MLS pundits predict 2026 MLS season

In a new annual tradition, we are once again looking at the predictions made by the Major League Soccer punditry, and documenting how they think the 2026 table will look at the end of the season.

The number of pundits has expanded dramatically since we did this last year. In 2025, we recorded the table predictions made by seven pundits — or, to be more exact, six pundits plus the collective opinion of MLSsoccer.com. MLS published the predictions of 15 of Apple TV's on-air talent, which brings our grand total to 23 predictions. Because of the sheer volume of predictions, we divided the tables into two and gave the Apple TV analysts their own chart.

Just like last year, we will check back at the end of the regular season to see how they did: We are keeping the receipts.

At the risk of making a prediction about predictions, they rarely prove to be accurate — at the start of 2025, nobody prophesied the rise of Philadelphia Union, San Diego FC, or Vancouver Whitecaps. Likewise, nobody saw the fall of Atlanta United, LA Galaxy, or Red Bull New York coming. The most accurate pundit in 2025 was Tom Bogert, who correctly placed five out of 30 teams, and was accurate within one place for another 10 teams. But even he picked Philadelphia to finish in 9th Place, and Vancouver in 14th.

Bogert didn't predict a table this year. Instead, the eight pundits are Andrew Clausen, Matt Doyle, Joseph Lowery, MLSsoccer.com, Brian McKay, Ben Steiner, and Ben Wright.

2026 MLS Predictions | The Punditry

The Apple TV experts are Andrés Agulla, Marcelo Balboa, Max Bretos, Steve Cangialosi, Daniel Chapela, Miguel Gallardo, Michele Giannone, Tony Husband, Sacha Kljestan, Kaylen Kyle, Lori Lindsey, Dax McCarthy, Sammy Sadovnik, Bruno Vain, and Bradley Wright-Phillips.

There is some near-consensus among the punditry — not surprisingly, it's at the top and the bottom of the tables. All but one pick Inter Miami to finish at the top of the Eastern Conference, and all but two pick LAFC to finish first in the Western Conference. Likewise, almost everybody picks DC United and CF Montréal will sit at the bottom of the East, and Sporting Kansas City at the bottom of the West.

But things get muddy in the middle, with Houston Dynamo and New York City FC enjoying the least consensus among the punditry: NYCFC are picked to finish as high as 3rd Place, and as low as 13th.

Here are five observations about the MLS punditry's 2026 predictions.

Note: Both prediction tables are included as PDFs at the bottom of this post.

2026 MLS Predictions | Apple TV