MLS transfers: What every Western Conference team needs this summer | OneFootball

By Matthew Doyle

The MLS Secondary Transfer Window opens on July 24, which is… well, it’s late. Later than we’re used to, anyway, which means fewer regular season games left by the time reinforcements can actually get on the field.

The league shifted the window back to better align with the closing of the major European windows (most shut on Sept. 1; Türkiye always stay open later, and their teams get good deals because of it), though MLS’s window still closes on Aug. 21 – about a week and a half before the big boys stop shopping.

Will that matter in practice? We’ll see. But a few teams clearly didn’t want to wait around to find out; there was a real push this spring to get deals done before the window even opened. Still, a handful of clubs have left themselves some room to maneuver. Summer’s not dead yet.

Now that we’ve set the table, let’s dive into what Western Conference teams need most. (If you're looking for the Eastern Conference, that was yesterday.)

NOTE: Roster compliance info, including which roster model teams selected, available premium slots and General Allocation Money (GAM) availability, is based on the latest league release from May 8. Things may have shifted slightly since then, but it’s the cleanest snapshot we’ve got.

Let’s get to it.

Austin FC

Austin went big last summer and this past winter, spending a reported $35 million on new signings, almost all of them in the attack.

Naturally, then, they're hanging around the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs line based almost entirely upon the strength of their defense and their excellent goalkeeper, Brad Stuver. Even after Wednesday’s win at the LA Galaxy – they scored twice – they’ve got just 17 goals, the worst mark in the league.

What’s gone wrong? The biggest thing is the lack of a true chance creator in central midfield. Brandon Vazquez (who’s sadly done for the year), Osman Bukari and especially Myrto Uzuni aren’t guys who can bend the defense; they’re guys who finish plays off once the defense has been bent. (None of this is a knock on Owen Wolff, by the way – he’s awesome. He’s just not that type of playmaker).

The good news: It’s easy to see what they need. The bad news: Players who can do that don’t tend to come cheap (especially if they’re young, which virtually rules out a U22 signing for the job).

That said, it can happen. Pep Biel’s been one of the best No. 10s in the league this year, and he’s not a DP.

Colorado Rapids

There are three points I want to make here.

If there was ever a moment to buy him out (the half of his contract they’re on the hook for, anyway) and gas the attack with another high-end contributor, it’s now.

EDIT: Well, I wrote this before they reportedly sold Chidozie Awaziem to FC Nantes, and before Tommy Scooped how they're in talks with Colombian winger Alexis Manyoma as a U22 signing.

Given that... they need a CB. Everything else is secondary.

FC Dallas

I think the Lucho Acosta purchase last winter was an understandable gamble. Lucho has a long history in this league as a Best XI-caliber No. 10, and sometimes an MVP-caliber No. 10. He’s the type of centerpiece who has consistently elevated the attackers around him, making their lives easier and generating goals. Goals generate wins.

That’s not the Lucho that Dallas have got, though. He’s got less on-ball juice than he used to, which means less on-ball gravity. That also means he’s not unlocking defenses as often with the ball on his foot, which means fewer chances to attack from a position of advantage for the cadre of pacey wingers on Dallas' roster, and less service overall for incumbent DP No. 9 Petar Musa.

It’s bad right now – his numbers (both boxscore and underlying) are down across the board. I think they’ve got to figure that out before they make any more big moves, because this winter might require a hard pivot.

Houston Dynamo FC

The Dynamo have been more respectable this year than they could’ve been, given how much of the core they parted ways with after last season. It could’ve all gone into the toilet really easily.

Instead, it’s been a productive gap year, as they’ve developed a few players (Brooklyn Raines as a ball-winning, box-to-box midfielder has been underappreciated by the wider MLS fandom; Jack McGlynn as a playmaker from the right half-space hasn’t been), and gotten a few others back from injury. And while the defense has been up-and-down, I’m generally kind of bullish.

I've quibbled with the quality of their two DP signings, center forward Ezequiel Ponce and attacker Ondřej Lingr. But they’re committed to those guys long-term, so there’s no backing away.

Playing underneath Ponce has been either Amine Bassi or Sebastian Kowalczyk.

I don’t think they’ll try to upgrade this spot this summer – honestly, I don’t think they’ll do anything this summer. They’ve had so many moving pieces, they just need to give it some time.

But this is the spot they’ll need to upgrade come winter.

Los Angeles Football Club

LAFC are both a black box and a Rube Goldberg Machine of moving parts. They’ve had four DPs this year so far: one got bought out, one came and went on loan, another is here on loan, but probably won’t be for much longer, and the fourth is Denis Bouanga, one of the best DP signings in league history.

They may have flitted between roster build models. They've had the room to add good MLS players mid-season like Frankie Amaya, Ryan Raposo and reportedly soon Mathieu Choinière.

Which is all to say, GM/co-president John Thorrington is very good at this. And while I still think he needs to add a bit more midfield creativity to get this team to where it wants to be (I really, really love the Choinière addition, but he's not a "solve your creativity issues" guy), the obvious priority now is to get a starting center back. Aaron Long popped his Achilles’ this past weekend, so we won’t see him until late spring of 2026 at the earliest.

Addressing that need takes priority over everything else, including how they use their open DP slot.

LA Galaxy

All six of the Galaxy’s premium roster slots are filled. They have no GAM and no cap space.

They sold their souls for an MLS Cup title in 2024, and honestly, it was worth it. Even though it was followed up by one of the worst half-seasons in league history, this team is actually in fine shape going forward:

What needs to happen now? They finally start getting some productivity out of their academy. Hopefully, Harbor Miller and Ruben Ramos Jr. can get real minutes down the stretch and into next year, but that's not enough. This club should have Sounders or Union-level homegrown contributions every single year.

Minnesota United FC

This is an extraordinarily well-constructed roster, able to toggle from a 3-4-1-2 to a 3-4-2-1 depending upon Eric Ramsay’s mood, and with different types of wingbacks to throw at different types of situations as well. Plus, Minnesota do murder on dead balls. There are a lot of reasons they’re so good.

But I think there’s a ceiling on what this team can be based on the personnel in central midfield. Wil Trapp has been a good player for a long time, and I’d argue he’s having his best year as a pro; he’s part of the solution.

He’s not the solution, though, is he? We’d have seen it by now if he were, I think.

Portland Timbers

I think it’s pretty clear they’re going to bring in a goalscoring winger since both Rodríguez and Antony, who’s been so good this year, are both injured. It’s the smart move for a team that’s done well to hang around in the middle of the West pack, but have begun slipping (only one win in five after a devastating 1-0 home loss to RSL on Wednesday).

They have a good chunk of GAM left, so they can address other spots as well. I could see center back being a place to hunt for potential upgrades, and it probably wouldn’t kill them to add more depth at center mid.

But yeah, they need another match-winner. That’s the priority.

Real Salt Lake

RSL have four wins and a draw in their last five, and it feels like the pieces are coming together now that the playoff push is here. Somehow, Pablo Mastroeni always does this.

Now, would a sane person say they should look for a DP No. 9 to take over the starting job? Probably. But I have built my mansion on William Agada Island, and I will continue to live there until they bury me in the hedgerows.

RSL, however, won't: they are reportedly about to sign Nigerian striker Victor Olatunji from Sparta Prague, though without spending a DP slot, as per Tommy Scoops.

This is obviously very good work, even if it does harm my Agada Agenda.

San Diego FC

Is Iloski really as good as he looked this spring for San Diego? No, of course not. Nobody’s that good.

But he’s still really freaking good, and I truly hope that he and SDFC’s front office find the right number to bring him home and make him a permanent part of this whole thing. And no, that’s not a panic reaction to Wednesday’s 1-0 home loss to Toronto. It’s just common sense.

The way they’ve found and developed young players, or second-chance guys – not just Iloski, but both fullbacks and center back Ian Pilcher – means they’ve got the chance to be really choosy about how (if) they spend that third DP slot.

Personally, I think they should go for a free No. 8, which would allow them to ease Aníbal Godoy into a reserve role upon his return from injury. But that’s less important than sorting out the center forward situation, which… honestly, I really want them to get this done.

Adding one more center back is on the list as well.

San Jose Earthquakes

The Quakes had a promising spring. Summer arrived, and it's been brutal.

San Jose are spiraling, with no wins in their past five across all competitions (which included a heartbreaking home loss – on PKs – to Austin in the quarterfinals of the US Open Cup) and just one win in eight. They’ve lost the ability to control the middle of the pitch, and they’re not creating chances like they were earlier in the year.

Those two things are related, but given the talent San Jose already have deep in midfield, it feels like the place in need of an immediate upgrade is the No. 10. I want to believe that homegrown Niko Tsakiris is the answer there but I think he’s more of a high-level ball-progressor who can do some chance creation rather than a pure chance creator.

Bruce Arena’s first great team had Marco Etcheverry. Bruce’s most recent great team had Carles Gil.

The man has a type.

Seattle Sounders FC

I think the Sounders will spend some cash on another U22 signing this summer, and Sounder at Heart has linked them to Dutch youth international Noah Ohio (Duncan Idaho’s cousin, I believe, and a fellow Swordmaster of Ginaz).

But that’s more a signing of opportunity rather than filling a need. Their need right now, following João Paulo’s ACL tear, is some depth behind Vargas and Cristian Roldan (who looked leggy against the Rapids midweek) to give them the occasional break.

Should they call up Sean Davis? I don’t think that’s a bad idea.

St. Louis CITY SC

The good news for St. Louis fans is that the front office is trying to address this need, as they’ve already signed 21-year-old Senegalese youth international Fallou Fall.

The bad news is that this is just the latest swing of the bat, as they’ve been trying desperately to find a pair of starting CBs since basically Day 1. Joakim Nilsson and Henry Kessler have been constantly hurt; Timo Baumgartl has underperformed and Jannes Horn's loan expired. Tim Parker was sent packing; Jake Girdwood-Reich has mostly been used at d-mid. Journeymen Josh Yaro and Kyle Hiebert have been the most consistent options, which… yeah.

This is the spot. Hopefully, Fall’s the guy.

Sporting Kansas City

Sporting will pretty obviously do a club-wide reset this winter, as they’ve mostly just sat pat since parting ways with the legendary Peter Vermes. They have a ton of contracts coming off the books and the opportunity to give the next head coach and next CSO the closest thing to a blank slate (the two DPs they have on the books long-term, Dejan Joveljić and Manu García, are really good players and should be part of the long-term solution).

Just keep things as they are this summer and have everybody still on the roster playing for their jobs.

Vancouver Whitecaps FC

Farewell, Pedro Vite – you were awesome this year. Best of luck with Pumas.

With Vite reportedly heading to LIGA MX and Ryan Gauld perma-broken (still no word on exactly when their No. 10 will be back), the ‘Caps are now bereft of chance creation. It looks like Kenji Cabrera, who’s been one of the best players in the Peruvian league and is on the fringes of the Peruvian national team, has been tapped as the replacement.

Jesper Sørensen’s worked miracles this year, and he’ll probably do it again with Cabrera. I do hope, though, that there’s more reinforcements on the way (including a backup left back).