MLS Cup Race: Who Looks Strongest One Month After the World Cup

Last Updated on August 14, 2026 4:33 pm by Erwin Noguera

Spain lifted the trophy in New York on July 19. MLS returned three days later, and a month on, the picture has clarified in one conference and dissolved completely in the other.

The East has two teams and a head-to-head meeting this weekend that could settle the Supporters’ Shield. The West has four clubs at the top, and not one of them appears remotely interested in pulling away.

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Here is who actually looks strongest.

Inter Miami: The Strongest Team in the League

Miami sits at the top of the power rankings and is one point behind Nashville in the Shield standings, and the reason is a 39-year-old Uruguayan.

Luis Suárez has seven goals in four matches, including a long-range strike against Columbus that had no business going in. He has been the best player in MLS since the restart, at an age where that should not be possible.

The Casemiro experience has been more complicated. He arrived with no training time and looked composed in his debut, then scored an own goal against Columbus in a 2-2 draw that cost Miami the chance to draw level at the top. Interesting rather than transformative, so far.

What makes them the strongest team is depth of quality rather than form. Lionel Messi and Rodrigo De Paul are back from the World Cup final. Suárez is scoring at a rate nobody else in the league is matching. Casemiro will improve as he integrates. The defending MLS Cup champions have more talent available than anybody.

They travel to Nashville on August 15. That match decides the Shield race and possibly the Eastern Conference.

Nashville SC: Leading, and Showing Cracks

Nashville remain top of the Supporters’ Shield standings. The qualifier matters; for now.

They have been lacklustre across their last four matches, most recently drawing 2-2 at D.C. United after leading 2-0 at halftime. That is the second time in three weeks they have failed to close out a winnable game.

The deeper concern is that the underlying numbers have never fully believed in this team. Nashville built a historic points total through the first half of the season. Only three teams in MLS history have accumulated as many through 14 games, while the expected-goals data suggested they were outperforming their process. Those cracks are now appearing in results.

Sam Surridge and Hany Mukhtar have both cooled considerably since the break. Brian Schwake remains excellent in goal, which is what has kept the lead intact.

Verdict: still the team to beat on points, no longer the team to beat on performance.

The Western Conference: Nobody Wants It

The most striking thing about the West is that four teams are jostling at the top and every one of them is stumbling.

Vancouver drew 1-1 with LAFC in a top-of-the-table meeting and needed a late Thomas Müller penalty to salvage it. They were the better side, which is something. They also sold Sebastian Berhalter to Middlesbrough for a reported $2 million; a good return and a great story for the player, and a real question mark for a club that was leading the conference. Keeping him for a trophy run in the final months of his contract was the other option.

LAFC went 1-0 up through Son Heung-Min against Vancouver and then, in the words of MLS’s own writers, called it a night. They finished with one point, one goal, and one shot on target. After outscoring opponents 10-1 across their first three matches back, the familiar flaws against high-level opposition resurfaced immediately.

San Jose have taken one point from three matches since the restart. Timo Werner is back in the lineup, and it has not helped. A 4-2 loss at Cincinnati was their third stumble in a row.

Houston are the exception, quietly rising to fourth after a 2-0 win at ten-man Sporting Kansas City. Solid, unspectacular, and currently the most functional team in the conference.

The honest assessment: the Western Conference has no dominant team. Whoever gets hot in October wins it.

The Teams Actually Trending Upward

Portland Timbers

Ten points from a possible twelve since the restart, and since parting ways with Phil Neville.

Portland opened with a 5-1 win over Seattle and then beat them again 2-1, with Brandon Bye scoring in the 82nd minute. Beating your biggest rival twice in a month is the kind of run that changes a season’s direction. Martí Cifuentes has taken over as permanent head coach.

St. Louis City SC

Nine matches unbeaten across all competitions after a 1-1 draw with Real Salt Lake, and nobody outside Missouri has noticed.

They have climbed to seventh in the West and sit three points off fourth. Danish international Carlo Holse arrives as a Designated Player and will debut soon. This is the most optimistic the club has felt since its inaugural 2023 season.

Philadelphia Union

The team that was thirtieth in a thirty-team league in June has won all three matches since play resumed.

The most recent was extraordinary. Philadelphia trailed Atlanta 2-0 heading into the 70th minute despite the opposition going down to ten men in the 27th. Milan Iloski pulled one back in the 73rd. Neil Pierre equalised in the sixth minute of stoppage time. One minute later, Ezekiel Alladoh scored his first goal since arriving as the club’s record signing to win it 3-2.

Cavan Sullivan and the young core are driving this. They climbed six places in a week.

Chicago Fire

Robert Lewandowski has arrived properly. His first and second MLS goals delivered a 2-1 win over Charlotte and Chicago’s first points since the restart, moving them up seven places to fifth.

They also went perfect through Phase One of the Leagues Cup. After two losses to open the post-World Cup period, the Fire have turned it around quickly.

The Collapse

Seattle Sounders have lost all four matches since the World Cup break and six in a row dating back to May 16. Two of those defeats came against Portland.

They now occupy the final playoff spot in the West. For a club that does not panic and rarely needs to, this is the worst run in recent memory, and the injuries that have plagued them for several seasons are no longer a sufficient explanation.

Atlanta United sit at the bottom of the entire league. Emmanuel Latte Lath (a $22 million signing) has been loaned to Union Berlin as one of the most underwhelming acquisitions in MLS history. They led Philadelphia 2-0 late, and lost 3-2.

Toronto have gone 13 matches across all competitions without a win.

Who Looks Strongest

Inter Miami. Suárez at seven goals in four games, Messi and De Paul back, Casemiro settling, and the deepest squad in the league. The defending champions have the highest ceiling of anybody.

Nashville are the challenger, not the favourite. They hold the points lead and have been unconvincing for a month. Saturday’s meeting with Miami will tell us a great deal.

In the West, take Vancouver by default. They were the better team against LAFC, they lead on goal difference, and they are the most complete of a flawed group. But losing Berhalter matters, and this is the weakest a Western Conference leader has looked in years.

The dark horse is Portland. Ten points from twelve, a new permanent manager, and two wins over Seattle. If the Timbers keep this up, they are the team nobody wants in a single-elimination playoff.

The Match That Matters

Nashville SC vs. Inter Miami, Saturday, August 15.

First against second in the Shield race, in the East, between a team that has been lacklustre for a month and a team that has been the best in the league without quite converting it into points.

Everything about the Eastern Conference runs through ninety minutes in Nashville.