The 2025 MLS season won't end quite how a half-dozen Eastern Conference clubs had planned back in February.

The New York Red Bulls ran out of gas just as the calendar flipped to autumn; the five others we’re about to talk through never really got the engine started. Injuries, midseason shakeups, defensive lapses at the worst possible moments… it was a little bit of everything for some of them, and not enough of anything for all of them.

So it’s back to the drawing board. Again. The East’s top nine were historically great, and everyone on the outside will spend the winter wondering how to close the gap.

New York Red Bulls

2025 in a nutshell

They finally got the DP goalscorer they’ve needed for a decade in Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting , and then everything else promptly fell apart. None

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