MLS’s journey at the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup is in the books, and for this league of ours, it was a tournament of validation and, for lack of a better word, demarcation.
All three participants – Seattle Sounders FC, LAFC and Inter Miami CF – earned a legit amount of respect for their performance on the global stage, providing solid data that the league’s top end can absolutely hang (unless you’re facing a motivated Paris Saint-Germain in an air-conditioned building).
Miami’s run to the knockout rounds featured two historic results and drew eyeballs; LAFC’s backline held firm throughout and helped them register a point in the final group stage game; and while Seattle lost all three games they played in the Group of Death, they looked like a team that’s been here before, because they have.
In a tournament that often exposes the soft underbelly of developing leagues, the MLS entrants showed backbone, won some fans, and probably over-delivered on expectations in eight of 10 outings. That matters.
But if you were hoping for a 2012 Corinthians-style fairytale, or a 2025 Al Hilal-esque flex, you might’ve come away feeling slightly underfed. Each of the MLS sides hit a hard ceiling, and that ceiling was built not just by the likes of PSG and Chelsea, but by clubs from Brazil, Egypt and Tunisia. Tactically, technically and especially in defensive transition, the trio of MLS sides were good, but not ruthless and precise enough to turn advantage into goals. You can drill build-out play. You can even coach up your pressing triggers and cause real problems for some of the best teams in the world.
But the final 20 yards of elite soccer? That’s Jan Oblak stuffing Danny Musovski on the doorstep. That’s David Martínez slightly overcooking a cross. That’s the line of demarcation.
WHAT'S NEXT?
This isn’t a “burn it all down” moment. It’s more of a “tighten the bolts” checkpoint. All three MLS reps showed tactical maturity, structural coherence (I remain shocked that this was the case from Miami, who are so often so gappy in league play), and individual quality.
The building blocks are in place, and there were long stretches where you didn’t have to squint to see the vision: LAFC’s counter-slicing through a scrambled Chelsea defense, or Seattle’s midfield triangle closing shop against wave after wave of Atleti attackers. Leo Messi dropping deep to get on the ball while Telasco Segovia ghosted across the box to finish a gorgeous, flowing movement against Porto.
But the best teams don’t just flash; they sustain. And while that proved to be a bridge too far for the MLS sides, it wasn’t for the cadre of clubs from Brazil. They’ve become a mirror MLS should keep gazing into because of the way they’ve blended their age-old commitment to building from within (nobody takes #PlayYourKids more seriously than Brazilian sides) with a very recent commitment to going toe-to-toe with European giants in the transfer market.
That is this league’s next rung.
So, glass half full: MLS sent three teams to the Club World Cup and each played like they belonged, especially on tactical and structural levels. I remain very, very encouraged by that (I like when things confirm my priors).
But glass half honest? There’s a gap. It’s narrower than it used to be, but it’s still there and it’s still meaningful. The challenge now is what it’s always been: get sharper at the top of the roster, get deeper in the middle and bottom, and keep stacking reps in meaningful international competitions. Because the next time this tournament rolls around, the goal can’t just be to show well. It has to be to take a step forward. And you only really do that when you win.
WINNERS & LOSERS
Winner: Seattle’s academy-to-first team pipeline
- Obed Vargas put forth the kinds of performances that will get him an eight-figure move to a European team. He’s taken a massive step forward this year, and his showing across the group stage was probably a 90th percentile outcome.
- Jackson Ragen and Paul Rothrock are local guys who came through the academy, went to college, and then worked their way to the first team via the club’s MLS NEXT Pro side in Tacoma. Ragen was awesome; Rothrock was very useful.
- Reed Baker-Whiting still, at times, doesn’t really look like a defender. But he was dangerous going forward from left back and didn’t once look overawed.
- Kalani Kossa-Rienzi and Alex Roldan are both examples of how important it is for MLS teams to take the NEXT Pro pathway seriously. Both guys were drafted and developed in Tacoma (Roldan more than half a decade ago, but still). Both guys were very good.
- Georgi Minoungou and Osaze De Rosario were scouted and signed from elsewhere, and like Kossa-Rienzi, Ragen and the rest mentioned above, they developed significantly with the Defiance. Neither really made a mark in the tournament, but both played, and the game didn’t look too fast for them.
When I wrote above how the challenge now is to “get deeper in the middle and bottom” of the roster, this is what I mean. The Sounders have the blueprint and are liberal in applying it to high-upside local kids, SuperDraft picks, or unpolished gems they’ve scouted.
Doing so keeps the floor high.
Loser: Pedro de la Vega and Nouhou Tolo
De la Vega is a DP, which means he’s supposed to raise the ceiling and win the Sounders the occasional game. He doesn’t and hasn’t.
Part of that might be the way he’s deployed (I would love to see this guy finally get a start at left wing), but at some point, he’s got to deliver goals and assists if he’s going to justify the outlay.
I think Nouhou, meanwhile, straight-up cost Seattle a result against Botafogo with his petulant first-half yellow that led to the Copa Libertadores champions’ opener. He got benched the next time out, and I wouldn’t be shocked if he falls out of the XI for most of the rest of the season (though he’ll be back in the lineup this weekend).
Winner: John Thorrington’s player acquisition policy
LAFC rely upon signing guys in their prime, and those guys almost uniformly looked good (even the few who’ve aged out of their prime, like defenders Ryan Hollingshead and Aaron Long). Sergi Palencia at right back, Mark Delgado and Timothy Tillman in central midfield… none of them found themselves in over their head.
Nor did Igor Jesus, the 22-year-old Brazilian d-mid who I thought was LAFC’s best player. He’s the one young guy Thorrington bet big on this winter, and he more than justified that wager.
All of this happening in conjunction with Olivier Giroud’s ineffectiveness and eventual exit makes me think that the next DP coming through the door will be on the right side of 30. And I think that bodes very well for the Black & Gold for the rest of the decade.
Loser: The inflexibility of LAFC’s game model
The two games where MLS teams disappointed were Miami’s first half vs. PSG and LAFC’s loss to ES Tunis. A good chunk of the focus on that ES Tunis loss went to Denis Bouanga’s late PK, which was saved, and fair enough – a player of Bouanga’s stature in that moment is supposed to bury it and give his team the point.
But more telling, I thought, was LAFC’s inability to gash the Tunisians out of midfield, or to create anything via possession. Delgado and Tillman are both good players, but neither picks locks when the opponents are sitting in a little bit, and that was most of the story of this game.
LAFC have to get some creativity back into the center of the park and be willing to use it. Otherwise, it’s just all Bouanga, all the time, and that’s not the right recipe.
Winner: Miami’s academy products
- Noah Allen started all four games and played every available minute before being taken off via injury midway through the first half against PSG. He wasn’t perfect – he conceded a (soft) PK against Porto – but he played two different spots at a high level, and competes like hell.
- Benja Cremaschi offered not just energy, but a kind of headiness in terms of finding spots as a release valve in possession. He remains super dynamic in transitioning from attack to defense, blunting opposing sequences before they really have a chance to get going, which was a huge part of this team’s success against Porto. I like him better as a midfielder than an attacker, for what it’s worth.
- The turning point in Miami’s group stage performance came at halftime of the opener when Toto Avilés was subbed off and Ian Fray, who’d started at right back, was moved to center back in Javier Mascherano’s back four. Fray was awesome in the second half, both in terms of how he read the game and how much ground he covered, and then repeated the trick for 79 minutes against Porto before having to come off with yet another injury (poor kid is cursed).
The Herons are building out a Seattle-like floor for this squad. Fray, Allen and Cremaschi are huge parts of it.
I wish David Ruiz were healthy so we could’ve seen him get some minutes, too.
Loser: Avilés and Federico Redondo
There just hasn’t been much to suggest these guys should be the starters when other options are available. Getting sub-par contributions out of two of the premium roster slots – they're U22 Initiative guys – makes it tough to weather injuries and absences, even when you're doing a good job of raising the floor via the academy.
