Grading Canada’s MLS Clubs in 2025 (Part 1)
By: AT
Image Credit: Chan Hout
With the 2025 Major League Soccer (MLS) season having begun exactly one month ago, the majority of MLS clubs have played five league matches this season, which means over 1/7 of the 2025 regular season is complete. Although five matches played does not provide a firm indication of contending versus pretending clubs, we can still assess each club’s start to the season and predict what may happen in 10, 25 or 29 matches from now, when the regular season will officially conclude after 34 matchdays.
This article is the first part of a seven-part series that includes brief analyses on Canada’s three MLS clubs — CF Montréal, Toronto FC and Vancouver Whitecaps — and brief remarks on ongoing trends across the league to keep readers, our followers on social media and our subscribers to our weekly newsletter in the loop. The analyses of Canadian clubs will discuss their results from the preceding five matchdays, the player performances that stood out, squad changes during the 2024-2025 offseason and predictions for the next five matches. In this first part, however, we will discuss the clubs’ overall performance from 2024 and their offseason transactions, particularly incoming and outgoing players and personnel.**
Future articles in this series will be released after the following matchdays:
Matchday 10;
Matchday 15;
Matchday 20;
Matchday 25;
Matchday 30; and
Matchday 35.
Without further ado, the first analysis will address the performances, offseason activity and predictions of Montréal, which will then be followed by that of Toronto and then of Vancouver. The three brief remarks are listed at the end of the article.
CF Montréal
Grade: D+
Last season, the Quebec-based club experienced a rollercoaster season. While sitting out of the playoff picture with only seven matches remaining in the regular season, Montréal played their best football all year, mustering a record of five wins, one loss and one draw. As a result, the club ultimately clinched the eighth seed and a playoff berth, which earned them the home seed for the eighth-vs-ninth preliminary knockout match against Atlanta United. However, their hopes to make a deep playoff run ended when, despite rallying from a 2-0 deficit, ninth-place Atlanta won on penalties.
Despite losing the likes of frequent starters — namely defenders Gabriele Corbo, Raheem Edwards and Joaquín Sosa, midfielders Lassi Lappalainen and Victor Wanyama, and star forward Josef Martínez — this young Montréal squad aimed to continue building what they started in fall 2024. To help achieve that, they acquired young American defender Jalen Neal from defending MLS Cup winners LA Galaxy, Ukrainian prodigy and midfielder Hennadii Synchuk from Ukrainian Premier League Metalist Kharkiv, experienced MLS midfielder Fabian Herbers from Chicago Fire and a pair of experienced and MLS-tested forwards in Prince Owusu from Toronto FC and Giacomo Vrioni from New England Revolution, among several other players. That said, despite shedding the higher salaries of Edwards, Lappalainen, Wanyama and Martínez, the club invested extensively in depth players while failing to compensate for the exodus of talent.
Although many expected Montréal’s performances to dip in comparison to those at the end of last season — especially considering Martínez was last season’s club leading scorer with 14 goals across all competitions — their performances throughout their first five matches have been dreadful. Although they displayed a decent performance in their season opener — a 3-2 away loss against a star-studded Atlanta United — Montréal have accumulated three additional losses and one draw, which occurred against a sluggish D.C. United. The bigger issues, however, are that CF Montréal failed to score a single goal in that four-match span and have yet to lead for a single minute this season. A major factor concerning this issue is the lack of scoring chances generated by their attacking players. After shooting on target six times in their opening match, they have produced the same amount of shots on target throughout their last four matches, which included zero shots on target in their second match against Minnesota United.
Bleak as it may be, however, Montrealers can draw a couple of silver linings from these matches. The first is that Montréal have managed to retain possession as well, if not better, as their opponents. Montréal held less than 50% of ball possession in matches on only two occasions, in their opener against Atlanta (48%) and in their third match against Vancouver (48%). Second, although not outstanding, Montréal also pass the ball at a decent rate for an MLS club. While they eclipsed 430 passes in every match, bar their 0-0 draw against D.C., Montréal managed to complete at least 80% of their passes in every match. Although that is not considered a high achievement in Europe’s top five leagues, it is a laudable feat in MLS.
The last silver lining is that Montréal have played all of their matches on the road; they have two more remaining road matches before they play their home opener on April 12 against Charlotte FC at Stade Saputo. With seven away matches to kick off the 2025 season, Montréal may have an upper hand over other clubs as the season progresses because most of their matches in the summer and towards the end of the season in the fall will be played at home, and Montréal historically perform far better at home than away; over the last two seasons, in the post-Wilfred Nancy era, Montréal garnered a home record of 18 wins, eight losses and eight draws, and an away record of five wins, 22 losses and seven draws. However, with the current squad under manager Laurent Courtois — coupled with injuries sidelining newcomers Neal, Synchuk and Vrioni — it is unlikely that they will produce anything significantly meaningful in MLS action. As a result, we predict that Montréal will finish in 12th place in the East, which places them far out of reach of a playoff position.
Toronto FC
Grade: D
In 2024, despite escaping the league’s basement over the last three seasons, Toronto once again missed the MLS Cup Playoffs for the fourth consecutive season. Despite a solid start to 2024, Toronto stagnated throughout the summer and into the fall — which included losing six consecutive matches across all competitions and seven of their last eight to conclude the 2024 season. Many rightly attributed this stagnation to the lacklustre performances of star player Lorenzo Insigne, as well as those of Federico Bernardeschi and Jonathan Osorio, which gradually worsened as the matches carried more weight. As a result, Toronto FC supporters left the stadium after the last match of the season — a 1-0 loss against Inter Miami, which clinched an all-time league record of 74 regular season points and won the 2024 MLS Supporters’ Shield — with their heads in their hands in disbelief.
Throughout the offseason, the club made merely a handful of moves. Defenders Aimé Mabika and Shane O’Neill, as well as Prince Owusu — all of which had their contract options declined by the club — left the club to seek greener pastures. To fill these gaps, Toronto signed defender Zane Monlouis from Arsenal FC’s reserve league team and forwards Theo Corbeanu and Ola Brynhildsen via loans from Spaniard Segunda División and Danish Supeliga clubs Granada CF and FC Midtjylland, respectively.
However, the major shift in personnel occurred on the bench, with former Canadian women’s and men’s senior national team head coach John Herdman resigning from his position in Toronto amid his alleged active involvement in the drone scandal involving both senior squads of the Canadian national team. In January, the club hired former Toronto assistant coach Robin Fraser, who was an assistant coach with The Reds from 2015 to mid-2019 and the head coach of fellow MLS club Colorado Rapids from mid-2019 to the end of last season.
So far, Toronto’s performances are almost identical to those of Montréal, raking in only one point from their first five matches of the 2025 season; like Montréal, Toronto earned their only point in their opening match at D.C. United’s Audi Field. Although The Reds managed to score more goals (6) than their Canadian archrivals, Toronto have conceded the highest number of goals among all MLS clubs (12). While we attributed a D+ grade for Montréal, Toronto deserve a D grade because, although they scored thrice as many goals, their defence is undoubtedly the worst in the league, and they boast a significantly higher squad value — last listed by Forbes in 11th place, at US$725 million — than their rivals (28th place, at US$435 million) and most clubs in the league, thereby coming up far shorter of their expectations than Montréal are with respect to theirs.
Similar to Montréal, we can highlight a couple of positive elements from Toronto’s performances. First, they are finding the back of the net, with young forward DeAndre Kerr leading the pack with two goals in his last two matches — 2-1 losses at home against Chicago Fire and away against New York Red Bulls, respectively. As well, Toronto played only one match at home, and it just so happens that it was the sole match in which the Ontario-based club had a lead, albeit for 18 minutes only. With 12 of their next 16 matches in all competitions taking place at home — including a five-match homestand from April 26 to May 14 — Toronto will have an indispensable opportunity to play in front of their home crowd and use their energy to enhance their performances, ideally by earning wins rather than dropping points. A home win against Canadian rivals Vancouver on March 29 would be a great start!
That said, with Insigne also back in the lineup as of March 22, Toronto will need to score more goals, but more importantly, find a way to stop the hemorrhage of through passes and conceded goals at the back. Should Insigne return to his prolific self from 2022, Toronto may be able to move upwards a few positions and sneak into the bottom of the playoff picture. However, if Insigne sticks to his antics from 2023 and 2024, Toronto will be partially relying on a significant liability and will find themselves stuck in the middle of conceding many goals while scoring a significantly insufficient amount of goals. That pattern would translate into languishing yet again in MLS’s basement.
Vancouver Whitecaps
Grade: A
It is all sunshine and smiles on the West Coast! Vancouver have enjoyed an excellent start to their season, winning their first four matches of the 2025 MLS regular season and astonishingly defeating Costa Rican Primera División club Deportivo Saprissa 3-2 on aggregate in the CONCACAF Champions Cup first round and Liga MX club CF Monterrey on away goals (3-3 on aggregate) in the round of 16.
After concluding the 2024 MLS regular season with a seven-match winless skid in MLS action — including a four-match losing streak from matchdays 31 to 34 — and consequently limping into the 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs at the eight-seed in the Western Conference, Vancouver shocked North America with a 5-0 away win against Cascadia rivals Portland Timbers. Then, the Whitecaps managed to take 2022 MLS Cup winners and Western Conference #1 seed Los Angeles FC to three matches in a nail-biting best-of-three series in the conference quarterfinals.
In the offseason, Vancouver made several changes to both player and coaching personnel. Concerning players, Vancouver addressed their sub-par attack by declining the contract options of 34-year-old veteran forward Fabrice “Fafa” Picault and 26-year-old Levonte Johnson and selling forward Déiber Caicedo and midfielder Stuart Armstrong to Colombian Categoría Primera A club Atlético Junior and EFL Championship club Sheffield Wednesday, respectively. Moreover, Vancouver signed experienced forward Daniel Ríos on loan from CD Guadalajara — who also gained ample experience in MLS with Nashville and Atlanta — and young, yet still experienced forwards Emmanuel Sabbi and Jayden Nelson from Ligue 1 club Le Havre AC and Norwegian Eliteserien club Rosenborg BK, respectively.
With respect to coaching personnel, Vancouver parted ways with fan-favourite manager Vanni Sartini, despite leading Vancouver into the playoffs in three of the last four seasons and winning the Canadian Championship three consecutive years from 2022 to 2024. In January 2025, Vancouver hired former Danish footballer Jesper Sorensen as the club’s new first team coach. Sørensen managed Danish Superliga club Brøndby IF from January 2023 to December 2024.
Since Sørensen’s hiring, Vancouver have been arguably the best club in North America, raking in five wins, two losses and two draws in competitive matches across all competitions thus far in 2025. While Vancouver won both Champions Cup rounds with one win, one loss and two draws, the British Columbia-based club defeated Cascadia rivals Portland 4-1 in their 2025 MLS season opener, which was followed by a 2-1 win in their home opener against defending MLS Cup winners LA Galaxy and then two convincing victories against Montréal (2-0, home) and FC Dallas (1-0, away). On March 22, Vancouver lost their first MLS match of the season, a 3-1 home loss against a surging Chicago Fire.
Regarding positives, their record — in MLS and across all competitions — speaks for itself. It is the first time that Vancouver have won four MLS matches to kick off a season. They also defeated a Mexican club in the Champions Cup knockout rounds for the first time in club history. As a result, the Whitecaps will duel against Mexico City-based Liga MX club Pumas UNAM, with a chance to qualify for their first ever semifinal appearance; the first and second leg matches will take place on April 2 and 9, respectively.
With such a strong start, it is unlikely that a club with such depth and talent will relent and drop out of the playoff picture by the end of the season. What is more impressive is that, despite their sensational talent and deep squad depth, Vancouver boast an overall valuation of only US$440 million, which ranks 27th out of 29 MLS clubs in that metric; expansion club San Diego FC is not included in this list. According to Transfermarkt, Vancouver’s squad transfer value is €38.9 million, which ranks only 16th among all 30 MLS clubs. Although Vancouver’s squad transfer value ranks above those of Montréal (€29.3 million, 28th) and Toronto (€36.0 million, 30th), the Whitecaps’s value sits well below those of such competitors as Portland (€47.1 million, 7th) and LA Galaxy (€70.6 million, 2nd).
Ultimately, Vancouver and their supporters have the chance to produce and experience a magical season, perhaps similar to that of Montréal in 2022, when they finished third overall in the MLS regular season rankings and achieved a club record 20 regular season wins. That said, unlike Montréal, Vancouver would have to also step up to the plate in the MLS Cup Playoffs. It also remains to be seen whether or not Vancouver keep their current squad or enhance it over the summer to increase their chances to shock North American soccer by achieving MLS glory.
With such talent and depth, barring a significant upset against them, Vancouver will likely become the second club after Toronto FC (2009-2012) to win the Canadian Championship for a fourth consecutive year, which would result in another qualification for the CONCACAF Champions Cup in 2026.
Five Remarks Elsewhere Across MLS
… To be published later this week. Stay tuned!
** Please not that Part 1 of this series contains more content because of the analysis discussing last season’s performances and offseason squad changes. Future parts to this series will only delve into the five-match performances and short-term predictions for the following five matches.
Comment below your thoughts and predictions regarding the three MLS clubs based in Canada!
