There's still plenty of time for movement, but the playoff picture is becoming clearer by the week in the West. With just a few short weeks to Decision Day, here's how I'm sizing up Seattle's biggest competitors that stand between them and a theoretical MLS Cup run, regardless of where the Rave Green finish on the table.
1 LAFC
They only just vaulted over Seattle into fourth place, but if the playoffs started today, I'd have a hard time picking against LAFC as the odds-on favorite. Son Heung-Min has formed a terrifying duo with Denis Bouanga that has been running riot on MLS defenses, with the two combining for 14 goals in their last five games. With Bouanga's hat trick on Sunday against Real Salt Lake, LAFC became the first club to have a player record a hat trick in three consecutive matches (Bouanga has two, Son has the other). The only case against them might be a thin back line without the injured Aaron Long, but when you're producing this efficiently in attack, that might not even matter.
2 Vancouver Whitecaps
After a torrid start to the season and a run to the Concacaf Champions Cup final, Vancouver came back to earth for a while, to the point where I had stopped really considering them as a serious threat to make it out of the West. In the last few weeks, though, they've reasserted themselves as a genuine contender. Consider their September: They started it by waxing a rotated-but-still-formidable Philadelphia Union side 7-0 at BC Place, then advanced to the Canadian Championship final with a convincing win over CPL side Forge FC. On Saturday, they cruised at Sporting Kansas City 2-0, moving their goal differential on the season up to a league-leading +25. We should learn a lot about where Seattle falls in this conversation when these sides face off at Lumen Field this weekend.
3 San Diego FC
We saw St. Louis CITY SC put up a magical, record-breaking expansion season a couple of years ago, and it turned out to be largely fraudulent. That is not the case with this San Diego side, which is currently leading the pack in the West with 57 points, and might have the best non-Lionel Messi player in the league right now in Anders Dreyer. I have no questions as to whether they're for real from a quality standpoint, but I do think their underwhelming performance in Leagues Cup showed the difficulty of winning a tournament as a first-year club that's never played together in these settings. That'll be what they have to prove, but if I've seen any expansion team in the last few years that could do it, it's Mikey Varas' side.
4 Minnesota United
They've been proving me wrong all season, and they very well could again, but I've been selling this Minnesota side as a contender for a while. I'll give them credit for executing their anti-possession, set-piece-oriented tactics to great effect, as we saw them do against Seattle a few weeks ago. As much as I don't like watching it, it is genuinely impressive, and far be it from me to question a method that has them in prime position to get homefield advantage in the playoffs. But can you really win a trophy while actively refusing to ever play with the ball? When they have to play against the league's top defensive sides, I think the Loons might not like the answer they get to that question.
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Catching up on Sounder at Heart
Here's what you missed on the site this week.
Sounders
Next match: Saturday, Sept. 27 vs. Vancouver Whitecaps FC | 7:30 pm PT | MLS Season Pass / Apple TV+
- Abysmal in Austin: Seattle concede another late winner
- Postgame Pontifications: It’s the little things
- Seattle Sounders at Austin FC: community player ratings form
- Austin FC vs. Sounders: Highlights, stats and quotes
- Lobbing Scorchers Kickoff: What went wrong at Austin FC?
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Reign
Next match: Sunday, Sept. 28 vs. North Carolina Courage | 5:00 pm PT | Paramount+
- Reign "infuriated" as Kansas City Current wins game and Shield
- Reign at Current: Highlights, stats, quotes
- Valkyratings: A late, late winner
Defiance
Next match: Sunday, Sept. 28 at The Town FC | 5:00 pm PT | MLS Season Pass
Looking back at the news
Everything else you need to know
Former Liverpool manager Matt Beard dies aged 47 (BBC)
Ballon d'Or 2025 results: PSG's Ousmane Dembélé, Barcelona's Aitana Bonamtí earn prestigious award (Yahoo Sports)
Dembélé's Ballon d'Or win feels like the dawn of a new era (ESPN)
What We Learned: FC Cincinnati's Brazilian stars, Matt Freese denies Charlotte (MLSsoccer)
Young Players: Who stepped up in Matchday 35? (MLSsoccer)
Lionel Messi's right-hand man Sergio Busquets to retire from football at end of Inter Miami's 2025 MLS season (GOAL)
NWSL Power Rankings: Marta's Orlando Pride in nine-game rut (ESPN)
Record-breaking KC Current wins NWSL Shield with five games to spare (KSHB 41 Kansas City)
Denis Bouanga, Son Heung-min make MLS history as Carlos Vela watches on (Sports Illustrated)
