MLS Season Preview: Messi, Insigne, expansion team among key storylines

Major League Soccer’s 30th season kicks off this weekend with a full slate of games featuring all 30 teams across the league. 

Toronto FC pays a visit to D.C. United on Saturday, while CF Montreal plays away against Atlanta United. The Vancouver Whitecaps have to wait until Sunday to begin their campaign with a road tilt against the Portland Timbers in a rematch from last year’s playoffs. Also on Sunday, reigning MLS Cup champions LA Galaxy host expansion club San Diego FC.  

Here’s what you need to know about the 2025 MLS regular season.   

The playoff format   

The top seven teams in each of the Eastern and Western Conferences clinch playoff berths, while the eighth and ninth seeds will face off in a one-game wild-card match. The winners of both wild-card games move on to the next round, which is made up of best-of-three series (rather than single-elimination contests).   

In the best-of-three, no games can end in draws. If a match is tied at the end of regulation time, it’ll go straight to a penalty shootout. The first team to win two matches will advance to the conference semifinals. The aggregate score doesn’t count.  

Both the conference semifinals and finals will remain one-legged affairs. The highest remaining seed will host the MLS Cup Final, as has been the case since 2012. All of these games will go to 30 minutes of extra time, followed by a penalty shootout (if necessary) if they are tied after 90 minutes.   

The three Canadian clubs 

After early exits in last year’s playoffs, both CF Montreal and the Vancouver Whitecaps will be looking to go a bit further in 2025.  

The Whitecaps have a new coach in Danish manager Jesper Sørensen. He’s taken charge of a very talented team, featuring American forward Brian White and Scottish midfielder Ryan Gauld, that a lot of MLS pundits are still writing off for this season. Sørensen will be expected to keep his team focused on matters on the pitch while the distraction on the potential sale of the club looms over its head. 

Montreal made some major roster moves this winter by bringing in experienced free agent forward Fabian Herbers, German Prince Owusu (Toronto FC’s top scorer last year) and Albanian international Giacomo Vrioni. The club also acquired promising defender Jalen Neal in a trade with the LA Galaxy in an attempt to add youth and athleticism to its back line. Whether that’ll be enough to turn Montreal into a top team in the East remains to be seen.  

All eyes will be on Toronto FC as it seeks to resolve the situation with Lorenzo Insigne. The Italian attacker was the second-highest paid player in MLS last year, earning $15.4 million to trail only Lionel Messi’s $20.4 million. But Insigne has failed to live up his hefty pay packet ever since coming to MLS in the summer of 2022. Toronto is so frustrated that it tried to offload him this winter to no avail, and has now drawn a line in the sand with Insigne: He can either accept a transfer move, a buyout or mutual termination, or be benched for the remainder of his contract, which runs through June 2026. TFC has not made the playoffs since 2020. 

San Diego FC enters MLS as 30th team 

MLS expands to 30 teams this season with the introduction of its newest club, San Diego FC. Coach Mikey Varas has a roster that’s a mix of veterans and youngsters, and is highlighted by Mexican forward Hirving ‘Chucky’ Lozano, who previously played in Europe with Italian side Napoli and PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands. San Diego has also secured the services of U.S. international Luca de la Torre, who joins his hometown club on loan from Spanish side Celta de Vigo. San Diego will try to duplicate the success of the league’s last expansion franchise — in 2023, the debuting St. Louis City SC became the first expansion club to win its conference in its first season. 

Can the LA Galaxy repeat as champions? 

Only three teams in the history of the league have repeated as MLS Cup champions, and it hasn’t been done since David Beckham and the Galaxy turned the trick in 2011 and 2012. Now the Galaxy look to win two in a row for the second time after defeating the New York Red Bulls in last year’s final. Greg Vanney is one of the best coaches in the league, having previously won the MLS Cup with Toronto FC in 2017. But he’ll have to make do without Riqui Puig, one of the best midfielders in MLS, for the foreseeable future — the Spaniard is still recovering from a knee injury he suffered in last year’s Western Conference final. 

New faces in new places 

Several high-profile players switched teams during the off-season, in part due to MLS introducing a rule that allows clubs to spend transfer fees on players within the league for the first time. FC Cincinnati set a league record earlier this week when it acquired Brazilian midfielder Evander from the Portland Timbers for a guaranteed $12 million. Earlier this month Cincinnati sold Argentinian forward and former league MVP Luciano Acosta to FC Dallas for $5 million. Sporting Kansas City paid $4 million for Serbian striker Dejan Joveljić, who was a key figure for the MLS Cup champion LA Galaxy in 2024. Other notable players on the move included midfielder Ted Ku-DiPietro for $1.4 million (from D.C. United to Colorado Rapids) and midfielder Jack McGlynn for $2.1 million (from Philadelphia Union to Houston Dynamo). 

Miguel Almirón returns to Atlanta United 

Miguel Almirón took MLS by storm from 2017 to 2018, scoring 21 goals and tallying 28 assists while helping Atlanta United win an MLS Cup. But the Paraguayan attacker soon joined Newcastle United via transfer and ended up spending six seasons with the Premier League side. Now Almirón is back in MLS for a second stint with Atlanta, looking to pick up right where he left off and propel the Nine Stripes back to the top of the league. 

Player to watch: Lionel Messi 

Messi is still going strong and is coming off a superb 2024 campaign in which he scored 20 goals and added 16 assists in winning the league’s MVP award. The World Cup winner was a big reason why Inter Miami went from a non-playoff team in 2023 to an MLS Cup contender in his first full season in the league. Although Messi will turn 38 this summer, age doesn’t seem to be slowing down the Argentine ace, so it’ll be interesting to see if he can put up even better numbers this year. 

Team to watch: Inter Miami 

Messi and Miami established a new record in 2024 for the most points (74) in a single MLS season. Nobody scored more goals than Miami (79), who only suffered four losses in 34 regular season games. The Herons also never lost consecutive matches and they ended the campaign on an 11-match unbeaten run. Yet, they were upset by Atlanta United in the first round of the playoffs, losing 2-1 in their best-of-three series to the team from Georgia which just squeaked into the playoffs on the final day of the regular season. Messi’s contract is up at the end of this season — although there is an option for 2026 — so this could be his last chance to win an MLS Cup.