2025 MLS Week 17 Power Rankings

The Week 17 Power Rankings:

1. VANCOUVER WHITECAPS (+1) | 5-3 L SD, 1-0 W LAFC

The Vancouver Whitecaps are back. Sure, things were a bit gloomy after the CCC final loss, but a gritty 1-0 road win against LAFC tells all. This teams knows how to win games, at any cost, and with few chances. Vancouver leads the league in clean sheets for a reason as well, the defensive effort has been top class. Emmanuel Sabbi scored the winner to rocket the Whitecaps back into winning ways and there's no reason why that won't continue, especially when their Gold Cup absences return.

2. NASHVILLE SC (+1) | 3-2 W NE, 1-0 W DC

Nashville SC cannot be stopped. Sam Surridge cannot be stopped. Surridge has scored in six straight games and leads the league all alone with 16 goals—by quite a margin. Nashville has not been left pointless since mid-April, and it's now July already, believe it or not. A total of 10 goals across the last six games from Surridge has propelled this team into the very upper echelon in MLS. This has been one of the best runs this club has ever seen, but the upcoming stretch is going to be very difficult.

3. SAN DIEGO FC (+1) | 5-3 W VAN, 3-2 W SD

Speaking of players on an absolute tear, Anders Dreyer is at the top of that list. In the last three matches, Dreyer has scored three goals and assisted five. It has been an unbelievable run for the MVP candidate on the newest MLS club. San Diego has also won four straight games and has scored 14 goals in those victories. The defensive aspects of the team are a tad concerning considering they have also conceded seven goals across the last three, but it might be okay if they're scoring at this rate. Milan Iloski needs a shoutout as well for his four goals in 12 minutes on Wednesday.

4. PHILADELPHIA UNION (-3) | 1-0 W CHI, 1-0 L CLB

Is it fair for Philly to drop three spots after months without a loss? Probably not, but they've become far less convincing as of late. The Union's most recent six MLS wins have all been by a single goal—of course all wins count the same and ask the team below about that—though Philadelphia hasn't been as dominant nursing a whole list of injuries. The lineup is very depleted at the moment, and they're going to need some guys to get back healthy right away because Kai Wagner can only do so much on his own.

5. FC CINCINNATI (-) | 3-1 W MTL, 2-1 W ORL

FC Cincinnati finally showed some conviction last week, and of course it's Evander at the forefront. A double brace week for the likely MVP favorite is not too shabby. The price tag was certainly worth every penny, which was obvious before he played a game in the shirt. Cincy won a game by multiple goals for the first time since early March, then went on the road to defeat Orlando as well in a tight match. Obinna Nwobodo and Luca Orellano being able to stay on the field would be an extra plus.

6. COLUMBUS CREW (-) | 3-1 W ATL, 1-0 W PHI

Columbus Crew edged out Philadelphia Union in a fairly boring game through Mo Farsi and grabbed an important win and second of the week. The Crew had been very shaky until the month of June, where they have started to turn things back in their favor. Daniel Gazdag has genuinely been so disappointing so far in Columbus, though. This squad has plenty of depth and a plethora of guys who can put a good shift in. They need to build upon this momentum and should be in the Eastern Conference race.

7. INTER MIAMI CF (-) | N/A

Inter Miami made it to the knockout stages of the Club World Cup before losing 4-0 to Paris Saint-Germain in the first round of the bracket.

8. MINNESOTA UNITED (+2) | 3-1 W HOU, 2-2 D RBNY

Minnesota United is finally getting some contribution from their DP striker in Kelvin Yeboah, though Anthony Markanich has been the most prolific scorer from his left wingback position. MNUFC will take a four-point week, but they probably should've defeated the Red Bulls as well, conceding a goal in the final moments. The Loons have solidified themselves as a top-three team in the West.

9. SEATTLE SOUNDERS (+5) | 2-0 W ATX

The Seattle Sounders had good performances in the Club World Cup despite the results. In their return to MLS, they pushed past Austin FC with ease, though they'll want to stop getting red cards. Jesus Ferreira came alive, which is good. It's nice to have Jackson Ragen permanently back at center back, but the central defender room is still a tad makeshift at the moment and could be a problem if it persists.

10. LOS ANGELES FC (-2) | 1-0 L VAN

LAFC probably had the worst Club World Cup performances despite the draw with Flamengo—losing to Esperance is just not a good look. They exited the tournament to lose 1-0 at home to Vancouver with a whole bunch of nothing achieved. Olivier Giroud played his final game, and his exit should really be celebrated from a roster construction standpoint. Javairo Dilrosun has been nothing short of useless so far, but LAFC has a chance to make some big moves this summer. Denis Bouanga has also been rumored to leave, so there's a chance this LAFC is completely broken apart and revamped, but time will tell.

11. ORLANDO CITY SC (-2) | 4-2 W STL, 2-1 L FCC

Orlando City truly has a star in Martin Ojeda. He's been incredible this season, as has Marco Pasalic whenever he has an opportunity to cut onto his left foot and shoot. Pasalic had a three-goal week. They took a rough loss against Cincinnati at home, but the win against St. Louis made for an acceptable week overall. Orlando is still clearly in the upper tier of Eastern Conference teams, but they've been absolutely all over the place over the course of the season.

12. NEW YORK RED BULLS (+1) | 1-1 D TFC, 2-2 D MIN

The New York Red Bulls won't hate their current situation, but they're now three games winless with two straight draws that should've been wins. They led both games, only to give away two points in both contests. Lewis Morgan is literally cursed and it seems his future in New York is getting very limited with all of his injuries. Emil Forsberg scored against Minnesota, but RBNY will want him to be a bit more involved on a regular basis. Eric Choupo-Moting rescued a late point for his 11th goal of the year. Kyle Duncan also played a fantastic game.

13. CHICAGO FIRE (+3) | 1-0 L PHI, 3-2 W CLT

Chicago Fire has quietly been stacking wins over the last couple of months, with acceptable losses to Philadelphia and Nashville. Philip Zinckernagel has also gone pretty quiet in his quality—he's been one of the most efficient players this year. Hugo Cuypers stayed on the scoresheet and Brian Gutierrez is really good at soccer when he's not doing something stupid. Chicago has some tough games upcoming, but they certainly seem like a fringe playoff team that no one really wants to see in the first round with their attacking danger.

14. NEW YORK CITY FC (-2) | 1-0 L MTL

NYCFC gets more confusing every week. Every good win is matched by a worse loss. They have now given CF Montreal two 1-0 wins. Montreal has three wins on the season, by the way. They also had that 3-0 home loss against Houston. But, they drew Nashville and destroyed Atlanta 4-0. The team really makes no sense, it's pure inconsistency. They don't have Matt Freese or Alonso Martinez to be fair—who faced off in a penalty shootout in the Gold Cup. Still, NYCFC doesn't feel much like a playoff team at the moment, but it would be quite surprising if they didn't at least make the play-in game.

15. PORTLAND TIMBERS (-4) | 3-0 L TFC

What on earth? The Portland Timbers have had things going for them across the last few months, and their fourth place position in the West proves that. They proceeded to lose 3-0 to Toronto FC, which is certainly one of the worst methods of defeat from a top-half team in 2025. Portland wasn't even in the game, either. It wasn't unlucky, they couldn't manage a single shot on goal. David da Costa hasn't been great recently and is not backing up his All-Star nod, which he probably stole from many more deserving No. 10's. The Jonathan Rodriguez debacle has not been good, and Antony being out doesn't help either.

16. SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES (+2) | 4-2 W DAL, 1-1 D LA

Beau Leroux is absolutely incredible. The would-be Rookie of the Year, if the award still existed, scored two goals from central midfield this week. He will be in the running for the Young Player of the Year award anyway. He scored an absolute screamer against LA Galaxy and helped the Earthquakes down FC Dallas. Cristian Espinoza came back alive against Dallas as well. San Jose has seen an important rise up to sixth in the West and have put themselves in a really good spot to pounce.

17. NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION (-2) | 3-2 L NSH, 3-3 D COL

The 2025 New England Revolution is a fever dream. They claim to have the best defense half the time, as they were incredibly stingy for some time. Recently, they've tied three games 3-3. They were down an embarrassing 3-0 to the Colorado Rapids at home before making a spirited comeback and made the first three-goal comeback to earn points in club history. They played well against Nashville midweek but just could not hold off the hat trick man in Sam Surridge. Leo Campana came back to start and did nothing, while Tomas Chancalay went out injured. The Revs are a revolving door of injuries in attack, and it quite literally never ends. Carles Gil is carrying the team through a rough stretch of the five-back not working, and a ton of credit goes to Alhassan Yusuf in the middle as well.

18. CHARLOTTE FC (-1) | 2-1 L SKC, 3-2 L CHI

The Crown has been stolen. It's hard to point to what exactly led to the demise of a team who was hyped up preseason and backed it up for a few months. Charlotte FC is now nothing but an afterthought. Out of their last 11 MLS matches, they've lost nine of them. They're lucky it was a great start because the season would be very much over already. They're still right there if they want to become a play-in team, but certainly not at this rate. Idan Toklomati has stepped up to score some goals, Pep Biel has done well with little, but Wilfried Zaha's frustration is prevalent with four yellow cards in his last five games. The defense is a shell of what it used to be.

19. SPORTING KANSAS CITY (+2) | 2-1 W CLT, 1-1 D RSL

Sporting Kansas City has been posting some positive results lately, and in the Western Conference, they've got a fair shot at extra soccer for how bad they started. They're still a rough 5-10-5, but it hasn't been all that bad. They have tied too many games, though. Those draws need to turn to wins if they want to make the playoffs. Getting scored on by Johnny Russell was probably a given, but Erik Thommy was able to save a point for a team who needs to keep this momentum against an unforgiving schedule. The playoffs are far from likely, but Manu Garcia and Co. have proven the ability to compete at the very least.

20. HOUSTON DYNAMO (+2) | 3-1 L MIN, 1-0 W STL

Houston Dynamo shut out St. Louis, which isn't much of a crowning achievement, but it's a win for a previously reeling team. Houston is another one of those fringe teams in the West that's plenty bad but can still make a very forgiving MLS playoff format. Three straight 3-1 losses was not great, and they need Jack McGlynn back. The signings of Duane Holmes and Pablo Ortiz—there's not much good to say about them. Felipe Andrade and Franco Escobar put up great performances and Ezequiel Ponce scored the match-winner.

21. COLORADO RAPIDS (+2) | 2-0 W LA, 3-3 D NE

The Rapids could've built some real momentum with a win in New England without Djordje Mihailovic, but they absolutely blew it for no reason. It was a pathetic choke against a team who was struggling to create chances for most of the game. Sam Vines started it all with a rough own goal, then Andreas Maxso picked a fight with the tiny Carles Gil and activated the shockingly rowdy New England home crowd. It was free-flowing in the first half, though and the win over LA Galaxy was one they had to have as well.

22. AUSTIN FC (-2) | 3-0 L SEA

Austin FC had something going with two straight wins, but a 2-0 loss in Seattle killed that. They're in the last playoff spot at the moment still. Their somehow All-Star Brandon Vazquez needs to start playing like one. There just isn't a whole lot of spark across the team, and the attacking trio worth big money has produced small money results. Again, they should be a playoff team in the wild West, but there's no deep run potential for this team if they haven't figured a thing out this deep in the year.

23. TORONTO FC (+6) | 1-1 D RBNY, 3-0 W POR

Respect to Toronto FC. They have a horrible roster construction and a brutal start to the year, but they haven't stopped fighting. Lorenzo Insigne's case to be the worst signing in league history strengthens every week. TFC is paying a bench player $15 million to play half the games and score one goal. Insigne makes more than the entire wage bill of eight teams in MLS. The youth led the way in a 3-0 thrashing of Portland Timbers, where Alonso Coello and Tyrese Spicer got the job done. Toronto's season was over before it started and is the most poorly run team around, but the players do deserve some love for effort.

24. FC DALLAS (-5) | 4-2 L SJ, 3-2 L SD

Petar Musa is back scoring goals, FC Dallas is back losing games. It feels backwards, but this defense is absolutely lost. They were already bad, but losing Osaze Urhoghide has left an even bigger hole, to the tune of nine goals conceded in three games without him. There was never really home for Dallas, even with the signing of Luciano Acosta. There's no redeeming qualities anywhere else, and two players can't be a whole soccer team. They should've beaten San Diego, drawn San Diego but did neither and lost in minute 90+6' instead.

25. REAL SALT LAKE (-1) | 1-1 D SKC

Johnny Russell scoring in such a way against Sporting Kansas City is truly poetic. Unfortunately, Real Salt Lake is not good and especially not without Diego Luna. Russell is the second leading scorer on the team now, for the record. He's played 166 minutes. At least Diogo Goncalves has been playing better, they might have something in 18-year-old Zavier Gozo but none of that matters for the current day because RSL has nowhere to go right now.

26. CF MONTREAL (+1) | 3-1 L FCC, 1-0 W NYC

CF Montreal beat NYCFC 1-0 for the second time this season, which accounts for 67 percent of their total wins this season. Victor Loturi scored the winner in an otherwise quiet game for both teams, but Montreal deserved to win. George Campbell has been solid and helped keep the clean sheet. Good for Montreal continuing to fight as well at the bottom of the East, the Canadian teams have tried if nothing else.

27. DC UNITED (-2) | 1-0 L NSH

DC United could use Christian Benteke back in their lineup, but not that it really matters anyway. Wins will hardly help at this point because they're so far out of it. They've scored once and conceded 10 goals across the last three matches since a strange win against FC Cincinnati. There's just not really anything to highlight personnel-wise, it's a team of non-factors.

28. ATLANTA UNITED (-2) | 3-1 CLB

Atlanta United shouldn't be a team of non-factors, but my word are they. This is probably the most underperforming team in league history. Think about the preseason expectations signing Miguel Almiron back alongisde Emmanuel Latte Lath. Now, Latte Lath is 93 days without a goal. That $22 million wire is starting to hurt to look at. Every possible explanation for this team's failures has been exhuasted and overrun at this point. It's time to accept that Atlanta is just a really bad team and their season is over. Garth Lagerwey is to be trusted in roster building, and he will surely redo this thing again very soon, but he seems content to keep Ronny Deila. He's got a whole lot of work to do for this team to win back even a single fan.

29. ST. LOUIS CITY SC (-1) | 4-2 L ORL, 1-0 L HOU

It's like St. Louis just keeps getting worse. Another week, another two losses for probably the most lackluster team from a pure gameplay standpoint. It's like they're just on the field to earn their paycheck and go home. There's no passion or care and for that reason, this team's campaign has very much come to an end. Joao Klauss actually scored some goals, but it's not worth much. There aren't many players that St. Louis want on this team next year to return to any semblance of success.

30. LA GALAXY (-) | 2-0 L COL, 1-1 D SJ

The season is so deep now that acceptance has been reached. LA Galaxy are the worst team in MLS one year after winning MLS Cup, the storyline has been implanted in history since week one. Letting Riqui Puig play this season would just be waste, have him ready for preseason. Now 20 matches in, the campaign can be pronounced dead for some teams, with the Galaxy obviously first on the list. A shout to Marco Reus for coming alive going forward and Gabriel Pec returning to genuine effectiveness down the wing. Otherwise, ew.