The six weeks leading into World Cup break have been harsh and unrelenting for most MLS clubs. Fixture congestion has teams in a choke hold, with injuries and rotation plus heavy legs and heavy minds leading to lackluster performances and surprising results. Many sources around the league speak of surviving and advancing to the break.
Well, that break is near and, with it, the sweet release of a pause. One more matchweek awaits before a six-week break in action for the World Cup.
Looking back through this slog, replete with midweek chaos, all of a sudden many teams have played 14 regular-season games. That means we’re also at the stage of the season where All-Star voting is open (and will be through this Thursday) and ballots are filling out. That got us thinking about ours.
The game, which is against a group of Liga MX’s All-Stars in Charlotte 10 days after the World Cup final (July 29), will be filled with big talent — though perhaps one Miami-based superstar will skip it again like last year. Interestingly, and perhaps coincidentally, Lionel Messi hasn’t been featured in any of the All-Star Game promotions or advertisements.
Nevertheless, picking a starting XI from a 30-team league is tough, and there are many deserving candidates. More than one-third of the way through the calendar, this is my MLS All-Star ballot:
For clarity: MLS restricts the official All-Star vote to a 4-3-3, with players stuck in positions listed by the league, which is reflected below.
GOALKEEPER: Brad Stuver, Austin FC
Stuver leads MLS in saves and in goals against minus expected goals against (basically meaning he saves much more than expected). Though he’s faced more shots and thus had more opportunities than, say, Nashville’s Brian Schwake, to make a difference, he’s been awesome once again and deserves the nod.
RIGHT BACK: Andy Najar, Nashville SC
Najar is one of the league’s best fullbacks and plays in a unique way that helps underpin Nashville’s attack. He both overlaps and underlaps and forms a deadly pair down the right flank with Cristian Espinoza.
CENTER BACK: Mamadou Fofana, New England Revolution; Nkosi Tafari, LAFC
A center back pairing of Fofana and Tafari would not have been a preseason pick. Fofana, in his second year with the club, has been much better under Marko Mitrović than Caleb Porter (like many in this Revs team). Tafari’s mix of 1-v-1 defending ability and passing range has been crucial for LAFC.
LEFT BACK: Jamar Ricketts, San Jose Earthquakes
Ricketts is a driving force behind San Jose’s surprise start to the season, with the club tied for first in the Western Conference.
DEFENSIVE MIDFIELD: Sebastian Berhalter, Vancouver Whitecaps
Berhatler was one of the first names on my ballot. He already has six goals and seven assists from the midfield, and he does not play as a No. 10. As he makes his U.S. World Cup roster push, his production is elite but his range of passing (and set pieces), plus general relentlessness in driving the game forward, is emblematic of exactly how Vancouver wants to play.
ATTACKING MIDFIELD: Zavier Gozo, Real Salt Lake; Carles Gil, New England Revolution
The 19-year-old Gozo is now up to six goals and four assists for one of the best teams in the West, continuing his surge for a potential last-gasp U.S. World Cup roster berth with yet another goal over the weekend. I would have voted him wherever, but MLS listed him as an attacking midfielder.
The last midfield slot goes to Gil, a former MLS MVP who is leading the Revs back up the Eastern Conference standings with five goals and four assists.
STRIKER: Petar Musa, FC Dallas; Hugo Cuypers, Chicago Fire; Lionel Messi, Inter Miami
For the three forward spots, well, it starts with Messi.
Whether the two-time reigning league MVP shows up at the game or not, he will be voted there by fans and deserves to be selected on merit with 12 goals and six assists. Being selected to the All-Star Game and not playing (barring injury) results in a one-game suspension, which Messi was hit with last year when he opted to rest. To be clear: If Messi is not selected to the All-Star Game, it is the league trying to work around the one-game suspension rule and not because he didn’t deserve a spot through his play (or, more typically for the MLS All-Star Game, his fame).
Alongside Messi in the other two forward spots is Musa (12 goals) and Cuypers, the current Golden Boot leader. The Chicago Fire forward has 13 goals (in only 899 minutes) and is on a 10-game scoring streak (two-thirds of the way to tying Josef Martínez’s league record), making him an obvious choice.
San Jose forward Preston Judd (nine goals) was a difficult omission, but with only three spots there was no room.
Elsewhere from around MLS this weekend:
Lionel Messi gestures to Inter Miami fans as they expressed their frustration with the club’s players (Chris Arjoon / Icon Sportswire / Getty Images)
The standoff between Inter Miami’s stars and their fans
At long last, Inter Miami earned its first win at Nu Stadium, as Messi scored one goal and assisted on another (scored by $15 million signing Germán Berterame, who is now up to five goals and three assists) in a 2-0 win over the Portland Timbers and former Miami manager Phil Neville.
You’d think that would be cause for celebration, but all wasn’t well in the stands. Miami’s supporters groups stood in profound silence for 84 minutes of the game, in protest of the players not acknowledging the crowd in previous games.
Things got even frostier when, as some of the team did go over to salute the official supporters sections following the match, the high-profile likes of Messi, Rodrigo De Paul and Luis Suárez did not (though Messi did wave to the fans in the section above the tunnel as he walked out after the final whistle); before that, Messi even seemed to make a gesture of disapproval to the crowd when it did come to life, as fans chanted at the players to simply acknowledge their supporters.
La barra de Inter Miami empezó con el grito de Jugadores y Messi no estaba contento.
El capitán le reclamó a la grada.#InterMiamiCF #Messi pic.twitter.com/kbjqhY0IeW
— José Armando (@Jarm21) May 18, 2026
Ian Fray, Yannick Bright, Noah Allen y otros de los jugadores de Inter Miami si saludaron a la barra.
Messi, De Paul y Suárez se fueron al vestuario.#InterMiamiCF #Messi pic.twitter.com/vRN0cKd6Pg
— José Armando (@Jarm21) May 18, 2026
If those players addressed the media after the match, perhaps they could have lent some explanation or attempted to smooth things over, but their notorious postgame silence continued. Instead, it’s open to interpretation, and Miami’s fans are left to make of it what they’d please. While winning is a great and ultimate elixir, it’s clear that there’s an expectation of mutual respect between La Familia and the club’s other supporters that is currently going unmet. This has been anything but a storybook MLS Cup title defense and season in South Florida.
Sam Sarver, #MLSAfterDark legend
The best moment of the weekend and most iconic celebration of the season involved a stoppage-time winner, scuba celebration and a tall boy of Modelo.
FC Dallas went on the road to the San Jose Earthquakes and, in stoppage time with the game tied 2-2, substitute attacker Sam Sarver was sent through 1-v-1. He coolly scored, and while the goal and three points it secured were impressive enough, it pales to what happened in the next 20 seconds.
Sarver orchestrated a scuba celebration on the advertisement boards with teammates, then screamed into the camera. Amid the pandemonium, some beer cans came flying to the field from the San Jose seats.
Instead of viewing it as enemy projectiles, Sarver — with still roughly six minutes of stoppage time remaining, mind you — took it as a gift. He picked that Modelo straight off the ground, chugged some and dumped the rest on his face.
Sam Sarver scored a stoppage-time game-winning goal for FC Dallas last night at San Jose. Beer cans were thrown onto the field and Sarver grabbed one off the ground and shotgunned it.
IMMEDIATE MLS heritage. pic.twitter.com/NZjHVxzfM2
— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) May 17, 2026
“They were throwing some beers on the field so I decided to chug one,” Sarver said succinctly and matter-of-factly after the game.
And as if that weren’t legendary enough, what he posted on Instagram from a 7-Eleven on Sunday took things to the next level.
Cheers, indeed.
The forward has three goals this season, all in the 88th minute or later. He was already developing a cult following in the league. That status is now cemented and, well, cheers to that, too.
Sporting KC doubles its season point total in four days
One week after writing about how Sporting KC hit rock bottom, and how big of a hole it has dug, the club got slammed 6-0 by the Timbers and managed to find an even lower bottom. Since then, though, things have gotten much better. Perhaps, at that point, there was no other way to go but up.
SKC beat the LA Galaxy on Wednesday and then Austin FC on Saturday, picking up a much-needed six points and rising from the bottom of the league.
“A week ago, obviously we were in a bad place,” head coach Rapha Wicky said after the most recent triumph. “For the boys (to) show up twice like that with two really, really brave and good performances … that really makes me really happy.”
SKC still has a long way to go, but its rebuild certainly feels like it’s in a much better and more hopeful place.
Further observations
The second half of San Diego’s 3-3 draw vs. FC Cincinnati was pure chaos. Four goals, two of which deep into stoppage time. Marcus Ingvartsen scored at what was assumed to be the last kick of the game in the sixth minute of stoppage time… but Cincinnati had time to take the ensuing kickoff. Within 12 seconds of kickoff, improbably the ball was in San Diego’s box, at the foot of Tom Barlow, who scored the equalizing goal.
Maxi Moralez left NYCFC’s 1-1 draw with Red Bull New York on a stretcher after a non-contact knee injury. It did not look good. The club legend had started all of NYCFC’s 53 regular season and playoff games since the start of last year. Hopefully the worst-case scenario is avoided.
The Galaxy bounced back from defeat to SKC with a 2-0 win over the Seattle Sounders, as Marco Reus delivered a delightful assist.
The (early) Supporters’ Shield race featured both Western Conference leaders (San Jose and Vancouver) losing, which gave Nashville SC the chance Sunday night to take the lead. With one Hany Mukhtar hat trick, the shorthanded club did just that with an impressive 3-2 win over LAFC. Nashville now has the most points per game (2.31), most wins (T-9), fewest losses (1), fewest goals conceded (T-10) and second-best goal differential (+19) while remaining undefeated at home (5-0-1). It’s a deserved top-of-the-table place for B.J. Callaghan’s side.