In each of the past two seasons, Toronto FC was the clear and obvious frontrunner in Major League Soccer.
That might feel a bit like 20/20 hindsight about the 2016 team that won neither the Supporters' Shield nor MLS Cup, burdened as it was by playoff failures past. Each of that year's New York sides was flawed in its own way, Mauro Diaz's knee injury blew open the Western Conference and no team had anybody like Sebastian Giovinco. But last season's Toronto was a destroyer of worlds, the first club in MLS history ever to win a domestic cup, the Supporters' Shield and MLS Cup in the same calendar year.