MLS Winners and Losers of July

Last Updated on Julho 31, 2026 2:56 pm by Erwin Noguera

July was the month MLS resumed after the World Cup, and almost nothing went as the league expected. Robert Lewandowski arrived and lost twice. Antoine Griezmann arrived and beat the league’s two best teams. Inter Miami won six straight without Lionel Messi on the pitch. Seattle lost five in a row.

The All-Star Game came to Charlotte on July 29 and closed the month. Here is who gained and who lost ground across the restart.

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WINNERS

Inter Miami: Six Straight Without Messi

The defending MLS Cup champions won six consecutive matches in July and did it while their two best players were resting after the World Cup final.

Luis Suárez is the reason. He scored three goals in a single week at 39 years old, including a Panenka penalty against Montréal dedicated to the injured Germán Berterame. Miami beat Chicago 3-2 and won 1-0 at Montréal while seriously shorthanded.

Casemiro debuted against Montréal and looked exactly as composed on the ball as advertised, though the signing has drawn an MLS tampering investigation. Messi and Rodrigo De Paul return to a team that is already top of the power rankings without them.

That is the most dangerous position in the league right now.

Orlando City: The Month’s Biggest Riser

Nobody in MLS had a better July than Orlando City. They climbed eight places in the power rankings and earned every one.

Antoine Griezmann scored on his debut as Orlando destroyed San Jose 4-0, with Eduard Atuesta adding three assists. Four days later they went to work on Nashville — the best team in the league — and won 1-0 through Tyrese Spicer, set up by a spectacular Justin Ellis assist.

Beating a Western Conference contender and the league leader inside a week is impressive on its own. The bigger story is the two clean sheets. Orlando conceded 44 goals in their first 15 matches, the worst defensive record in MLS. Back-to-back shutouts against that background are a genuine structural change, not a hot streak.

Daryl Dike also arrived on a free from West Brom. Orlando now have goals and, apparently, a defence.

LAFC: The Attack Caught Fire

LAFC have outscored opponents 10-1 across three matches since the restart. Seven of those goals came in one week, in wins over Real Salt Lake and Sporting Kansas City, including a 4-0 demolition of SKC.

Denis Bouanga and Son Heung-Min scored five of the seven between them. Son had not scored a single MLS goal before the World Cup break and had endured a miserable group-stage exit with South Korea. He has now scored in three consecutive matches.

LAFC are tied on points at the top of the Western Conference and look like a team about to take the lead and hold it.

LAFC: The Attack Caught Fire

LAFC have outscored opponents 10-1 across three matches since the restart. Seven of those goals came in one week, in wins over Real Salt Lake and Sporting Kansas City, including a 4-0 demolition of SKC.

Denis Bouanga and Son Heung-Min scored five of the seven between them. Son had not scored a single MLS goal before the World Cup break and had endured a miserable group-stage exit with South Korea. He has now scored in three consecutive matches.

LAFC are tied on points at the top of the Western Conference and look like a team about to take the lead and hold it.

New York City FC: Up Eleven Places

The largest single jump of the month. NYCFC beat Columbus 2-1 and then took apart Robert Lewandowski’s Chicago Fire 3-1, with Nicolás Fernández Mercau striking a ball as hard as it is possible to strike one.

They are up to fifth in the East and on the edge of a home playoff spot. Fernández Mercau’s season output now stands at 12 goals and four assists, and he did not make the All-Star roster.

New England Revolution: The Jack Harrison Signing

New England took four points and added a Designated Player attacker who has already proven he can produce in this league.

Jack Harrison is back stateside after leaving NYCFC for Leeds United and spells at Everton and Fiorentina. He joins a squad that already has Carles Gil creating and Matt Turner keeping goal at a level that belongs in a better team. The Revs also beat Atlanta 4-1 in front of over 35,000 at Gillette Stadium.

Adding one more match-winner to that group might be enough to make them a genuine trophy contender.

Philadelphia Union: Rescuing a Season

The team that was 30th in a 30-team league in June may have saved its year in July.

Interim manager Ryan Richter guided Philadelphia to wins over the Red Bulls and Seattle. Milan Iloski scored in his fourth and fifth consecutive matches. Sixteen-year-old Cavan Sullivan has started genuinely terrorising defences. Eighteen-year-old centre back Neil Pierre — who is 6’7″ — has been impressive enough to draw national attention.

They climbed five places. Twelve months ago they won the Supporters’ Shield. The gap is still enormous, but for the first time this season Philadelphia look like a team with a direction.

LOSERS

Chicago Fire: The Lewandowski Era Started Badly

Chicago made the biggest signing in club history, and July went wrong in every direction.

Robert Lewandowski’s debut came against Inter Miami. The Fire lost. His second appearance came against NYCFC. They lost that too, 3-1. Centre back Mbekezeli Mbokazi will be out for a significant period after tearing a thigh muscle in training. And Hugo Cuypers, who was leading the MLS Golden Boot race with 13 goals before the break, has been sold to CF Monterrey to make room for Lewandowski.

Nashville have scored twice in three matches since the restart. They are still leading the East and still on pace for a strong season, but the attacking form that made them the story of the first half has disappeared.

San Jose Earthquakes: One Win in Seven

Timo Werner returned from injury in July. It did not help.

San Jose were thumped 4-0 at home by Orlando in Griezmann’s debut, then drew 1-1 with a weakened LA Galaxy in the Cali Clásico after Werner had a potential winning penalty saved. They have one win in their last seven matches.

They remain tied on points at the top of the Western Conference, which says more about how compressed that table has become than about how San Jose are playing.

Vancouver Whitecaps: One Point From Six

Vancouver were the best team in MLS in the first half of the season. July was the month that stopped being true.

They lost 4-3 at Cincinnati in one of the wildest games of the year, then ground out a 0-0 draw at Minnesota. One point from two road fixtures, closing out a seven-match road trip. Star midfielder Sebastian Berhalter is reportedly on his way to England, which removes the engine that drove this team.

They are still tied for top of the West, and they are demonstrably worse than they were in May.

Real Salt Lake: Falling Through the Table

RSL were steamrolled 3-1 by LAFC and then lost 2-1 at Portland after Morgan Guilavogui picked up a controversial red card in the 34th minute.

After an excellent first half of the season, Real Salt Lake are now tied with two other clubs for fourth in the West. The blunt version, as MLS put it: they are as close to 13th place as they are to third.

Atlanta United and Toronto FC: The Bottom

Atlanta are officially leading the Wooden Spoon race after a 4-1 defeat at New England. Nothing improves until the roster does, and the roster is not improving this season.

Toronto have not won in eleven attempts and sit six points below the playoff line. They signed German defensive midfielder Niklas Dorsch on a long-term deal and will need him integrated immediately. This was supposed to be the year Toronto climbed out of the hole. Instead, they are fighting for any momentum at all.

FC Cincinnati: A Brawl and a Warning Sign

Cincinnati beat Vancouver 4-3 in one of the best matches of the season, then lost the Hell Is Real derby to Columbus 2-1 and got into a post-match brawl.

The fight will get the attention. The more relevant fact is that losing to a mid-table Columbus side is another indicator that this team is operating below the standard it has set over the past few seasons. Cincinnati have 23 points and a minus-one goal difference after 17 matches.

What July Told Us

Two things stand out.

The star signings did not deliver equally. Griezmann scored on debut and immediately made Orlando better. Casemiro slotted into Miami without a single training session. Lewandowski lost twice while his club sold its Golden Boot leader to fund him. Same window, same idea, completely different outcomes.

And the Western Conference collapsed into a pile. Vancouver, LAFC and San Jose are tied on points at the top. Real Salt Lake are as close to 13th as third. Seattle have lost five straight. Portland have a new coach in Martí Cifuentes, who most recently managed Leicester City. There is no dominant team in the West and no obvious favourite.

The East, meanwhile, has Inter Miami winning six in a row and about to get Lionel Messi back.

Fifteen matchdays remain.