The 2025 MLS season hit its midpoint this weekend, which means, instead of the usual Sunday column, we’re going for a bit heavier fare: the annual Armchair Analyst midseason awards column.
Yup, we’ve got a sample size now, folks. That means we can properly assess who’s leading the Landon Donovan MLS MVP race, the Defender of the Year race and a bunch of other “... of the Year” stuff. It means we can hand out props for adjustments and try to pull apart some tactical trends. And it means we can celebrate the big (or sometimes not-so-big) moves that worked out.
In we go.
1. Brian White - Vancouver Whitecaps FC
I’ve always been big on trying to give the MVP award to the best player on the best team, while also controlling for degree of difficulty. Well, White’s been the best player on the best team and the degree of difficulty, between the injury to Ryan Gauld and the deep Concacaf Champions Cup run, has been off the charts.
White has not single-handedly kept the team together – two other players on the roster could get MVP votes – but he’s been the biggest part of keeping the attack humming with both his on-ball work (his hold-up and link play are both so underrated) and, most especially, his off-ball work. Everything this guy does on the field is additive. I’ve been a fan since before he played a single MLS minute (and have the receipt for that), but I never, ever thought he’d be this good.
2. Lionel Messi - Inter Miami CF
Messi might have a stronger case for MVP this year – he’s played a much higher percentage of Miami’s minutes and Luis Suárez has gotten old, so there’s no one to share the attacking burden – than he did last year when he won it. That said, they’ve got to figure out how to fix the vibes down in Fort Lauderdale. As the best player on the team (and, you know, in the history of the sport), that’s on him.
3. Anders Dreyer - San Diego FC
More or less the Platonic ideal of a DP signing. Came in on an affordable fee in his prime, works both sides of the ball and proved more than good enough to keep the engine running for the attack when his more celebrated running mate missed time. Dreyer’s fantastic. Elite understanding of how to toggle between playmaker and off-ball goal threat. Love this guy.
This is an award we dished out on Extratime every season because the guys who do the ball progression are rarely recognized with end-of-year honors. MVP is always “who’s the best 10, winger or forward?”
But teams don’t function without central midfielders. They are essential.
1. Sebastian Berhalter - Vancouver Whitecaps FC
There were hints in the second half of last season that Berhalter was going to have something of a breakout year in 2025. But to me, “breakout year” meant something in the realm of “locked down the starting job and put in some tough tackles to allow Andrés Cubas a little more room.”
Instead, he’s looked like a young Michael Bradley with his ability to set the tempo via either long or short-range passing; his ability to find space (he checks his shoulders more than any other central midfielder in the league) and get his teams out of trouble; and his box arrival to finish off the long, delightful sequences of play that have become a ‘Caps staple. Add in some top-tier set-piece service and you’ve got the best No. 8 in the league.
2. Aníbal Godoy - San Diego FC
I thought Godoy was cooked. I was very wrong, as his ability to instantly make the game big – getting Dreyer and Chucky Lozano into great spots against scrambled defenses – has been a huge piece of one of the best teams in the league.
3. Beau Leroux - San Jose Earthquakes
I can’t remember the last time a player I had never heard of before First Kick won a starting job. And I don’t think there’s ever been a time a player I’d never heard of before First Kick won a starting job and was instantly one of the handful of best players in the league at his spot. For those who haven’t watched the Quakes… you should, they’re fun as hell. Leroux is Berhalter-esque in a lot of ways, though probably better on the ball in tight spots and not as good of a long-range distributor.
NOTE: Eduard Atuesta and Keaton Parks would both be here on a per-minute basis, but I didn’t vote for Messi for MVP last year because he didn’t play 2,000 minutes – that’s my cut-off for awards voting eligibility – and these guys are both on track to just miss that number.
So I can’t bring myself to put them on this list. But if either/both burst through that 2,000-minute barrier, they will get written up in this column at the end of the season.
1. Danley Jean Jacques - Philadelphia Union
The Union play with dual sixes, so figuring out when to release into the attack is non-negotiable if they want to create numerical superiority, and Jean Jacques has been overwhelming when doing so. Through a mix of the press, combination play at full pace and the ability to pick the right pass – or sometimes even finish himself – he’s a force-magnifier out there in every conceivable way you’d want from the position. Could his transition defense be a little bit better? Yes. But the other stuff he’s brought to the table has been undeniable, and is a huge piece of why the Union are atop the East.
2. Jeppe Tverskov - San Diego FC
There aren’t many teams left that play a true single pivot. San Diego are one of them, and they can do it because of the work Tverskov does in reading the game on both sides of the ball. That alone would probably be enough, but on top of it, he brings the ability to hit these clever, disguised passes that end up opening the game for the likes of Godoy and Luca de la Torre.
3. Andrés Cubas - Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Never puts a foot wrong (unless it’s in Mexico City, anyway) as a backline shield, never puts a foot wrong in his distribution and always sets the physical tone. “Diego Chara-esque” is one of the highest compliments I can give, and it’s one he’s earned.
1. Alex Freeman - Orlando City
So good – legitimately game-breaking at times – going forward, that Oscar Pareja scrapped the game model he’s used for more than a decade to put Freeman in a position where he could attack at will. Orlando have been rewarded with goals and assists, but Freeman also still takes the defensive part of the game seriously. He tracks back all the time (my guess is he leads the league in full-field sprints), which makes the decision to adjust the game model an easy one.
2. Andy Najar - Nashville SC
Another team that’s adjusted their game model is Nashville, who have put much more emphasis on building from the back, combining with short passes through midfield and disorganizing the opponents with the ball. Najar’s done the above at a high level while still being a more-than-solid defensive presence.
3. Kai Wagner - Philadelphia Union
Wagner still goes endline-to-endline like a madman, still serves in maybe the best left-footed cross and strikes the second-best left-footed set piece in the league. Runs through his tackles, picks more conservative passes when he needs to and takes nothing off the table.
This year-end award always goes to a center back, so let’s just understand it as being exactly that.
1. Michael Boxall - Minnesota United FC
There are three pillars of Minnesota’s excellent half-season: 1) Absorb pressure in the box. 2) Be ruthless on the counter. 3) Huck that ball into the box any time you get a chance at a long throw-in. Boxall is essential in every one of those situations. He’s a dominant and active aerial presence who is a much better passer than folks realize – not just long balls, but third-line passes to the likes of Robin Lod and Joaquín Pereyra – and he’s got the best long throw-in in the league. That means Minnesota get what amounts to three or four extra set pieces per game.
2. Tristan Blackmon - Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Blackmon’s passing and ball carrying have arguably been as crucial to Vancouver’s excellence as Boxall’s box dominance has been to Minnesota’s (Blackmon’s got a good long throw-in, too, by the way). Blackmon’s also got great recovery speed, which has allowed the ‘Caps to play a higher line without constant panic attacks.
3. Miles Robinson - FC Cincinnati
1. Zack Steffen - Colorado Rapids
He’s passed the eye test, he’s passed the points-per-game test (Colorado are much better when he’s on the field than when he’s been off of it) and he’s still got the best underlying numbers in the league. Will he end up playing enough to win it, given he just picked up an injury at USMNT camp and could be sidelined for a while? I don’t know. Will he have good enough basic counting stats (shutouts, saves, save percentage) that voters love? I kind of doubt it. But he’s been the best goalkeeper in MLS this year when healthy.
2. Carlos Coronel - New York Red Bulls
Coronel’s shot-stopping has been almost as good as Steffen’s, and that’s what I care about most. That said, while Steffen has taken a massive step forward by simplifying his game – fewer sweeper-keeper moments, more launching goal kicks instead of playing short – Coronel has gone in the other direction as Sandro Schwarz has modified the game plan.
3. Daniel - San Jose Earthquakes
The Quakes play at about a 60-point clip when he’s on the field, and they play at about a 30-point clip when he’s not. Daniel's shot-stopping is the biggest reason why, but he’s also almost doubled his interventions outside the box per 90, as well as the percentage of crosses he’s claiming. That’s made him more commanding, which San Jose have desperately missed when he’s not out there.
1. Jesper Sørensen - Vancouver Whitecaps FC
As with MVP, I always try to lean in the direction of whichever team’s been the best while also weighting for degree of difficulty. By that measure, Sørensen might have just had the best half-season of all time. He’s got a team on track to win the Supporters’ Shield while setting the single-season points record, made it to the CCC final, developed a bunch of the kids and has done it mostly without his best player. Every other category is arguable. This one isn’t.
2. Bradley Carnell - Philadelphia Union:
Which is not to take anything away from Carnell, who’s got the Union humming, and who has, like Sørensen, developed a bunch of the younger guys into better/the best versions of themselves.
3. Mikey Varas - San Diego FC
Survived an injury to Chucky Lozano, survived a little slump when it looked like everyone had figured them out and has had his team playing attacking, entertaining, fearless soccer throughout. All while also developing some young and down-roster guys. Varas has been great.
1. Diego Luna - Real Salt Lake
Luna's been a one-man band for RSL – the best playmaker on the team, the best goal-scorer and the best defender. Even as everything has sort of fallen apart around him, he’s kept his level high and kept his team in the game.
2. Alex Freeman - Orlando City
Know who leads all young players in MLS in open-play chances created? It’s the right back from Orlando. More than Luna, more than Jack McGlynn, more than Telasco Segovia, more than David Martinez.
Just an inimitable attacking force for one of the better teams in the league.
3. Quinn Sullivan - Philadelphia Union
Sullivan feels like a throwback player, like some combo of Steve Ralston (with his crossing ability and eye for the final pass) and Cobi Jones (with his fearlessness and two-way commitment). His xDAWG is off the charts and he's the leading chance creator for the Eastern Conference’s best team.
1. Anders Dreyer - San Diego FC
Dreyer is tied for second in the league in goal contributions, behind only Messi. And kept it up even when Chucky was on the sidelines. None of his six goals are PKs, and seven of his eight assists are primary assists. He’s third in the league in expected assists, as per Opta, and is second – tied with Messi – with 11 big chances created. He’s 27. This guy should be in San Diego through the end of the decade. Perfect signing.
2. Pep Biel - Charlotte FC
First in big chances created? That’s Biel, who Charlotte brought back on loan without taking up a DP slot. They might have to adjust that this summer, as Biel’s been the best and most consistent part of an otherwise frustrating year. He’s got 5g/7a, and a lot of that has been opportunism. But a lot of it has also been him trying to orchestrate things for a team that’s trying to add a few more notes to their game.
3. Kévin Denkey - FC Cincinnati
Did Cincy pay a lot for him? Yes. Have his stats been padded a little bit by regular trips to the spot? Absolutely. Is the attack truly clicking in Cincy? Not really. But they’re near the top of the table anyway because they’re able to win the game in both boxes. You pay a lot for that in this sport, and when the guy you spent on delivers like Denkey has – at the age that he has (he’s just 24) – it’s a great move.
1. Long throws into the box
I mentioned it above in the Minnesota section, and it’s exactly what it sounds like: teams are realizing the value of yeeting it into ye olde mixer any chance they get.
There’s more to it – you can read about it in depth in Backheeled if you’d like, and I’d recommend doing so – but the basics are the basics.
2. The re-emergence of the two-striker setup
Two-striker set-ups have become something of a manifesto over the past two decades, a declaration that you intend to play primarily, in some cases exclusively, in transition. The idea is if you play fast and vertical with two strikers, they will always have a partner to work off of. There won’t be any “he’s stranded on an island” moments like what you can see from transition teams that play a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1.
That is still mostly the case: If you’re playing with two up top, you’re playing in transition. Mostly.
It’s just… it seems a little less this year than in recent history, doesn’t it? It seems like the forwards that play for 3-4-1-2 teams are finding ways not just to extend the game into the space behind the opposing backline, and to combine with each other, but also to almost come into the half-spaces and become secondary No. 10s.
That means they’re getting on the ball and using it to create chances as opposited to just attacking in transition. And that’s a little bit of a shift.
3. Can the single pivot ride again?
The past 10 years of soccer at the highest level globally – and to a lesser, but still noticeable extent in MLS – has seen a shift away from the classic single pivot. Teams now are just too smart about working the ball onto the foot of their best chances creators in the half-spaces, and that’s too much for one guy to deal with.
In response, managers around the world have ginned up new and often infuriating ways to create a double pivot.
- A 4-3-3 where one of the “free” 8s never attacks but is, instead, just an advanced destroyer who drops deep on the ball, releasing a fullback to create width? Check.
- A 4-2-3-1 where the fullbacks, instead of attacking, just push up into the midfield alongside one of the deep-lying CMs, which releases the other CM on that line to push forward into the attack? Check.
- Any kind of back four in which one of the center backs steps forward a line and becomes a central midfielder? Saw that one, too – Pep Guardiola won the Champions League with it.
I understand why coaches around the world have chosen this, but I am gratified to see a handful of MLS managers throwing some caution to the wind and playing with more classical single pivots. San Diego are perhaps the most dogmatic – it helps to have Tverskov out there – but we’ve seen it from Chicago, Sporting KC, sometimes Vancouver and even a bit from LAFC as well.
It’s made those games look and feel different. There’s a different tempo to them, and as someone who watches 300-ish MLS games every year, I really appreciate that!
1. Pareja scraps the overlaps
For as long as Oscar Pareja’s been a head coach, he’s been a proponent of dual overlapping fullbacks. That doesn’t mean he sends both forward at the same time, mind you, but that it was kind of a pulley system, where one would stay if the other went, and vice versa.
This worked particularly well for Orlando City down the stretch in 2023, once Pareja figured out Dagur Dan Thorhallsson was kind of the perfect balance for left back Rafael Santos.
But the game’s evolved and teams have figured out how to capitalize on that kind of system, especially in transition moments. We saw it right out of the gates this year as Orlando got ripped up any time they turned the ball over. It was more fragile because, with Atuesta in place of the more defensively inclined Wilder Cartagena in deep central midfield, Orlando had fewer ball-winning chops right where they needed them most.
So Pareja adjusted. It’s still a 4-2-3-1, but now only Freeman, the right back, pushes forward. You can see it in this network passing graph:
Freeman’s No. 30. The left back, No. 4, is David Brekalo – who’s actually a center back. When Orlando are on the ball, Brekalo just slides inside as a left center back in a three, which means they always have a solid rest defense whenever possession is lost.
The result was an immediate 12-game unbeaten run and, so far, the best underlying numbers of any half-season of Pareja’s career in Orlando.
2. Porter goes to the 3-4-1-2
It’s now nine league games without a loss since Caleb Porter scrapped the 4-2-3-1 he’d started the year with in favor of a 3-4-1-2 that serves three purposes:
- It gets an extra center back in the XI without any of the semi-complicated rotations Orlando are doing. That means New England aren’t necessarily as dynamic as some of the other 3-5-2ish teams out there, as they’ve got three true center backs playing (none of this Steven Moreira or Malte Amundsen stuff). But they’re really comfortable defending deep and are very good at it (as their goals against show).
- It provides structure and cover around No. 10 Carles Gil, plus puts more of the game at his feet. “Let your best player decide the game for you, and give him adequate protection to take the chances he needs to do that” is a good plan.
- It’s allowed both wingbacks to get forward in spots where the advantage has already been created via the work of Gil or the underrated central midfield pairing behind him.
That last one is the key. Soccer is about creating and exploiting positional and dynamic superiority, and in the modern game, where the 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 is still dominant, wingers are usually tasked with doing that.
But those guys are really, really expensive, while true No. 10s are comparatively cheap, as are wingbacks, as are second forwards. So if you’ve got one of those No. 10s, why not let him create dynamic superiority on the ball while getting your wingbacks to create it (and positional superiority) off the ball? Suddenly guys like Ilay Feingold and young Peyton Miller are attacking against back-pedaling defenders, and the Revs are first in the league in successful take-on percentage because of it.
As I said, New England are nine unbeaten after a truly miserable start. Formations aren’t tactics but they’re related, and in this case, the tactical change that came along with the formation shift has proved to be season-changing.
3. Vancouver value the ball
It’s hard to put into words how profound the year-over-year change we’ve seen from the ‘Caps has been. In lots of ways they’re now more like the Crew than anybody else – possession (very high), field tilt (very high), the percentage of passes they hit forward (very low), the number of long balls (low), the number of passes in and into the middle third (very high) – and it’s, I think, pretty smart to emulate what’s inarguably been the league’s most stylish, and arguably most successful team over the past three seasons.
At the same time, there are significant differences: They hit comparatively few final-third passes and switch the field of play a ton. Because of that, their average pass distance is actually pretty high and the effect of those big switches (Berhalter hits a lot of them) has been a surprisingly high number of crosses. Third-most in the league, as a matter of fact.
That’s usually the sign of an inefficient attack, but guess what? They also complete the third-highest percentage of those crosses.
Big switch, cross, goal:
The result has been one of the league’s most efficient and prolific attacks. And that’s come in conjunction with what is, by all the underlying numbers, the league’s best overall defense. They are particularly good at denying opponents time and space to hit meaningful passes into the half-spaces and give up almost nothing in behind. That’s an unusual combo for a team that plays a very high possession game and a high line.
The result is an expected goal differential of +0.8 per 90, as per FBRef. The only team this decade to hit that mark over a full season was LAFC, who, of course, did the Shield/MLS Cup double.
American Soccer Analysis’s even more granular “goals added” stat, which measures the value of every single on-field event, says Vancouver are even better: they have the ‘Caps at +1.01/90, while 2022 LAFC were +0.64.
We have, in short, just witnessed one of the best half-seasons in MLS history. I hope you enjoyed watching it unfold half as much as I did.
