The regular season was defined by… Would a much-loved attacker in his mid-thirties who’s achieved so much in the game still have the hunger to perform and score, or was he joining MLS simply for the money and a beachfront lifestyle? Arriving from Europe during the season, could he adjust quickly? Would his brilliance almost single-handedly haul his struggling club into the playoffs? Yes, the Billy Sharp storylines were compelling all right. Lionel Messi was also fairly interesting. Tom Dart Messi. 2023 will forever be remembered as the year the GOAT arrived in Major League Soccer. Ok, so some of the best moments happened in the Leagues Cup and US Open Cup, but Lionel Messi’s decision to join Inter Miami represented a seismic shift in the American soccer landscape as a whole. It has the potential to change everything. Watching Messi in MLS will never get old. It hints at what the league could one day become. Graham Ruthven Best team that didn’t make the playoffs… “Best” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence since MLS is a league where nearly two-thirds of the teams reach the postseason, meaning that, by definition, below-average sides are rewarded. All of the sides that missed out had losing records. (So did some that qualified.) Despite finishing with the third-worst points tally in MLS, it has to be Miami, a roster with Messi, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba, Josef Martínez and DeAndre Yedlin. TD Inter Miami. They ran out of steam towards the end, but the team that finished the regular season wasn’t the one that played the first half under Phil Neville. Inter Miami simply gave themselves too much ground to make up. A full year of Messi, Alba, Busquets and Tata Martino would have seen the South Florida club comfortably finish over the playoff line in the Eastern Conference. When everyone was fit and firing, Inter Miami were the most exhilarating team in MLS. GR Your dark horses are… Houston Dynamo. Ben Olsen’s side have only lost once since being thumped 3-0 at home by Minnesota on 12 July and a fourth-place finish in the West gives them home advantage over Real Salt Lake, whom they crushed 3-0 in Utah in August. They won the Open Cup by beating Miami in Florida, the savvy Olsen is a former MLS coach of the year, the defense is stingy and veteran midfield talisman Héctor Herrera has 17 assists, second-most in MLS. Nashville SC. As seventh seeds in the East, some might expect Gary Smith’s team to fall away early in the playoffs, but this is a team that made a run to the final of Leagues Cup this summer. Knockout soccer suits Nashville. They can sit deep. They’re dangerous playing out on the counter. They have Hany Mukhtar. They won’t, however, have home field advantage at any point. Nonetheless, Nashville’s lowly seeding belies just how dangerous an opponent they will be. GR Player to watch… Roman Bürki. Goalkeepers don’t win MLS League MVP Awards – unless they’re Tony Meola – but the St Louis City number one has had a stellar season, with exceptional numbers that help explain how the unfancied expansion team overperformed (or “performed”, as they’d say in Missouri) to win the West. If he keeps it up, could the 32-year-old former Swiss international be the difference in the tight knock-out games to come? TD Duncan McGuire. If the rookie striker gets hot in the playoffs, that could be a game-changer for Orlando City. McGuire is a natural finisher, as demonstrated by his stunning first goal against Toronto FC on Decision Day and his record of 12 goals in just 1,420 regular season minutes. Nobody is truly certain how high McGuire’s ceiling is, but a strong playoff run would send his stock through the roof. It would make Orlando genuine contenders too. GR Who is on the hottest seat… It’s been a sophomore surge for Thiago Almada, the 2022 MLS Newcomer of the Year, who has 11 goals and a league-leading 19 assists for Atlanta United this term. The 22-year-old Argentina international is surely going to win Young Player of the Year. He’s essential to Atlanta’s hopes but will miss the opener in the daunting best-of-three series against Columbus thanks to a needless last-day red card. So he’ll be expected to impress when he returns for what might be his final game in MLS. TD Peter Vermes. He might be a MLS managerial legend, but the Sporting KC head coach has faced criticism from his own fans all year – particularly when SKC went winless through the first 10 games of the season. Vermes took a victory lap after securing a playoff place on Decision Day, but an eighth place regular season finish only did so much to silence the doubters. A poor playoff showing could see Vermes become a target once more. GR Team at risk of going out early… Philadelphia Union. Having been seconds away from winning MLS Cup last season, anything less than reaching the final again would be a regression. But don’t bet on it. The Union are playing the New England Revolution, who beat them on the last day of the regular season. If they navigate past New England then Supporters Shield-winning Cincinnati probably await in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Their form faltered in the closing weeks of the regular season and reports of player unrest can’t help. TD Columbus Crew. Wilfried Nancy has done an exceptional job in his first season at Columbus, but a first round meeting against Atlanta United presents an early obstacle. Atlanta might have struggled for consistency in 2023, but they boast the best pure centre forward in the league (Giorgos Giakoumakis) and one of the best midfield creators (Thiago Almada). On their day, they can beat anyone. Columbus will need to be at their best to progress. GR Eastern Conference final Cincinnati 2-1 Orlando. TD FC Cincinnati 1-2 Columbus Crew. GR Western Conference final LAFC 2-1 Houston. TD Houston Dynamo 1-2 Seattle Sounders. GR MLS Cup final Cincinnati FC. The best regular-season record, with only five defeats; home advantage; the goals and assists of Luciano Acosta, the likely 2023 League MVP. This should be FCC’s year, even though the reigning champions can boast the 2023 Golden Boot winner, the streaky Dénis Bouanga. TD Seattle Sounders. Brian Schmetzer’s outfit are the form team in the West and finished their regular season campaign with a statement win over St Louis City. The Sounders boast the league’s best defensive record and have a track record under Schmetzer of peaking at the right time in the postseason. A veteran team can still be a winning team. GR