It’s here: the last week of the Major League Soccer regular season. While there isn’t a lot left to play for from a playoff spot perspective, there is still plenty of excitement and potential history on the line come MLS Decision Day 2024.
The Major League Soccer regular season is coming to a close, and with it, a year that saw plenty of storylines and drama. Seven coaches were fired, a league-high 21 hat tricks were scored, and Inter Miami ascended from a last-place team to Supporters’ Shield winners.
MLS also broke records in attendance, as the league average sat at 23,000, with over 11 million fans passing through the turnstiles. TV viewership, or streaming viewership now, continues to be a mystery for the league, however. As other sports leagues like the NHL become more predominant on broadcast TV, MLS remains nearly invisible in mainstream media due to its unique partnership with Apple TV.
Despite many highs and some unanswered questions, there is business to be done in the final week of the regular season with the MLS Cup Playoffs looming. Here’s what to look for on 2024 MLS Decision Day.
Ready for a Record
The marquee match of Decision Day is between Inter Miami and the New England Revolution. It’s a tale of two teams: the Lionel Messi-led Miami will look to win its final match and set the all-time record for points in a single season.
Standing in the way is the club that holds that record, the New England Revolution, who despite having set the record relatively recently in 2021, seem miles away from that historic season. The Revs are flirting with the Eastern Conference cellar in 2024, amounting just 31 points in 33 matches. Caleb Porter handed in one of his worst campaigns as a manager, and the club is still suffering from the fallout of firing Bruce Arena.
Golden Boot Record
Christian Benteke started the 2024 season with a hat trick and hasn’t looked back since. He’s been a bright spot for an otherwise mediocre DC United, and is sitting on 23 goals. The golden boot is all but his, as the next-highest goal scorers are Denis Bouanga and Cucho Hernandez, who both have 19 apiece.
Breaking Carlos Vela’s regular season all-time tally of 34 is out of the question, but hitting the quarter-century mark is certainly feasible. Only nine MLS players have scored 25 or more goals in a single season, and Benteke could become the 10th with a brace against Charlotte FC. It won’t be an easy feat, however, as Charlotte has the second-fewest goals allowed in the league this season.
Four Teams, Two Spots in the East
DC United, CF Montréal, Philadelphia Union, and Atlanta United FC can potentially mix and match for the two Wild Card positions in the East. Although for some, it’s easier said than done. DC United and CF Montréal control their own destiny, and wins/draws put them through to the playoffs.
Philadelphia and Atlanta will need United and/or Montréal to lose, in addition to what should be difficult wins against FC Cincinnati and Orlando Pride, respectively. Good news for them though — they both hold superior goal differentials to the current eighth- and ninth-placed teams, and won’t need blowout wins to secure a playoff spot, just losses from the teams above them.
Prediction: DC United and CF Montréal take care of business and go through.
Nothing to Do Out West
The MLS Western Conference playoff spots are all clinched, but no seed from No. 1-9 is secured. The bottom half of the playoff table is especially tight, and the Colorado Rapids, Minnesota United, and Vancouver Whitecaps will all fight to avoid the Wild Card round.
The Rapids play at Austin FC, Minnesota will host St. Louis, and the Whitecaps travel to Real Salt Lake — each game presents difficult challenges with positional implications.
The Battle of LA
At the top of the standings, bragging rights in the West are between the LA Galaxy and LAFC, with the chance that one overtakes the other for the top place in the West.
The revived and rejuvenated Galaxy, who currently reside atop the Western table, go on the road to Houston to finish the season. The Dynamo have been a firm mid-table team and could shock LA, while LAFC faces the lowly San Jose Earthquakes, the worst franchise in all of MLS this season by a wide margin.
Coaches on the Hot Seat
While a number of coaches this season were fired, a few still remain with question marks. If by some chance CF Montréal fails to qualify for the MLS postseason, then Laurent Courtois could be gone, given the trigger-happy history of owner Joey Saputo when it comes to managers.
Then there’s Peter Vermes. The longest-tenured active manager in MLS has won plenty with Sporting Kansas City, but things have begun to turn stale in recent seasons. KC will miss the playoffs for the second time in four years, and the team hasn’t won anything since the 2017 U.S. Open Cup. Could it be time to move on from the historic manager?
Prediction: Vermes stays.
