As Major League Soccer enters its 26th season, for every positive record in league history, there are also some many would like to forget. MLS is a forgiving league, with no promotion or relegation, a dead last team can realistically end up winning MLS Cup the following season with a bit of investment. In 1999, for example the Kansas City Wizards, future Sporting KC, had an absolutely dreadful year, but managed to put it behind them and win MLS Cup in 2000, with some bunker defense and world class goalkeeping by Tony Meola. Still, it must hurt team fan bases pretty hard to endure some of the losing streaks we are going to feature today.
MLS by its single entity set up can be a streaky league, it is not uncommon to see a championship winning team lose in the double digits during the year. Last season 13 of the 26 teams had .500 or below .500 records.
Nonetheless some teams truly stink up the field, and we have identified some infamous teams that MLS fans won’t soon forget. Here are the teams with the longest losing streaks in MLS history.
Longest losing streak to end a season – 1999 Kansas City Wizards
1999 K.C. Wizards
Just a year before they would claim their first MLS Cup, the then Kansas City Wizards, lost a combined total of 24 games, winning 8, 2 of which came via the old-fashioned shootout. To end the season the Wizards dropped seven in a row and were shut out in five of those games. In fact, Alexi Lalas scored the team’s final goal of the season against the old Dallas Burn in a shootout loss. Then the Wizards would not score a goal for three games straight.
Longest losing streak to start a season – 2012 Toronto FC
Toronto FC fans during 2012. (Getty)
Toronto FC was down and out for a lot of their early MLS history, before the team became a contender there were many stinkers. In 2012, TFC started the season losing nine straight matches! Dutch coach Aaron Winter was gone by June, and Toronto would only win 5 games the whole year. Chivas USA won more games than Toronto that season, ouch!
Summer blues – 2018 Orlando City
Nothing went right in 2018 for Orlando City. (Getty)
In 2018 from May until July, Orlando City lost 9 games in a row, the Kaka less Orlando City was thin on its roster with few standouts. The Lions gave up 10 goals in three games before the streak ended. Orlando would win 8 games and lose 24 that year.
Unlucky 10 – 2005 Real Salt Lake
D.J. Countess saw better days in 2005. (Getty)
RSL was not exactly a flagship team in their inaugural season, during the end of the regular season the team would lose 10 straight. RSL would only win 5 games in 2005, but amazingly did better than Chivas USA who won only 4.
The 1999 MetroStars
The 1999 MetroStars are one of the worst teams in MLS history. (Getty)
By far, one of the worst teams in MLS history were the 1999 MetroStars, Bora Milutinovic bumbled his way through a season which at one point saw the sad Metros drop 12 straight matches. A record that still stands today. Incredibly, 1999 saw the MetroStars break another bad record, they actually started a season winning and not losing their first 3 games as they did in the first three seasons. The MetroStars were so bad that the 1999 Kansas City Wizards team, that team that could not score goals, beat the MetroStars 6-0 at one point of the season. The Charlie Stillitano era would end and the MetroStars would have an amazing 2000 season before going dormant until the Red Bulls took over the club.
