MLS gets more unbalanced every season. This year, teams played just six games against the opposite conference (seven, in the case of a few Western Conference teams), and 28 against their own conference (again, some Western Conference teams played 27, which is why the standings are sorted by PPG).

We did this last year before the playoffs, and so I figured it was time to do this year’s version, too.

WESTERN

Rk Team Conf Pts PPG W-L-T GF-GA GD OVERALL Record GF-GA GD
1 Seattle 47 1.68 13-7-8 37-26 11 53 14-9-11 41-32 9
2 Los Angeles FC 46 1.64 13-8-7 47-33 14 52 14-10-10 54-39 15
3 St. Louis 44 1.63 13-9-5 48-37 11 56 17-12-5 62-45 17
4 Kansas City 43 1.54 12-9-7 45-40 5 44 12-14-8 48-51 -3
5 Houston 40 1.48 11-9-7 44-31 13 51 14-11-9 51-38 13
6 Dallas 40 1.48 10-7-10 34-27 7 46 11-10-13 41-37 4
7 Portland 39 1.39 10-9-9 38-42 -4 43 11-13-10 46-58 -12
8 San Jose 37 1.32 9-9-10 34-38 -4 44 10-10-14 39-43 -4
9 Minnesota 35 1.30 9-10-8 39-40 -1 41 10-13-11 46-51 -5
10 Vancouver 36 1.29 9-10-9 43-43 0 48 12-10-12 55-48 7
11 Salt Lake 34 1.26 9-11-7 35-43 -8 50 14-12-8 48-50 -2
12 LA Galaxy 30 1.07 6-10-12 45-58 -13 36 8-14-12 51-67 -16
13 Austin 27 0.96 7-15-6 40-51 -11 39 10-15-9 49-55 -6
14 Colorado 23 0.85 4-12-11 19-39 -20 27 5-17-12 26-54 -28
  • The surprise here is Sporting KC, which was one of the best teams in the West in conference games, just four points behind Seattle. SKC snuck into the playoffs on the final day, but between this and their recent form, they’re a dark-horse pick in the West.
  • Vancouver and Real Salt Lake made the playoffs comfortably, thanks to their results against the East. Against the West only, both would have been out of the playoffs.
  • St. Louis City also dropped a bit, given that they earned 12 points against the East, as did Vancouver - and Austin, which was undefeated against the East.
  • Stop me if you’ve heard this about the West, but there’s no real separation here.

EASTERN

Rk Team Conf Pts PPG W-L-T GF-GA GD OVERALL Record GF-GA GD
1 Cincinnati 56 2.00 16-4-8 49-31 18 69 20-5-9 57-39 18
2 Orlando City 50 1.79 14-6-8 47-33 14 63 18-7-9 55-39 16
3 Philadelphia 49 1.75 14-7-7 52-34 18 55 15-9-10 57-41 16
4 Columbus 47 1.68 13-7-8 55-38 17 57 16-9-9 67-46 21
5 New England 47 1.68 13-7-8 49-36 13 55 15-9-10 58-46 12
6 New York 39 1.39 11-11-6 31-31 0 43 11-13-10 36-39 -3
7 Nashville 37 1.32 10-11-7 29-28 1 49 13-11-10 39-32 7
8 Atlanta 37 1.32 9-9-10 51-49 2 51 13-9-12 66-53 13
9 New York City 35 1.25 8-9-11 30-33 -3 41 9-11-14 35-39 -4
10 Charlotte 35 1.25 8-9-11 35-40 -5 43 10-11-13 45-52 -7
11 D.C. United 32 1.14 8-12-8 38-42 -4 40 10-14-10 45-49 -4
12 Montréal 31 1.11 9-15-4 25-44 -19 41 12-17-5 36-52 -16
13 Chicago 28 1.00 6-12-10 33-45 -12 40 10-14-10 39-51 -12
14 Miami 27 0.96 7-15-6 34-45 -11 34 9-18-7 41-54 -13
15 Toronto 20 0.71 4-16-8 24-53 -29 22 4-20-10 26-59 -33
  • Atlanta led MLS with 14 points against the opposite conference; Cincinnati and Orlando City were just behind, with 13.
  • Toronto earned just two points against the West, but that wasn’t exactly out of line with the rest of their year.
  • Cincinnati is still head-and-shoulders ahead of the pack in the East; there’s another real drop-off between New England and the rest.

Congratulations, of course, to your conference Supporters’ Shield winners: Cincinnati and Seattle! I assume Cincy is going to head back to the airport for another celebration.