The 2022 Major League Soccer regular season has concluded and the playoff first-round ties are finalized. This is a time to see the best MLS teams in 2022 go head-to-head.
Best MLS teams 2022: Power Rankings
Let’s discuss who the form teams are, ending the campaign on a high and with momentum to build on in the postseason and furthermore in 2023.
10) Sporting Kansas City
Despite not qualifying for the playoffs, Sporting Kansas City actually ends the year on a high note having shifted through the gears with comprehensive victories against fellow non-qualifiers and even a 4-2 win against LA Galaxy.
William Agada, Johnny Russell, and Daniel Salloi all performed admirably throughout the 2022 season for Kansas City. The end-of-season form should be enough to convince them that the franchise is going in the right direction under head coach Peter Vermes.
If the team is to prosper next year, there’s no doubt those three performers will be required again.
9) FC Dallas
During the earlier parts of the MLS 2022 season, it appeared little or nothing could stop FC Dallas and their subsequent hype train. Jesus Ferreira started and ended the season in terrific form (with a slight dip in the middle), which coincidentally ran parallel with the overall form of the club.
Take the last five games of the regular season, he scored/made assists in three of them. Dallas won those games but didn’t triumph in the games he failed to do so.
8) LA Galaxy
Arguably the most recognized MLS team, the Los Angeles Galaxy commands respect with a deep roster including Javier Hernandez, Douglas Costa, and Sacha Kljestan. The five-time MLS Cup winning side looks to be in good form to claim a sixth title having gone unbeaten in nine of its 10 last matches, including a rewarding 3-2 win in the California Clasico against the San Jose Earthquakes.
Their first playoff opposition comes in the form of Nashville, as it sets up a third-ever meeting between the two franchises.
However, it took a penalty nine minutes into added time, courtesy of VAR, to allow Riqui Puig to level up the score at 1-1.
7) Inter Miami
Despite a slow start to his Inter Miami career, Gonzalo Higuain looks like a man on a mission, having scored six goals in the last five games of the season. The strikes from the former Real Madrid, Napoli, and Juventus forward allowed the team to win four of those games. Subsequently, they became one of the form teams going into the playoffs.
Their first mission on the route to glory sees them come up against the 2021 defending champions, New York City. The team had lost every match against the Pigeons until August just gone when Inter Miami came back from a two-goal deficit to win 3-2. Higuain linked up with Alejandro Pozuelo as the Spanish midfielder bagged a brace and the win for Miami.
6) FC Cincinnati
Another team coming in hot is FC Cincinnati, who have truly come of age since joining Major League Soccer. After all, they left the USL Championship division as runaway regular season champions by 11 points. While supporters couldn’t expect to immediately take that form to MLS, they would have expected more than to be the whipping boys, a mantle the franchise had to endure for three seasons.
Come 2022 however and it’s an all-new looking franchise and has kept it going all season long, ending it with four wins from its last six games. That run included a 5-2 victory on the final day of the season against D.C. United and an emphatic 6-0 mauling of the San Jose Earthquakes.
5) Nashville
If the MLS Power Rankings 2022 were based purely on the possession of individual talent, Nashville SC would gladly accept the award through Hany Mukhtar. Sadly, they sit in the middle of the pack for their unpredictability when they head out on the pitch. This is defined nicely by the results of their last two games, having lost 2-1 to Houston Dynamo at home – statistically one of the worst teams of the year.
Conversely, on the last day of the regular campaign, Teal Banbury’s left-footed volley earned Nashville a surprising win against Supporters’ Shield winners and one of the best MLS teams in 2022, LAFC. This hot and cold form puts them in the middle of the pack when it comes to the power rankings.
4) New York City FC
Three straight wins to cap off the regular calendar put the 2021 MLS Cup champions in great form going into the playoffs, especially considering the club’s top scorer Valentin Castellanos has yet to have his tally (13) for the season eclipsed by another player on the roster at Yankee Stadium.
Peruvian defender Alexander Callens has tried to fill the void left by his former teammate with some success despite playing a completely different position on the pitch. Regardless, Callens has popped up with two goals in the last three games – imperative in their form going into the season endgame. If he can perform at both ends of the pitch, there’s no reason why NYCFC can’t dream of another MLS Cup triumph.
3) Philadelphia Union
Scoring 72 goals in the regular season is a surefire way to get named as one of the best MLS teams in 2022. Ending the campaign with a 4-0 triumph over Toronto FC was in-keeping with the rest of the year.
Daniel Gazdag isn’t the team’s only goal threat – yet he did score 22 goals (second only to the aforementioned Hany Mukhtar of Nashville) allowing the team to top the Eastern Conference and earn a bye to the conference semi-finals.
2) LAFC
Best MLS teams ranked? Surely Los Angeles FC would top any list throughout the majority of the season. Inconsistencies toward the end of the campaign might not have cost them the Supporters’ Shield, yet will have changed their MLS Cup Odds 2022, for sure.
Despite that stuttering loss to Nashville on the last day of the regular season and the 1-1 draw with FC Dallas in mid-September, LAFC still amassed more victories than any other team in Major League Soccer with 21 out of a possible 34. Given the team gets a bye to the second round of the postseason, the team will be sure to dust themselves down and be prepared for the playoffs.
1) CF Montreal
Topping our MLS Power Rankings 2022 for October is the in-form Canadian franchise, CF Montreal. Praised for their exciting and volatile brand of football all season long, Wilfried Nancy has been able to ensure that his team ends the regular season as the form team to beat.
This has come in line with a revival of form for MLS journeyman, Kei Kamara. The Sierra Leone striker might be 38 years old but offers invaluable experience as one of the league’s all-time top goal scorers with 138 MLS goals (and counting). Given the franchise’s next game against Orlando, a team which Kamara has 9 goals against in 11, the MLS Cup could easily find its way to Canada.
