancing the rebuild that started this past winter.

Chad Smith

Where SKC will finish

This team is full of unknowns. It feels like they’ve made great strides in rebuilding the team in the offseason, but an injury to someone like Manu Garcia could collapse the floor. I think if things go perfect, they could be as high as 4th. If they go bad, I think they will be at the bottom of the table. I’ll be ambitious and say 7th.

Who will win the West?

The West should be wild. LA Galaxy seem destined for a drop off with Puig missing the season and all the players they had to ship out because of their cap. Seattle seems like a trendy pick, but they are in three competitions with the Club World Cup which should cost them points. LAFC don’t look like killers right now, but they are still building. I’ll pick them, but Minnesota is my darkhorse.

Wooden Spoon

A team from the East. Probably D.C. United who have so many unknowns. Benteke may steal enough points to force someone like Nashville, Montreal or the Philadelphia Union into that spot. Toronto FC could be historically bad too. The East is terrible outside of the top half of the teams.

MLS Cup Winners

Probably Miami. Ugh. But they have Club World Cup too, so who knows.

SKC MVP

Manu Garcia. I’m cheating having written this after 30 minutes of watching him play against Miami. He looked like the truth!

Wild Prediction

Daniel Salloi becomes the second highest scorer on the team. (You asked for wild).

Safe Prediction

Sporting KC are a lot better than they were in 2024. Things are looking up!

Thad Bell

SKC will finish:

The additions obviously give hope that SKC will be better. They should have been better last year and probably would have been if it wasn’t for a huge loss of confidence. Not saying they should have won the West but they should have been better. I know, that does not answer this question though. With the new additions they will (hopefully) be better and will make the playoffs somewhere around sixth or seventh.

Who will be at the top of the West?

And will it matter? The West is hard to predict this year. It’s hard to predict most years. The Galaxy had a fire sale to make payroll and was forced to take out MLS’s version of a PayDay Loan, trading $125,000 in GAM next year for $100,000 this season. LAFC looks to still be good, Seattle is usually in the mix, RSL has been better and even Minnesota looks good. So….. I will go with LAFC.

Wooden Spoon

I want to agree with Chad above and say probably a team from the East but hard to rule out San Diego. Not confident they have built a team to be good but also not confident they will be bad. It would also be easy most years to pick San Jose but Bruce Arena and his entourage will probably have them playing better.

So back to the East. Many people seem to waiver between D.C. United and Toronto FC.  I am old enough to still hold a grudge against “Handball United” so I will pick them. Or New England… Or Toronto….

MLS Cup Winners

I feel it is just too easy to say Miami because of a certain player or two. They were able to get it done on the frozen Wednesday night in Kansas City so they should be great anywhere. Right? But it did take a perfect Messi moment to score the one goal on a team that is rebuilding. To win the Cup you need to get to the playoffs reasonably healthy, in form and not suffer a bad call at a crucial moment. So yes, Miami could win but I do not think they will, as much as Apple wants to wish it in to existence. LAFC is possible. FC Cincy defense could take them there. Why do I do this to myself… take the easy route and say LAFC.

SKC MVP

Manu Garcia is most people’s first choice. He looked good in limited minutes and has given fans more hope than they have felt for a couple seasons. I was going to put this in my Wild Prediction below but I am going with it here. The MVP will not be Dejan Joveljic or Garcia. It will be one of the “Two Jakes”. Jake Davis or newly signed Jacob Bartlett. Fans already know that Davis is essentially the reincarnation of Roger Espinoza but with a bit more offensive output. Bartlett will have his ups and downs as a rookie but will impress fans with his play throughout the season.

Safe Prediction

Sporting KC will finish higher than last season.

Wild Prediction

SKC will make a better start than the last two years, it would be hard to not have a better start. But the better start will give some confidence to the returning players and the new players will just expect to be better. Joveljic is hungry to score and Manu will feed him some tasty passes. With them likely to not advance in CONCACAF Champions Cup and no other competitions (shame on you MLS), players will be fresher than they have been in previous years. A more consistent attack and midfield will help the defense be better. Add in a summer transfer window addition by Mr. Burns (EXCELLENT!) and they will go into the playoffs in form.

So my wild prediction is that SKC will not only make the playoffs but will make some noise there and make a run.

VAR will check these predictions | Credit: Thad Bell