Reliving Two End of Season Stories in Major League Soccer
By: Anthony Tazbaz
Image Credit: Tareq Ismail
It has been a while since we last wrote an article about Major League Soccer (MLS). However, with the 2024 MLS regular season having concluded on Saturday, we would be remiss not to cover astonishing highlights from the final matchday, known formally as MLS Decision Day. From these highlights, we unpack two unique stories — from lower-ranked clubs to higher-ranked clubs — that invoke sentiments of glory, as well as tragedy for some clubs and their fanbases.
Stunning Eastern Conference Playoff Clinchers
At 18:00 Eastern Standard Time (EST), the Eastern Conference matches kicked off. Before Eastern Conference clubs kicked-off for the 34th time this season in MLS play, the Eastern Conference rankings concerning clubs seeking to qualify for the MLS Cup Playoffs were the following:
8th (play-in match at home): D.C. United — 40 points (-15 goal differential (GD))
9th (play-in match away): CF Montréal — 40 points (-18 GD)
10th (no MLS Cup Playoffs): Philadelphia Union — 37 points (+8 GD)
11th (no MLS Cup Playoffs): Atlanta United — 37 points (-4 GD)
By halftime, the Eastern Conference rankings looked slightly different, with Montréal leading 2-0 at home against New York City FC, D.C. deadlocked (0-0) at home with Charlotte FC, Atlanta leading 2-1 away against southern rivals Orlando and Philadelphia — having conceded a goal just before the break (45+4 minutes) — drawn level 1-1 at home against FC Cincinnati. The rankings at half-time consisted of the following:
8th: CF Montréal — 43 points (-16 GD)
9th: D.C. United — 41 points (-15 GD)
10th: Atlanta United — 40 points (-3 GD)
11th: Philadelphia Union — 38 points (+8 GD)
Despite unchanged scores for the remainder of the matches involving Montréal and Atlanta, what ensued at D.C. and Philadelphia was nothing short of carnage. In Philadelphia, the home club — which needed a victory of any score to qualify for the MLS Cup Playoffs — trailed 2-1 within the first minute of the second half, owing to a howler of an own goal by star Norwegian defender Jakob Glesnes. In D.C., the home club — which required only a draw should Philadelphia lose or draw — conceded three unanswered goals against Charlotte.
Ultimately, Glesnes’s costly mistake and the capital club’s humiliation on home soil resulted in CF Montréal holding onto 8th place and Atlanta jumping to 9th place and squeaking into the MLS Cup Playoffs. In contrast, Philadelphia missed the MLS Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2017, whereas D.C. missed the playoffs for a fifth consecutive season.
Following the official regular season curtain call for Eastern Conference teams, the rankings materialized into the following:
8th: CF Montréal — 43 points (-16 GD)
9th: Atlanta United — 40 points (-3 GD)
10th: D.C. United — 40 points (-18 GD)
11th: Philadelphia Union (+7 GD)
The MLS Cup Playoffs begin on Tuesday, October 22, with the opening match being held at Stade Saputo in Montréal between the Quebec-based club and Atlanta. In the regular season, Montréal swept the season series, with a 1-0 victory in Montréal on July 13 2024 and a 2-1 victory at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on October 2 2024.
Expect to see Josef Martínez dominate the headlines again. The former Atlanta marksman and 2018 MLS Cup winner and MVP with that club scored a brace in Montréal’s 2-1 win. Martínez’s two goals in the October match represent part of a formidable six-goal performance throughout Montréal’s last five matches; the Quebec-based club won five of their last seven matches. In addition, midfielder Caden Clark — acquired from fellow MLS club Minnesota United in August 2024 — played an integral role in the club’s resurgence, scoring four goals in the club’s last four home matches of the season. Meanwhile, the Georgia-based club is rolling on a two-match win streak and are unbeaten in six of their last eight matches.
Inter Miami Make MLS History
In their last regular season match — held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida — Inter Miami trailed New England revolution by a 2-0 score at the 34th minute. Despite lagging behind the lowest ranked Eastern Conference club, former FC Barcelona and superstar forward Luis Suárez scored a quick brace between the 40th and 42nd minute to draw Miami level 2-2 before halftime.
At the 58th minute, as Lionel Messi came off the bench, homegrown talent Benjamin Cremaschi provided Miami the lead, courtesy of a pair of crucial passes by Messi — his first touch of the match — and former FC Barcelona star defender Jordi Alba. Then, Messi scored a hat-trick within 11 minutes, from the 78th to the 89th minute.
Messi’s three goals and one assist within 32 minutes resulted in Miami grabbing an emphatic 6-2 victory and accumulating 74 points throughout the regular season, a new MLS record after poetically eclipsing New England’s 2021 record of 73 points.
Since Messi’s arrival in July 2023, Miami won the 2023 Leagues Cup, and went from a nationwide laughingstock to a reckoning force. The club concluded the 2024 MLS regular season with 22 wins, eight draws and four losses. Miami’s 22 wins — two wins behind the MLS single-season record — is equivalent to the third-highest tally, which Miami shares with the 2018 and 2021 squads of New York Red Bulls and New England Revolution. Only the 1998 and 1999 squads of D.C. — 24 and 23 wins, respectively — and the 1998 squad of LA Galaxy (24) earned more victories in a single regular season.
As well, Miami’s whopping tally of 79 goals — forty of which were scored between Messi and Suárez — represents the third-highest single-season goalscoring tally among all MLS clubs in the regular season. The Florida-based club’s six goals on Saturday eclipsed the 74-goal tally established by D.C. United and Toronto FC in 1998 and 2017, respectively. Only the 1998 LA Galaxy and 2019 Los Angeles FC (LAFC) squads placed more balls behind the goal line, with each club achieving an 85-goal tally.
This record ultimately serves as the cherry on top to an outstanding season and a Supporters’ Shield title as the highest-ranked club in the 2024 MLS regular season.
Moreover, Miami clinched a qualification berth for the 2025 CONCACAF Champions Cup — formerly CONCACAF Champions League — and the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, the latter of which will be hosted in the United States from mid-June to mid-July 2025. Miami qualify for the tournament as the host club. The slot dedicated to the host club was awarded to the club that hoisted the 2024 MLS Supporters’ Shield.
Representing the United States, Miami join Seattle Sounders, which earned their place in the tournament after winning the CONCACAF Champions League in 2022. The Washington-based club became the first non-Liga MX club to win that tournament since its inception in 2008-09.
On Friday, October 25, Miami will compete in their second MLS Cup Playoffs match in club history; in October 2022, the Florida-based club played their first and only playoff match against New York City FC, which resulted in a 3-0 loss. Messi and company will face off in a best-of-three conference quarterfinal round against the winner of the Eastern Conference playoff match, which will be played on Tuesday, October 22 between Montréal and Atlanta.
Honourable Mention
A 2024 MLS story that deserves an honourable mention goes to LAFC, which overcame a difficult beginning to the 2024 MLS season and conquered the Western Conference regular season rankings.
In the first third of the 2024 MLS season — approximately 11 regular season matches — the defending 2022 MLS Cup winners and 2023 MLS Cup finalists garnered only four wins, accompanied by four losses and three draws, including a 3-1 loss against California rivals San Jose Earthquakes. With 15 points by mid-May, the California-based club had difficulty exhibiting high-quality football at a consistent level, as well as maintaining its place within the seven positions that provisionally guarantee an appearance in the MLS Cup Playoffs conference quarterfinals.
However, despite a heartbreaking loss in the 2024 Leagues Cup final against 2023 MLS Cup winners Columbus Crew, LAFC improved throughout the season and displayed high-quality performances on a near-weekly basis, and rose to prominence within the MLS Western Conference. Consequently, the club became a mainstay in the upper tier of that conference’s rankings.
In addition, on September 25, exactly one month after the Leagues Cup final loss, The Black and Gold defeated Sporting KC by a 3-1 score to hoist their first U.S. Open Cup title, resulting in a qualification for the 2025 CONCACAF Champions Cup.
After the Open Cup final, LAFC won their next four matches before entering MLS Decision Day and needing a win to claim the first place — which was held by local rivals LA Galaxy — in the Western Conference rankings. Seeking to exercise revenge at home against San Jose, Los Angeles rallied from an early 1-0 deficit and took a 2-1 lead at the 75th minute, owing to goals by 2023 MLS Golden Boot winner Dénis Bouanga — scored at the 64th minute — and Eduard Atuesta.
Then, in the first minute of second-half stoppage-time, Marlon Santos doubled LAFC’s lead, which placed The Black and Gold in first place of the Western Conference with 65 points, while LA Galaxy — boasting 64 points at that moment — were trailing 1-0 on the road against Houston Dynamo. In the sixth minute of stoppage-time in Houston, however, LA Galaxy’s Gabriel Pec scored a penalty kick, which levelled the score 1-1 and re-positioned LA Galaxy in first place with 65 points, one point ahead of LAFC.
Five minutes later, Houston defender Daniel Steres — a former LA Galaxy player — scored his second 2024 MLS regular season goal and gave Houston a decisive 2-1 lead moments before the final whistle. With a Houston win, LAFC propelled back to first place in the Western Conference, a ranking in which they finish the regular season for a third time in their seven-year history, and a second instance in the last three seasons.
Next weekend, in the conference quarterfinals, LAFC will duel against the winner of the Western Conference play-in match between eighth-place Vancouver Whitecaps and ninth-place Portland Timbers. That match will take place at Portland’s Providence Park instead of Vancouver’s BC Place due to a supercross show occurring at BC Place on Wednesday, October 23, the same day as the play-in match.
