2025 MLS Week 22 Power Rankings

The Week 22 Power Rankings:

1. SAN DIEGO FC (+4) | 2-0 W SKC

Back atop the rankings is San Diego FC, who is led by the potential current MVP leader in Anders Dreyer. He's been unstoppable over the course of the season and it shows in the table. Chucky Lozano has gained some momentum as well, making for an increasingly dangerous team. The youth defensively has played well, though of course that becomes a bit more concerning come playoff time.

2. PHILADELPHIA UNION (-) | 1-1 D TFC

Philadelphia had to have a clean sheet win over Toronto FC, but a late game lapse stole two points out of their hands. Indiana Vassilev's goal did not quite hold up and the Union's back line picked up all sorts of yellow cards. It wasn't a great performance for the team currently grasping the top spot in the Eastern Conference.

3. ORLANDO CITY SC (+4) | 4-1 W MIA

Martin Ojeda is the best player in Major League Soccer at the moment. He's recorded a goal contribution of some sort in each of his last 13 games. It's been an absurd run for him and his squad has started an astronomical rise up the table. Luis Muriel has started to bang goals in as well, and the whole team as a unit is just a scary one to play against. A 4-1 win over Inter Miami staked their claim as a contender in the East.

4. FC CINCINNATI (-3) | 1-0 L CLT

It figures that Cincinnati got back to the summit and immediately crumbled. It always seems to happen with this team, who took a rough home loss to Charlotte. Evander has struggled to get anything going in three straight games and Cincy ended up playing a man down at the end of the loss. The +7 GD is a telling number compared to the teams both above and below them in the East, there's got to be more consistency before it's too late.

5. INTER MIAMI CF (-2) | 4-1 L ORL

As bad as the loss was, Miami still has just 23 games played. Games in hand don't matter until they turn into three points, but they are able to climb all the way atop the East if they do flip those into wins. The rough week for teams at the top of the East has left things wide open. Lionel Messi is getting ready to work back from his injury and get back into the squad, and things will turn back in their favor when that happens of course.

6. VANCOUVER WHITECAPS (-2) | 2-1 L SJ

Just a horrible loss for a Vancouver team trying to re-prove themselves. After having nothing going all game on a brutal double yellow card for Edier Ocampo early on in the first half, Brian White tied it in the dying moments. The Whitecaps couldn't hold and instead conceded in stoppage time to lose in San Jose. They hardly had the ball a man down and took a loss that won't hurt them too much table-wise—it's just a bad loss for team morale.

7. CHARLOTTE FC (+3) | 1-0 W FCC

Charlotte is red hot. Wilfried Zaha vollied home the winner late in the match in Cincinnati to earn them their fifth straight victory. Idan Toklomati remained on fire with a header to set it up. Kristijan Kahlina was fantastic with his eight saves and the clean sheet. The Crown still sit seventh in the conference, but they'd be tied for fourth in the West, just for reference. It's been a true whirlwind of a campaign but Charlotte FC is absolutely back.

8. COLUMBUS CREW (-) | N/A

Columbus did not play due to baseball field tax.

9. NASHVILLE SC (-3) | 3-1 L STL

Nashville is melting. A loss to St. Louis City is bad enough, but to give up three goals is just unacceptable. St. Louis has hardly done anything well all year and for a team with hopes as high as Nashville, letting them bang goals in is nothing short of a disaster. They're still third in the East right now, but Sam Surridge and company are entering a rut. Nashville needs to climb out of this immediatealy because they haven't been playing their brand of soccer lately.

10. SEATTLE SOUNDERS (+1) | 4-0 W LA

Seattle has finally turned the corner they've been expecting to, to the tune of zero losses since the Club World Cup. They are undefeated in 10 games across all competitions and sport a +13 GD across their last four wins combined. Danny Musovski has been the unexpected hero for this side in the goal scroing department. Shoutout to Snyder Brunell scoring a goal in his MLS debut. The Sounders are gunning for the Western Conference at the moment.

11. MINNESOTA UNITED (-2) | 2-1 L COL

Minnesota United isn't in a great spot right now. Leagues Cup was a huge letdown and they returned to MLS play with a home loss to Colorado. Tani Oluwaseyi has been producing, but production really stops there. Joaquin Pereyra isn't impacting the game on an every night basis anymore and Kelvin Yeboah hasn't been the player he was at the end of last season. The Loons' system isn't very fun and when it doesn't work, it's not a good watch.

12. NEW YORK CITY FC (-) | N/A

At least the stadium will be built in a few years.

13. LOS ANGELES FC (+1) | 2-2 D CHI

Heung-min Son stole the headlines with his MLS debut off the bench and the drawn penalty that drew the game. Denis Bouanga didn't give up the ensuing pen, though, and slotted it to complete a comeback 2-2 tie. Still, LAFC wants more. It hasn't really kicked in yet and this team can reach heights so much higher than the performances they're currently putting in. With that being said, they've still got games in hand and are in a lovely position to start that uptick now.

14. CHICAGO FIRE (+1) | 2-2 D LAFC

Chicago Fire is holding onto the final play-in spot at the moment, but again too bad they're in such a competitive conference. Philip Zinckernagel has played a fantastic season and had both assists in the draw. Jonathan Bamba contributed a goal as well. The Fire are unbeaten in their last four contests and are desperately trying to hold onto a playoff spot, though this final stretch will not make that task an easy one.

15. PORTLAND TIMBERS (-2) | 2-0 L DAL

Portland took a heartbreaking blow in its elimination from the Leagues Cup despite not actually losing a game, and carried that bad energy into a 2-0 loss to FC Dallas. They simply didn't do anything and that's not a great formula to win games. They had more of the ball, but that turned into very few meaningful chances and the roller coaster ride of the Timbers' season continues. They're two games over .500 yet have a -1 GD, and that tells a lot about the kind of road this team has been on.

16. AUSTIN FC (+1) | 2-2 D HOU

Austin has still scored just 23 goals all season, which is less than one per game. That is truly an embarrassing number for a team still in the race—it ranks second to last in MLS. On the bright side, they've conceded just 28 goals, which cancels that out at second-best in the league. Austin is such a strange team and being unable to hold a 2-0 lead in the 80th minute just added another layer to that. Osman Bukari set up Guilherme Biro for a goal with an unbelievable display of dribbling, but it didn't last for the playoff hopefuls.

17. NEW YORK RED BULLS (+1) | 2-1 W RSL

It feels like Eric Choupo-Moting has scored late goals all season long, and he did it once again with a stoppage time penalty kick at 90+9'. He actually missed one minutes earlier, but took again and made up for it. The Red Bulls have been late-game merchants and the three points against Real Salt Lake were a massive one in that same fashion. Kyle Duncan and Diego Luna both got red cards late in the game, but New York is thrilled to take a win and inch closer to prolonging the playoff streak.

18. SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES (+1) | 2-1 W VAN

The San Jose Earthquakes completed a surprising win over the Vancouver Whitecaps to climb back into that final play-in spot. The early red card for the opponents allowed the Quakes to control the game, but it still wasn't easy. It took a Preston Judd winner in the final moments to secure all three points and a huge home win. Mark-Anthony Kaye bossed the midfield and San Jose got the job done in the end.

19. COLORADO RAPIDS (+1) | 2-1 W MIN

Well, that trade was quite the shocker. The Rapids traded away Djordje Mihailovic and immediately grabbed a fabulous 2-1 away win at Minnesota, which is not an easy place to win games. Darren Yapi stole the headlines with a brace, with the help of Rafael Navarro. Cole Bassett is trying to get back into form as more of a creative player with Mihailovic gone. Navarro has been a solid chance creator as well from his striker position throughout the year and will need to continue that trend.

20. REAL SALT LAKE (-4) | 2-1 L RBNY

After what was a good run for RSL, they took a rough loss against the New York Red Bulls. They gave up two late penalties and the latter was smashed home to send Salt Lake below the playoff line. They're still right there and are very much capable of making it, but they've scored just 27 goals this season and need more production going forward. Zavier Gozo has given the team some spark and the midfield pairing is playing good ball, but it's going to take more from Diego Luna, who was sent off in the loss.

21. FC DALLAS (+1) | 2-0 W POR

Don't count FC Dallas out yet either. Petar Musa is getting hot when it matters and has been unstoppable in the scoring department recently. Osaze Urhoghide is finally fully back from his injury and it showed in a clean sheet for Dallas. If Musa can keep banging in goals and the defense plays more like they did in the win over Portland, there is certainly a shot at the postseason for Dallas.

22. HOUSTON DYNAMO (-1) | 2-2 D ATX

Jack McGlynn is an absolute hero. He created a whopping eight chances against Austin FC and saw none of them finished off, so he went ahead and scored twice in the final 10 minutes to equalize after facing a 2-0 deficit. McGlynn has been magical all season for Houston, but this was a whole other level of heroics. The Dynamo are in the same spot as FC Dallas currently—it's going to be a dogfight for that final spot in the West, probably even the final few spots.

23. CF MONTREAL (+1) | 1-1 D ATL

Dante Sealy continued his stretch of success with the opening goal against Atlanta. It didn't hold up, but Montreal has been a whole lot better as of late. The playoffs are not an option, but they're showing some fight. Montreal just needs to spend on the roster in the midfield and on the front line if they want to see results. Efrain Morales' revenge game ended tied.

24. TORONTO FC (+1) | 1-1 D PHI

TFC added Mihailovic and he helped the team tie Philadelphia 1-1 on the road. It was a great draw to earn for a team building towards next year. Mihailovic created four chances in his debut, which is what he will be asked to do for years to come. WIth an actual team around him, and Toronto has the resources to get that part done for 2026, there's a glimmer of hope.

25. NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION (+3) | 2-0 W DC

There's a few reasons why the Revolution snapped their nine-game unbeaten run, but the main one is that they played DC United. The Fort politely asked DCU if they could play them every week, in chant form. Matt Turner's return consisted of a three-save clean sheet at Gillette Stadium. Carles Gil is still that guy and Leo Campana got on the board in headed fashion. It seems that Caleb Porter will lead the way for the future regardless, but New England is already too far gone in 2025.

26. ST. LOUIS CITY SC (+3) | 3-1 W NSH

St. Louis came out of nowhere to manhandle Nashville SC. Jaziel Orozco's first City goal started the party, and it lasted all night long. Nashville attempted the comeback in the closing minutes but fell well short in the end. Eduard Lowen is back in the lineup and playing well in the center of midfield. It's a surprising win, but it's not going to change anything in terms of the state of the club. New additions Devin Padelford and Sang Bin Jeong did both contribute to goals, though.

27. SPORTING KANSAS CITY (-4) | 2-0 L SD

SKC stood no chance against San Diego at home, but the stats of the game suggest otherwise. They had over one more expected goal and outshot their opponents by a wide margin. SKC just wasn't clinical and failed to score on 21 shots, while SDFC scored twice on five shots that were all on target. Even though the point totals aren't impossibly far away, playoffs aren't on the menu this deep into the campaign.

28. ATLANTA UNITED (-1) | 1-1 D MTL

Another week, another Atlanta failure to win a game. They are now 4-10-11 with just 30 goals for after signing Emmanuel Latte Lath and Miguel Almiron ahead of this season. There's just no reason this team should be at the bottom of the league, and yet they prove everyone otherwise on a weekly basis. Atlanta has some talented players, but they're ones that clearly don't work in the system or at the club. It'll be interesting to see how the club tries to fix this one.

29. LA GALAXY (-3) | 4-0 L SEA

LA Galaxy were actually trending positively prior to getting smoked 4-0 at home against Seattle. It all came crashing down in a game they had absolutely no foothold in. Riqui Puig is coming back from injury but it may not even be worth putting him out there this year. This season has been over for a long, long time, and after another disheartening result, things are back to looking grim.

30. DC UNITED (-) | 2-0 L NE

What else is there to say about a team as bad as DC United for as long as DC United? There's never any hope here, and poor Christian Benteke needs to move on for his own mental health. A bad team, a badly run club and a perennial Wooden Spoon contender powerhouse.