MLS restart: 10 must-know storylines for the 2026 season | OneFootball

By Charles Boehm

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is fast approaching its finale, which means the MLS season is nearly back.

It’s been a minute, though! With so many memorable moments from the planet’s favorite soccer party still rolling around in our heads, it’s easy to lose track of what transpired before the league’s seven-week pause for the global spectacle.

We’ll get you caught up in no particular order.

10. New World Cup records for MLS

The World Cup’s first visit to the United States in 1994 was a paradigm-shifting occasion, showing the region’s passion for the game and laying the foundation for the launch of MLS two years thereafter.

The event’s return to North America 32 years later has exposed the enormous progress of the past three decades, first and foremost in the protagonists out on the pitch.

The league sent a record 45 active players to this summer’s tournament, representing 22 of its 30 clubs and 17 nations around the globe, along with a range of notable alumni like US internationals Tyler Adams and Chris Richards, hefty Canadian and Mexican contingents led by Alphonso Davies and Brian Gutiérrez, Colombia’s Cucho Hernández and more.

9. More Messi magic in Miami

That ferocious run of form that’s got Lionel Messi in a lively World Cup Golden Boot race for defending champions Argentina? It’s the continuation of what the GOAT did in Inter Miami’s first 15 matches.

In that span, Messi already posted numbers many players would be more than happy to produce over a full season: 12 goals and eight assists, both of which are tied for second-most in MLS, and 43 key passes.

That’s got the defending MLS Cup champions in the thick of the Supporters’ Shield race, sitting fourth at 31 points (9W-2L-4D) with an MLS-best 39 goals scored.

Oh, and they also christened Nu Stadium, their gleaming new home, one of the league’s loveliest.

8. Whitecaps keep pace

On the far opposite edge of the North American continent, Miami’s opponents in last year’s MLS Cup final have shown their terrific 2025 was no one-hit wonder.

With a 10W-2L-2D record in league play, Vancouver Whitecaps FC sit one point ahead of Miami in the Shield race and just one point behind early pacesetters Nashville SC. They also remain very much alive in their quest for a fifth straight Canadian Championship title.

German legend Thomas Müller and US international Sebastian Berhalter – both of whom earned 2026 MLS All-Star nods – spearhead the slick-passing ‘Caps, who have been the league’s most statistically dominant side with an MLS-leading +22 goal differential and league-best numbers in both expected goals and expected goals against.

7. Music City maestros

About those early pacesetters…

Nashville have been superb in head coach B.J. Callaghan’s second full season in charge. The Boys in Gold built on last year’s US Open Cup trophy capture with a balanced, cerebral style that empowers a potent attack led by Hany Mukhtar and Sam Surridge while conceding the joint-fewest goals in MLS at the other end.

Nashville have lost just once in their first 14 league games, all the more impressive given they also mounted a deep run in Concacaf Champions Cup in the spring, highlighted by a stunning 1-0 win over LIGA MX giants Club América at Estadio Azteca – making them the first MLS team to win at the historic ground.

6. Chicago renaissance

Gregg Berhalter, Callaghan’s friend and former boss with the USMNT, is crafting a pretty impressive project of his own at Chicago Fire FC. After ending a lengthy Audi MLS Cup Playoffs qualification drought last fall, the Men in Red have kicked on in 2026 and are top three in the Eastern Conference.

Young center back Mbekezeli Mbokazi has been excellent in his first season and has continued that momentum at the World Cup with South Africa, drawing global attention for his defensive displays with Bafana Bafana. And it’s Fire striker Hugo Cuypers, not Messi, who leads the Golden Boot presented by Audi race with 13 goals in just 11 appearances.

Then Chicago made a major statement by signing Polish icon Robert Lewandowski earlier this summer, signaling their intent to make waves down the stretch.

5. RBNY rising

Red Bull New York turned heads out of the gates at the season’s dawn, as first-year head coach Michael Bradley initiated an intriguing youth movement headlined by talented teenage homegrowns Julian Hall, Adri Mehmeti and Matthew Dos Santos.

That trio made Bradley’s first-choice starting XI the first in MLS history to feature three players aged 17 or younger, and only slightly older newcomers like Justin Che, Cade Cowell and Jorge Ruvalcaba have been solid as well.

There have been ups and downs, as naturally happens with developing players. But when you have Hall (9g/4a) being named an MLS All-Star and serious USMNT talk around Mehmeti, there's certainly something intriguing unfolding in Harrison. 

Now, can the Red Bull kids keep up with older competitors around them in the East? It will be fun to find out.

4. RSL young’uns step up

Real Salt Lake have long anchored their identity around the club’s productive academy, and a promising crop of homegrowns had the Claret-and-Cobalt playing some of the most watchable soccer of the season’s first three months.

Zavier Gozo is arguably the top teenager in MLS, a skillful, extremely athletic prospect who’s settled into a right-wingback role that plays to his strengths. With 6g/5a in RSL’s first 14 league matches, Gozo’s confidence is blossoming, and a long list of European powers like Aston Villa and Atlético Madrid have taken notice.

Add in fellow teen Aiden Hezarkhani, Uruguay international Juan Manuel Sanabria and the creativity of Diego Luna – whose prominent exclusion from the USMNT's World Cup roster provides ample motivation, at the very least – and you have a very interesting dark horse out West.

3. Seeking Son shine in LA

With their Messi-driven project, Inter Miami set the pace in MLS when it comes to ambitious spending, and perhaps the only club on par are LAFC, who splashed out big to recruit South Korean legend Son Heung-Min as an attacking partner for Denis Bouanga last summer.

That duo made the Black & Gold a fearsome proposition down the stretch in 2025, and they were utterly dominant in the current campaign’s opening weeks before a Concacaf Champions Cup push contributed to a pronounced fade as late spring unfolded.

Things turned south for Sonny when South Korea fell short of expectations in the World Cup, which should stoke his desire to bounce back when LAFC return to business, starting with a high-profile El Tráfico derby at their LA Galaxy rivals on July 17 (10:25 pm ET | Apple TV, FOX, FOX Deportes).

2. Dawgs down in Dallas

Few expected FC Dallas to be in the West's top four at this point, ahead of established powers like LAFC and Seattle. That’s a credit to head coach Eric Quill and his work with a tenacious squad that’s embraced his concept of a “dog mentality,” fashioning themselves into a sturdy defensive unit with real menace in transition.

That recipe helped star forward Petar Musa push onto Croatia’s World Cup squad, an unexpected triumph that got even better when he scored in their tournament opener vs. mighty England. Now ‘Moose’ returns to North Texas with hopes of powering an MLS Cup push down the stretch, aided by his underrated strike partner Logan Farrington.

1. Arena's Quakes revival

For too many years, the San Jose Earthquakes were an afterthought, dogged by chronic underachievement. That began to change last season with the arrival of coaching legend Bruce Arena, whose rebuild kicked into high gear with a scintillating 9W-1L-0D start to 2026 before injuries and a busy schedule cooled their form before the World Cup pause.

With packed crowds at the World Cup venue in Santa Clara and at watch parties across the region, soccer in the Bay Area is having a moment. German star Timo Werner and his teammates aim to harness some of that momentum when they resume their campaign on July 22 vs. Orlando City (10:30 pm ET | Apple TV).

“The potential here is awesome,” Arena told reporters earlier this month. “It's a great area, the Bay Area, with some of the biggest corporations in the world; the demographics are very favorable for our sport.

“I think the people will be more aware of our league and locally of the Earthquakes, and hopefully that allows us to have really good support as we finish out the season.”

Don't forget about…

Orlando swing big

Orlando City endured a nightmarish 1W-6L-1D start to the season, a span in which they leaked 25 goals, prompting the exit of longtime head coach Oscar Pareja. And while the defensive frailties lingered – their MLS-worst 44 goals against are on track to smash records – they made a huge move to upgrade their squad by recruiting French icon and 2018 World Cup winner Antoine Griezmann, a potent attacking weapon and new face of the club.

Philly fall off

Another early coaching change took place at Subaru Park, where Bradley Carnell got his marching papers on May 27. Last year’s Supporters’ Shield winners and an all-around model club for the better part of a decade, Philadelphia crashed hard right out of the gates, going 0W-6L-0D to sink to the bottom of the overall table, where they remain. Combined with turnover at the CSO level, that’s signaled a reset for the Union.

A redhead for the Reds

In sheer financial terms, the biggest single transaction of the year so far is Toronto FC’s reported $27 million capture of striker Josh Sargent from Norwich City. It took not just millions but many months to pry the US international away from the English Championship club, and while Sargent found his feet fairly quickly with 3g/1a during his first 556 minutes in MLS, a wider injury crisis hamstrung the Reds’ resurgence. If Djordje Mihailovic, Dániel Sallói and Walker Zimmerman can get fit and firing behind Sargent, TFC might make some trouble.