Chicago

Year in Review "Had all the tools at their disposal necessary to create a happy ending, but were simply unwilling to use them … Frank Yallop’s insistence upon playing a straight-up, old-fashioned 4-4-2 eventually cost him his job. … Neither Kennedy Igboananike nor Shaun Maloney produced at their intended DP level. … Veljko Paunovic’s new regime has Harry Shipp, Matt Polster, Accam and Gilberto to build upon for 2016 …Now they have to turn that collection of talent into a team that really understands how to work together. "

Colorado

Year in Review "Did get better in the second half of the year, thanks largely to the acquisition of Irish DP forward Kevin Doyle … Generally sat deep and did most of their damage on counterattacks and set pieces. It was ugly, but it was also effective … Roster has been shorn of many, many veterans. … Even more crucial is figuring out a formation and tactical approach that allows this team a bit of dimensionality in possession."

Columbus

Year in Review "Came into 2015 with a new suffix and great expectations, and mostly met them … During the regular season, the problem was an unsettled defense … Around early August, became the best team east of the Mississippi … Nobody in the league can match the ability of Wil Trapp and Tony Tchani to spread the midfield out with long, diagonal passing … Nobody better set-up to come into 2016 and start punishing teams from Day One. "

D.C. United

Year in Review "United’s no-frills approach became something of a hindrance … Weren’t able to possess the ball to good effect, didn’t have much creativity to speak of, and were constantly overwhelmed in the field’s most important quadrant … A year that started out with promise ended with disappointment. … Don’t be surprised if they get out to another hot start. But they’ll need more than that."

FC Dallas

Year in Review "One point away, and one player away [from] an epic double … The only elite team in the league that played last year without an elite center forward … Left a ton of goals on the table that should have been scored … [Need] to make sure playmaker Mauro Diaz gets a few hundred more minutes on the field … The pieces are mostly there for this team to win in 2016. I think everybody knows that."

Houston

Year in Review "Tough to figure out … Non-descript in most ways – too filled with savvy veterans to go on any sort of extended losing streaks, and too devoid of creativity to go on any winning ones … They’ll try to build a functional attack around Cristian Maidana's left foot and Giles Barnes’s slashing runs from the flank … Nervous for them defensively, but it’s sure to make them more memorable next year."

LA Galaxy

Year in Review "Any LA Galaxy season that doesn’t end with a title is considered a failure … A broken, dysfunctional attack … Turns out that Landon Donovan guy was pretty tough to replace … Back line was put in position to contain run-out after run-out, which they just weren't equipped to do. … Robbie Keane’s heroics couldn’t make up for that … Rest of the roster comprises guys in their prime and with a ton of talent."

Montreal

Year in Review "Didier Drogba arrived in late summer and immediately started stomping holes into the rest of MLS … Created more time and space for everybody around him … New head coach Mauro Biello deserves some credit as well … Switched to more of a 4-3-3, allowing speedy wingers to stretch the field … Yet the success isn't guaranteed to translate into 2016. Old teams don’t tend to hold up well over the course of a 34-week regular season."

New England

Year in Review "Were, in 2015, really weird … Either on one of the league’s best runs or one of the worst, with almost no in-between. … A high-pressure 4-3-3 group … Lee Nguyen wasn’t quite so prominent a focal point, while the fullbacks pushed higher than in years past … The big change next year? There won’t be one."

NYCFC

Year in Review "The league’s most interesting team in 2015 – for mostly the wrong reasons … Best moments came when more responsibility was put at the feet of the youngsters rather than the veteran DP trio …The big problem was this: The three most expensive pieces on this roster don’t fit together … A 5-3-2 probably makes the most sense, but A) the defense is wildly unsettled, and B) that’s a formation we’ve not seen in MLS in a decade."

NY Red Bulls

Year in Review "Jesse Marsch and Ali Curtis jettisoned the old … instituted a high-octane, high-pressure style that suffocated opposing attacks and flipped turnovers into chances … The 4-2-3-1 offered field coverage and movement most MLS teams couldn’t quite handle … Keeping it going into 2016 will be the trick … How they build around Robles, BWP and the central midfield will determine if their first MLS Cup is (finally) in the offing. "

Orlando City

Year in Review "That they could actually see the red line counts as an expansion team win … The best thing about 2015 for OCSC were the crowds (amazing) … Cyle Larin should be this team’s starting center forward for a decade … Cristian Higuita is a foundational piece of what should be a winning team going forward … Roster doesn’t need much work this offseason; chemistry and cohesion should be the biggest drivers of improvement."

Philadelphia

Year in Review "Guys who’d made progress in 2014 regressed in 2015 [and] the new arrivals mostly underperformed … Did figure some things out: Andre Blake is their starting ‘keeper; … Richie Marquez is one of the league’s promising young center backs … Eric Ayuk invented moments of pure joy … Best bet is that in 2016 the midfield will be more compact and aggressive going forward while more balanced defensively."

Portland

Year in Review "Flipped up their formation, brought Darlington Nagbe into central midfield, and went on an unbeaten streak that’s still in progress … Allowed more control on the ball and created extra attacking gravity in that particular zone … There are holes to fill for a team that traditionally hasn’t drafted well or developed players from within. But they won’t worry about that too much. They’re champions, after all."

Real Salt Lake

Year in Review "A lack of cohesion in central defense and a lack of productivity up top. … 36-year-old Javier Morales was the only consistent attacking threat, and he started to show his age down the stretch. New arrival Juan Manuel Martinez’s play mitigated that to some extent … Answers may come from within … It's definitely not too early to think about filling that void for the powers that be in Sandy."

San Jose

Year in Review "Part II of the Dom Kinnear era in San Jose began with a sort of muffled thud … Chris Wondolowski at central midfield? That actually happened. So did Shea Salinas quietly continuing his run as one of the league’s most underrated wide players … The lack of goal-scoring from midfield torpedoed [playoff] hopes … Hopefully Innocent Emeghara can provide that much-needed productivity."

Seattle

Year in Review "For a two-month period, played the best soccer of anybody in the league … Then Clint Dempsey went to the Gold Cup, everybody else got hurt, and Seattle went into a death spiral … There are moves to make this offseason, and some of them could be major. Expect this team to be younger and faster. I’m just not sure that’ll necessarily mean 'better' right away."

Sporting KC

Year in Review "Spent most of the season ripping teams open through the middle via Benny Feilhaber’s MVP-caliber passing and vision … The big problems: Dom Dwyer didn’t finish as well as he should’ve … a lack of speed on the flanks … and that this group was ravaged by injuries … Crushed the draft, found a good starting ‘keeper, an elite winger and an excellent D-mid. Five quality additions is a great haul."

Toronto

Year in Review "Spent much of the season trying to discover an identity rather than imposing their will upon any-and-all comers … Best formation and lineup remains unclear … Greg Vanney has to figure out how to get a better overall shape … Raw talent keeps the floor from falling too low, but that they don’t quite fit seems to prevent the ceiling from being elite."