MLS preview: Young stars invigorate an unpredictable league growing in popularity

Go ahead and guess. Pontificate all you want. Read between the imaginary lines of a roster pieced together but not proven. When it comes to forecasting what's about to happen ahead of each Major League Soccer season, there should be accompanying warning signs.

Hot takes turn arctic in a day. Predicted MLS Cup contenders can flounder in the blink of an eye, while some picked to occupy a conference cellar can rise from underneath the weight of written-off expectations by pundits and catch the league off-guard.

So as we sit days from the first kick of the next eight months, don't pretend like you know what's about to happen — no one does. The eventual 2016 MLS Cup champion Seattle Sounders were left for dead last July, fired their beloved coach and proceeded to go on a historic run to their first MLS Cup.

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The Colorado Rapids, picked by many to finish last in the Western Conference, came within a goal of hosting the championship game. Both MLS Cup finalists from 2015 weren't part of the postseason in 2016. On any given Wednesday, Saturday or Sunday, unpredictability can assert its power in a league driven by reversed fortunes — good and bad.

MLS is driving toward a different look in 2017, phasing out the aging, aching worldwide stars for younger foreign talent to not only contribute now, but become the names and numbers fans remember when discussing a certain team. The Sounders and Toronto FC, last year's MLS Cup finalists, were the ones who started changing the complexion of the league by signing transcendent talents.

Sebastian Giovinco joined TFC before 2015, and he's recorded 39 goals and 31 assists in his time there. Nicolas Lodeiro was the breath of fresh air Seattle needed a year ago, pushing the Sounders to an MLS Cup crown while star forward Clint Dempsey was sidelined. Other clubs in MLS took notice and are hoping to strike that same well of success.

Real Salt Lake signed a 22-year-old Slovakian national teamer in Albert Rusnák, who now has the keys to the RSL attack in place of legend Javier Morales. Expansion side Atlanta United signed three young Designated Players from South America in Miguel Almirón (Paraguay), Josef Martinez (Venezuela) and Hector Villalba (Argentina).

Big-market clubs such as L.A. Galaxy and New York City FC veered away from their former M.O. Gone from L.A. are Robbie Keane and Steven Gerrard and in is 27-year-old French attacker Romain Alessandrini. NYCFC waved goodbye to Frank Lampard and replaced him with Maxi Moralez, a 29-year-old Argentine.

All 22 clubs went shopping around the globe this offseason. The league infused more Targeted Allocation Money to allow franchises to not only strengthen the core of their roster, but to be players on the world market. New signings will have their shot at announcing themselves to fans around MLS, one of the main talking points entering 2017.

Atlanta United and Minnesota United join the fold, constructing their clubs in different manners. Can one — both? — become the first expansion clubs in league history to be part of the MLS Cup postseason?

Can star-studded TFC bounce back from an MLS Cup final loss at home?

Are the Sounders up to defend their title and prove the four months of 2016 weren't a fluke?

Which team turns the corner and keeps it going until fall?

Try and come up with the answers. There's no guarantee you'll be right — or even come close — when predicting MLS. Sit back and see how wrong you and everyone else will be in a few months time. Or the week before Halloween, when the stakes are their parity-driven highest.

ckamrani@sltrib.com

Twitter: @chriskamrani