MLS 2023 Season Predictions: Eastern Conference

Photo from Major League Soccer

We are less than a week away from the beginning of my favorite league!

Major League Soccer is not the best league, but it’s by far the most chaotic.

Because of that, these upcoming predictions might look a little wonky and could be terribly wrong, but the beauty of this league is that you just never know what can happen.

Here is how the 2023 Eastern Conference will lay out.

1. Philadelphia Union

To say it’s been a tough couple of months for Philly fans would be an understatement.

The Union and Phillies lost their championships on the same day, and the Eagles lost the Super Bowl just a few weeks ago.

Then there’s the Sixers who can’t be relied on, and the Flyers who were supposed to be terrible to get Connor Bedard but have somehow played well enough to avoid being one of the worst teams, but not well enough to be a playoff team. The worst place to be.

Still, this Union team is phenomenal and should clear the rest of the Eastern Conference, not only because of their roster, but because of their head coach Jim Curtin.

They were seconds away from being champions last year, and they should be the favorites this year.

2. New York City FC

The only other possible team who could threaten Philly for top spot in the East is NYCFC, and for good reason.

After all, this team made a deep run in CCL last year which usually ruins seasons, and then had their coach leave midseason as well as their leading man Taty Castellanos.

And even with that difficult CCL run and Nick Cushing taking over mid season, NYFC ended up 3rd in the East.

The sign of a great club is the ability to go through tough transition periods and hardly miss a beat. NYCFC is one of those clubs.

3. Nashville SC

Now, we get into the weird nitty gritty.

The top of the East is clear. The bottom of the East is clear.

The middle? Anything at all could happen.

But Nashville has everything needed to be the top spot of that middle group.

Gary Smith has a concise style, and it might not at all be fun, but it works.

Hany Mukhtar is the reigning MVP of the league and is a constant attacking threat.

This team is going to defend well, and hit you on the counter.

It’s not pretty. It’s not flashy. It’s not exactly fun to watch on TV.

But it works.

4. FC Cincinnati

The biggest surprise of last year was Cincy, who were the worst team in the league three years running before making the playoffs last year.

A huge part of that is due to the attack of Brandon Vasquez, Brenner and Luciano Acosta.

The only thing that was terrible last year was their defense, which manager Chris Albright has made strives to fix in 2023 with midfield and backline signings.

4th might actually be too low for Cincy at the end of the year, but I still need to see how the new acquisitions fit before crowning them.

5. Columbus Crew

The Crew were a great team on route to winning MLS Cup in 2020.

Then, they missed the playoffs in back to back seasons and Caleb Porter was let go.

A lot of that core roster, like Luca Zelarayan, Aiden Morris and Darlington Nagbe, are still there.

But the biggest move they made was getting former CF Montreal coach Wilfried Nancy to take over for Caleb Porter.

Nancy had Montreal as the two seed in the East last season, with a roster that didn’t exactly jump off the page.

Neither does the Crew’s, and while I don’t think they’ll be upper echelon in the East, there’s no reason they can’t be a playoff team knowing what Nancy can do while managing the club.

6. Toronto FC

The first year under Bob Bradley didn’t go too well for Toronto.

The second year looks to be a lot better, signing Sean Johnson from NYCFC and having a full season of Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi.

Hell, the starting 11 for Toronto looks fantastic.

But it’s a long, long season. And TFC does not have the depth to compete yet.

But, if their starting 11 stays healthy for a majority of the season, this should be a playoff team.

7. Orlando City SC

The final playoff spot in the East goes to Orlando.

There’s a lot to like here with Orlando.

I think Oscar Pareja is a great coach and I like their roster.

However, there is an added element to this season for Orlando.

First, they lost one of their key contributors in Junior Urso, and they have to deal with CCL play after winning the US Open Cup last year.

We have seen CCL runs derail teams before, and it’s possible Orlando finds themselves playing catchup after the early part of the season.

But I trust Oscar Pareja.

8. New York Red Bulls

I know for a fact this is the one I’m going to regret.

The Red Bulls haven’t missed the playoffs in 13 seasons, and the main core is still together from last year when the Red Bulls finished 4th in the East.

But someone has to miss, and I like the coaching of Columbus, and the coaching and talent of Toronto and Orlando just too much to fit in the Red Bulls.

Hey, every streak ends at some point.

9. Charlotte FC

Charlotte was a huge surprise last year.

Sure, they only finished 9th, but they began their season with their coach saying they were essentially screwed before the year even began, and then had a midseason coaching change after that coach got fired despite the team actually playing well!

But Christian Lattanzio did a great job despite all of that, and Charlotte should look to build off of last year.

However, the horrible and untimely death of Anton Walkes leaves a cloud over this offseason for Charlotte.

I hope I’m wrong with my prediction, and they honor is memory with a season to remember.

But I see Charlotte missing the cut line this year.

10. New England Revolution

The Revs still have Carles Gil. They still have Gustavo Bou. They still have Djordje Petrovic in goal. They still have Bruce Arena as their coach.

By all accounts, this team should be a playoff team!

But they missed the playoffs last year, and as Gil and Bou get older I don’t see why we should expect a massive bounce back this year.

It’s a middle of the road roster.

11. Inter Miami

Miami made the playoffs last year, due to in large part the fantastic play of Gonzalo Higuain.

Higuain retired, and they replaced him with Atlanta United legend Josef Martinez.

If you told someone that three years ago, that would be a clear and obvious step forward for Miami.

Now? I’m not so sure.

Martinez still has that talent inside of him, but it has yet to be seen consistently after his ACL tear a few years ago.

And who knows at this point if Lionel Messi actually joins or stays in Paris for another year?

Like I said, the middle of the East has a lot of middling teams and someone has to miss out.

Miami has too many question marks for me.

12. Atlanta United

Garth Lagerwey left the Sounders after a tremendous run to join Atlanta United as club President.

That’s huge, not only for the first team but for what Garth does for the youth systems to have continuous growth in the league.

That youth system brought Seattle a CCL title last year as they were able to slide in 16 year old Obed Vargas without missing a step.

Atlanta should be thrilled about it’s future!

It’s present? Ehhh maybe not so much.

Still, it’s about the long term project.

13. DC United

I like Wayne Rooney as a coach. I hope DC United extends his contract past just this year.

But this team was horrible last year, and went through way too many changes in the offseason for me to have any belief in them.

Granted, this is MLS. All their changes might hit the ground running and they become a playoff team.

But I’ll believe it when I see it.

14. Chicago Fire

I feel bad for Ezra Hendrickson, because he will likely lose his job after this year despite not having a good team to work with at all, but that’s the nature of the business.

The Fire were a terrible team last year, and they did nothing to help that get better this year.

It’s going to be rough.

15. CF Montreal

Montreal got rid of their starting attacking midfielder, holding midfielder and wing back while also letting their head coach go to Columbus.

And then they didn’t replace a single one of them properly.

Not going to go well!

That’s what they get for joining the boring soccer culture and getting rid of the Impact moniker…

Eastern Conference Champion: Philadelphia Union

I’m not going to overthink this one.

The Union are the best team in the East, and they have a fire lit under them after missing out being MLS Cup Champions by literally seconds.

Update: MLS is set to announce that 9 teams from each conference will make the playoffs beginning in 2023, so congratulations to New York Red Bulls & Charlotte FC as they are now playoff teams.