2. New York City FC
The second-best team in MLS that started the season with no victories in their first six games. In fact, if you take New York City FC’s form from their final 28 games and extrapolate it over a 34-game season, they would end the year with 70.4 points. Supporters’ Sheild-winning Los Angeles FC ended the year with 72 points.
Essentially, then, New York City FC played like a Supporters’ Shield-winning team for the majority of the season, especially once Heber was introduced to lead the line and fully replace David Villa. Heber ended the year with 15 goals, but his goals per 90 minute ratio was only marginally worse than Josef Martinez’s, 0.86 to 0.94.
New York also boast the most creative player in MLS, Maxi Moralez, an excellent and underrated defence, led by Maxime Chanot, and a complete XI that offers very few weaknesses for the opposition. If not for LAFC, we might be talking about how great this New York team. As it is, they have flown under the radar, but that might well be a good thing.