{"id":480669,"date":"2025-12-30T19:12:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T19:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/480669\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T19:12:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T19:12:09","slug":"eastern-conference-grading-every-teams-2025-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/480669\/","title":{"rendered":"Eastern Conference: Grading every team’s 2025 season"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a little holiday treat in between new signings \u2013 I hope you\u2019ve all got notifications for Tom Bogert\u2019s tweets<\/a> turned on \u2013 I decided to sit down and hand out my grades for 2025.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019m talking about the whole season here, not just their MLS performance. We\u2019re talking Concacaf Champions Cup<\/a>, FIFA Club World Cup<\/a>, Leagues Cup<\/a> and both the US Open Cup<\/a> and Canadian Championship<\/a>. All of it matters.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m also factoring in both last winter\u2019s transfer window and what they did this summer, as well as how well they did promoting new and younger players into bigger roles.<\/p>\n

What I\u2019m not taking into consideration are signings, departures and SuperDraft picks that have happened since MLS Cup. Those will factor into next year\u2019s version of this column.<\/p>\n

And finally, I\u2019m not handing out letter grades here. I\u2019m instead going to go with “Exceeded Expectations,\u201d \u201cMet Expectations\u201d and \u201cBelow Expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reverse alphabetical order, because I want to do something fun:<\/p>\n

Basically, nothing they\u2019d planned for at the start of the season \u2013 not the holdover Italian DPs, not on-loan striker Ola Brynhildsen, not any of the veteran center backs \u2013 worked. At all.<\/p>\n

And so the best thing that happened for Toronto<\/a> was the mid-spring decision to tear it down. That came too late to save 2025, but put them on good footing to climb back up the standings in 2026. They\u2019ve now got a good core of proven MLS guys (DP playmaker Djordje Mihailovic<\/a> being the most notable) and clear direction in the front office.<\/p>\n

I think I like where this is going. But nobody likes where it\u2019s been for the past half-decade.<\/p>\n

Grade:<\/strong> Below Expectations\u00a0<\/p>\n

(I picked them to win the Wooden Spoon before the season, so I guess they technically exceeded my expectations. But I think an honest accounting would tell you they fell short of what they were aiming for internally.)<\/p>\n

Really, the 2025 grade starts with the decision to part ways with head coach Jim Curtin and hire Bradley Carnell as his replacement, which itself meant the goal was a return to the pure blood-and-guts, Energy Drink Soccer soccer Philly<\/a>\u2019s front office craved.<\/p>\n

And it obviously worked. Philly won the Supporters’ Shield, and Carnell won Sigi Schmid MLS Coach of the Year.\u00a0Quinn Sullivan<\/a> played his way into the US men’s national team<\/a> picture (before a very disappointing late-season ACL tear), while\u00a0Tai Baribo<\/a> played his way into a profitable, big-money transfer, and Olwethu Makhanya<\/a> played his way into Defender of the Year discussions.<\/p>\n

They made both big-money signings (Bruno Damiani<\/a> was the club\u2019s record signing, and is a very strong Gass Theorem guy for next year) and smaller, smart signings (Jovan Lukic<\/a> is one of the most underappreciated players in the league). Plus, they won a lot of games.<\/p>\n

Now, did the game model show its inherent weakness in the later rounds of both the US Open Cup (they got crushed at Nashville<\/a>) and the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs (they lost at home to a New York City FC<\/a> side missing about half their spine)? Yes. I think it\u2019ll keep doing so.<\/p>\n

But within the scope of what they wanted the year to be, 2025 was a massive success.<\/p>\n

Grade:<\/strong> Exceeded Expectations<\/p>\n

I will straight-up say I think the version of Orlando<\/a> we saw right up until the semifinals of Leagues Cup was the best version we\u2019ve seen of this club. In part, that\u2019s because Marco Pa\u0161ali\u0107<\/a> was sneakily an upgrade over Facundo Torres, and because Alex Freeman<\/a> was a one-man, right-side wrecking crew, and because Mart\u00edn Ojeda<\/a> ascended to Best XI-caliber performance. Also in part, it was because head coach Oscar Pareja did a good job of melding all of that into a coherent whole.<\/p>\n

But while they had much better underlying numbers than last year\u2019s Lions and actually picked up one more point in the regular season, they finished much lower in the standings and then went out pretty meekly in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

In the end, their over-reliance on past-it veterans like Luis Muriel<\/a> and Pedro Gallese<\/a> was a deathblow. If they had to do it all over again, bringing in a new goalkeeper at the start of last season and holding onto Ramiro Enrique (they sold him in the summer; they should not have done that), I think that would\u2019ve made this a dark-horse MLS Cup team.<\/p>\n

Grade:<\/strong> Slightly Below Expectations. And in some limbo heading into 2026.<\/p>\n

The 15-year playoff streak is dead.<\/p>\n

The way it happened is kind of morbidly funny, as before the season RBNY<\/a> global finally furnished this team with the kind of veteran, goalscoring DP (Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting<\/a>, who delivered far beyond what I\u2019d expected of him) they\u2019d been begging for for the past decade.<\/p>\n

But that didn\u2019t matter because the defense was soft and the midfield was\u2026 weird, I guess is the right word? And the wingers were all hurt basically all the time (except for the ones who were clearly in over their heads at the MLS level).<\/p>\n

All this happened in conjunction with a continued shift away from the Energy Drink Soccer game model that was a little half-measure\u2019y, to the point RBNY lost their identity. It felt like just another team.<\/p>\n

Grade:<\/strong> Below Expectations<\/p>\n

I think the best thing to come out of 2025 for NYCFC wasn\u2019t the run to the Eastern Conference Final, or Matt Freese<\/a>\u2019s ascent to the USMNT No. 1. I think you could argue (though it\u2019d be hard to do so with a straight face now) that Justin Haak<\/a>\u2019s evolution into one of the league\u2019s best ball-playing CBs was maybe it, or Alonso Mart\u00ednez<\/a>‘s confirmation he\u2019s an alpha goalscorer in this league was the thing (also a hard argument to make at the moment).<\/p>\n

Rather, I think the best thing was the overall performance of head coach Pascal Jansen. He showed a willingness to look down the roster for veterans or SuperDraft picks or homegrown kids to not just fill holes, but actually change tactical blueprints in the moment as the match warranted. He seemed like a problem-solver out there, one who puts players in spots where they can develop and succeed.<\/p>\n

Given the number of injuries this team endured, that was necessary. Overall, that fills me with confidence heading into next year even if this offseason (which, I know, is beyond the remit of this column) hasn\u2019t really gotten off to a banging start.<\/p>\n

Grade:<\/strong> Exceeded Expectations<\/p>\n

There were some silver linings \u2013 the year began with Esmir Bajraktarevi\u0107<\/a> getting a move to PSV, and Peyton Miller<\/a> seems to be playing his way into a big European transfer as well, so the academy production that\u2019s characterized most of this decade seems to be sticky. Plus, Carles Gil<\/a> had another very good year, and mid-season signing Dor Turgeman<\/a> sure looked the part of a high-level MLS goalscorer.<\/p>\n

But truthfully, this season was disappointing. The\u00a0Revs<\/a>‘ front office spent multiple windows tearing down the previous iteration of this roster and building it to the liking of then-head coach Caleb Porter, who is now ex-head coach Caleb Porter. And I\u2019m just not sure how many of these guys will be around the next time the Revs are trophy contenders. That includes Gil, who\u2019s now officially into his mid-30s.<\/p>\n

It feels like they lost two years.<\/p>\n

Grade:<\/strong> Below Expectations<\/p>\n

In his first full year in charge, head coach B.J. Callaghan checked just about every box:<\/p>\n