Let me start this preview off with this: in the Gregorian calendar year reading 2018, the Western Conference is weird.



Most years, the left half of the country is pretty easy to project. For much of the last decade, the L.A. Galaxy have been the dominant force of the league, picking their stars wisely and getting the most out of overlooked players like Dan Gargan, Baggio Hušidic, and Mike Magee. In the Pacific Northwest, Portland and Seattle have jockeyed neck-and-neck for Cascadian supremacy, with one of the two sides representing the conference in the past three MLS Cups. More spendthrift teams like FC Dallas, Sporting Kansas City, and Real Salt Lake have relied on a spine built off of domestic talent, a little bit of international flair, and expert youth setups to keep in the thick of the playoff chase. Colorado and San Jose would vacillate between being plucky, battle-hardened underdogs or underperforming also-rans. Recently, Houston went through a dramatic...