MLS’s Primary Transfer Window closes in two weeks, on April 23.
Effectively, that means you can’t make any significant moves – transfers or trades – until the Secondary Transfer Window opens on July 24. There’s no big June or early July signings (or at least you can’t register the player quite yet), and there’s no mid-season trade offers that can bowl over a reluctant partner. Get it done now, or you’re committed to this group for the next three months.
Why’s that significant? Well, July 24 is quite late in the regular season. There are about 10 matches left by that date, which means we’re working in a significantly different Secondary Transfer Window landscape than as recently as 2022. That year, the Columbus Crew added Cucho Hernández in late June and he logged 16 games, which is just about 50% of the season. In 2016, Nico Lodeiro arrived and basically resurrected a Seattle Sounders season that was headed to the morgue.
Ten games might not be enough to do that. Chief Soccer Officers around the league should feel some real urgency to get moves done now, especially for teams that have not gotten off to a good start. Because if you wait for the summer window, it's potentially too late.
Note that teams can add guys from their MLS NEXT Pro affiliates and homegrowns, as well as any players who were already out of contract when the Primary Window closed. But that’s a pretty narrow slice of talent.
With that in mind, here’s what each Western Conference team should be focused on in the next two weeks. We’ll go in order of the current standings:
Need: Just some depth.
I can’t believe they have no actual roster needs at this point. Just another name on the left back or central midfield depth chart, maybe? Jesper Sørensen is the Sigi Schmid MLS Coach of the Year frontrunner by a mile (or would be if it wasn’t for the coach of the next team on this list).
This start, and Sørensen’s ability to get the most out of younger players, gives the ‘Caps the luxury to wait until July to see if they need to add another piece, because their season won’t need saving. What it could probably – almost certainly – use is a turbo-boost of attacking quality that a third DP would bring.
So until then, sit tight and keep balling.
Need: A true center forward.
God, they did such a brilliant job with the Kevin De Bruyne stuff: Strongly linked to him for a year, generating positive buzz. Then, as soon as it was clear they didn’t need him, Miami suddenly have his discovery rights? Which means San Diego don’t have to take the risk of paying reportedly $12 million (or more) per year and changing the game model for a guy who’s probably not going to be an ironman out there?
Perfect. Real 4D chess stuff.
Now, like the ‘Caps, they can sit tight until potentially using that DP slot in the summer. They’ll aim, I suspect, for another guy in his prime at either center forward or as one of the free 8s.
I would like to see them add a true No. 9 in the meantime, not as a starter but as a situational piece. They have multiple open U22 slots to use, if necessary.
Need: Still think they could stand to upgrade central midfield.
No slight against Wil Trapp, who’s playing the best ball of his very good career, but that’s the spot. Two reasons:
- We saw, against the Galaxy last year in the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs, how the best on-ball teams can still cut through this group.
- Their inability to kill games off with the ball has cost them results already this year, and nearly did again this past weekend.
Khaled El-Ahmad mostly hasn’t missed on his signings, so I think there’s reason to expect growth from Owen Gene and Hoyeon Jung. So I think this is another team that can sit tight until July.
Need: They’re thin in central defense and have to spend resources there.
The main thing is getting a fourth center back in. I know they have a level of comfort sliding Ilie Sánchez back a row, and maybe pushing Guilherme Biro inside. But they’re still threadbare, with only three true center backs on the roster.
The midfield balance needs work, too. I’d love to see Owen Wolff – who’s taken a step forward as a chance creator – moved a little deeper to make the 4-2-2-2 they’ve played into a 4-3-3, with him alongside Dani Pereira. But Ilie probably doesn’t cover enough ground to play as a lone 6 in that formation, and new guys Besard Sabovic and Nicolás Dubersarsky have not shown much as distributors. So it’s all kinda awkward.
Need: Another winger on the depth chart somewhere, just in case.
Another central midfielder wouldn’t hurt, either. They’re fine for now, but things could get precarious in a hurry if injuries or suspensions hit.
They’ll have room for either – a senior roster slot, an international roster slot and cap room – with Miguel Araujo reportedly soon to be moved out. They also have a ton of GAM to spend, so there’s plenty of flexibility here even with all their premium roster slots (two DPs, four U22s) filled.
Need: Figure out their optimal formation and go from there.
They’ve got no open DP slots or U22 flexibility, so any improvement is going to have to come from player development.
If they decide on a 4-2-3-1 (which is what my guess is), two of Anderson Julio (who's more of a second striker), Léo Chú (who hasn't been that guy), or Bernard Kamungo (who, at one point, appeared to be that guy, but has retreated, over the past 18 months, to not-that-guy-ness) need to actually start showing up. Logan Farrington is in that mix as well, though he'd probably just be best off as a No. 9 in a super flexible formation (honest to god if I were the Crew I'd offer Dallas the deed to the house for him; he's a perfect fit for Nancy-Ball).
Which is all to say Dallas's current personnel fits the 4-4-2 diamond better, but that’s become something of a niche, counter-pressing formation in the modern game. And I don’t think their game model is pointed in that direction.
Need: To play better, because they don’t have room to do much with the roster.
Colorado have used all six of their premium roster slots and most of their GAM. Their moves have been made.
So they’re banking on Ted Ku-DiPietro to come back healthy in the next couple of weeks and juice the attack, which seems like a worthwhile bet. They should also be counting on Chris Armas to start developing a replacement for Kévin Cabral, who has not carried his pre-injury, 2024 form into 2025.
Need: Patience!
Niko Tsakiris walking into the XI and playing like he did answers one of the biggest questions, that of midfield creativity with Hernán López out injured. Can Beau Leroux become a midfield enforcer and answer another? If both those things happen, that answers the bigger, cultural need: The Quakes absolutely have to start developing players internally or they’re doomed to more prolonged struggles.
To that end, the Bruce Arena era is off to a very good start. I’d sure like to see Max Floriani and Reid Roberts start getting center back minutes next.
They have three open U22 slots open, but I’m not betting on them using any of those. Maybe Tsakiris can play his way into one, as we’ve seen from other homegrown attackers around the league.
Need: Midfield creator.
They’re playing like a team that’s slowly gotten rid of all their natural chance creators over the past couple of years, which… yeah.
They’ve got a history of signing high-upside young attackers out of South America. They’ve also got, in Jude Terry, one of the best homegrown prospects in the entire league, though I’ll admit he’s probably a year away (he’s just 16).
Of note here: We all expected this summer to be the Antoine Griezmann Arrival Summer, but now that’s looking unlikely.
I am absolutely fine with that. I think we’ve seen enough, over the past few years, to understand this team can and should focus on signing players in their respective primes. And if Cengiz Ünder plays his way into a permanent DP deal… hey, that’s cool as hell. He’s really good!
Need: Just screaming for a starting caliber No. 9.
We know they’ve tried to get William Agada, Duncan McGuire and Logan Farrington. They should try again, and harder. Any of those guys would flourish in Sandy.
No offense to Ariath Piol or Forster Ajago, both of whom look useful. Neither, however, looks ready to lead a playoff-caliber front line.
Need: More than anything, they need a head coach who’s willing to play more than two attackers at once.
Barring that… look, local kid Josh Sargent would make a whooooole hell of a lot of sense for this roster. He wouldn’t come cheap (he’d likely be the league’s record signing), but he’s a perfect fit given how poorly the No. 9s currently on the roster have performed. Though if it does happen, I wouldn’t expect it until summer.
Can St. Louis afford to wait that long?
Norwich City, for what it’s worth, are just about cooked in the EPL promotion race. That said, if they want to hold on and push it as long as possible, four of their remaining six games this season happen before April 23. So they really can give it the old college try, then turn around and sell Sargent at a massive profit on a timeline that actually works for St. Louis (or any other MLS team).
Need: A young, true No. 9 with one of those open U22 slots.
I still think Jesús Ferreira can work well next to (or really slightly underneath) Jordan Morris in a 3-5-2, but the false 9 thing has not been hand-in-glove for the Sounders. It’s been… the opposite of that.
That they’ve looked better with Danny Musovski – a true 9 – filling in for Morris is telling. That Musovski has forgotten how to kick the ball into the net is frustrating.
Young goalscorers are expensive, but it’s probably worth it for this team right now. Otherwise, it feels like they’re betting the whole season on Morris’s knees and hamstrings. Danger!
EDIT: It somehow escaped me that FIFA has implemented a special "exceptional registration window" from June 1-10 for the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup. That allows participating clubs, including the Sounders, to sign new players before the tournament begins.
Need: They don’t have the room to do anything significant, but should be looking for a left-footed LB on the cheap.
Their premium roster slots are maxed out, as are their senior roster slots, so there’s not much wiggle room. Finding a left-footed left back who can get forward on the overlap – a different look from how Houston usually play, but a good club to have in the bag – would be nice. But it’d most likely have to be a player they could fit into the supplemental roster.
Otherwise, it’s getting Ondřej Lingr integrated and hoping U22 wingers Lawrence Ennali and Nelson Quiñones are back healthy soon.
Need: As always, they need a center back. Or perhaps two.
Has rookie Jansen Miller won a starting job? It seems like that for the time being, and that’d be cool as hell – center back has been a problem spot for Sporting for a half-decade now.
But if he’s locking that down, and the homegrown duo of Jake Davis and Jacob Bartlett are full-time starters in central midfield, that makes it a lot easier to build out the rest of this roster. Developing players on rookie-scale contracts gives a team real flexibility.
For the time being, seeing how that plays out, and how the trio of winter signings (Dejan Joveljić, Manu GarcÃa, Shapi Suleymanov) fit makes more sense as they ease into the post-Peter Vermes era than making another splashy new signing.
By the way, it now looks like Agada is down to third on the No. 9 depth chart. If that’s the case, trading him – be it to RSL, or RBNY, or someone else who needs a center forward – makes a ton of sense.
Need: A seance.
They don’t have any room to do anything, so they’ve just got to stop getting injured. Along the way, they need to develop some of the young guys into contributors.
We’re seeing steps in that direction with Harbor Miller and Ruben Ramos Jr. Can they conjure up a center back next? They’ll need to, because the veterans on the roster have really struggled.
