MLS Power Rankings, 1-30 | Matchday 7

Neither rain nor snow* nor dark of night, nor the fact that I didn't watch a single game this MLS matchday – not a one! – can stay me from churning out the weekly Power Rankings. All opinions below are fueled by highlights, boxscores, and a bunch of recap reading I did on the flight home.

(*) I did have almost but not quite enough wine to miss my appointed rounds.

Let's dive in:

1. LAFC (-): As close to a fully rotated squad as you'll ever see from this side. Mulligan earned, mulligan given.
2. Nashville SC (-): Half-rotated, on the road, got the win against a conference rival. That's what elite teams do. Now let's see if they can go make history in Mexico City.
3. Seattle Sounders (-): Obviously was a good decision to claim this as a bye week given the CCC workload and all the injuries they're nursing. A 2-0 road loss is not an impossible hole, but if they get out of it, it's an all-timer.
4. San Jose Earthquakes (-): My not-so-secret take has always been that the big differentiator between the typical MLS import and the typical USL/Next Pro pathway guy is opportunity. The Quakes are stuffed with the latter – they are much, much more affordable than the former – and are beating the hell out of almost everyone they come up against. This is good for my "I told you so" agenda.
5. Vancouver Whitecaps (-): Still not quite clicking like last year, yet they're atop the Supporters' Shield race, already sporting a +15 goal differential and with an xG differential to match. Which makes the first part of that sentence scary, doesn't it?
6. Inter Miami (-): At least they got Berterame untracked. There's an abject joylessness to this team, though.
7. Chicago Fire (+4): I don't love moving them up this much given their current winning streak came against a soft part of the schedule. But they've shown depth, flexibility, and – most importantly – elite defensive solidity now that we're getting to see the Elliott/Mbokazi pairing in front of Chris Brady. That's a title-caliber group, and that's bought time for the attack to figure itself out.
8. FC Dallas (-): The momentum chart and boxscore tell me they missed Bernie Kamungo, and that maybe they had a few too many personnel adjustments beyond that. It also tells me they had a good final half-hour, even if they didn't find the winner.
   I'm guessing this is a game in which they really could've used that DP No. 10.
9. Real Salt Lake (+1): Sometimes the best thing to do is nothing.
10. San Diego FC (-3): Four straight red cards. Three of them to Chris McVey. What the fuck.
    Their xG differential is under water, by the way. Makes sense when you're spending that much time playing 10v11, but still. Some worrying signs here.
11. NYCFC (-2): Not particularly close to the level of the league's best, are they? But at least they got Malachi Jones back. He was so, so good before that devastating leg-break two years ago. If he gets back to that level, he's a game-changing weapon.
12. Minnesota United (+1): Turns out they could play actual soccer all along!
13. Colorado Rapids (+1): Mostly buried the bad teams they've faced this year. Partly that's them playing with a level of physicality that teams have struggled matching, and partly that's them using the ball to rip their way through anyone who's even slightly disorganized.
    The underlying numbers continue to like them quite a bit. I'm expecting them to continue climbing.
14. RBNY (+1): I'm expecting this team to continue climbing as well, even if they were kind of outplayed by Miami. Still, they understand who they are and how they want to play, and that goes a long way (especially combined with a perfectly balanced midfield and one of the best strikers in the league).
15. Once Charlotte SA (-3): Here's how single-game xG can be deceptive: Charlotte won the xG battle on the day 2.19 to 0.54. Dominant performance and sometimes ball go in, right?
    Seems like wrong, because the vast majority of that came from the final 27 minutes and second-half stoppage, at what point the Crown were already down 2-0. Their xG total told a tale of game-state driven, kitchen sink dominance rather than structural, functional, from-the-whistle dominance.
16. Toronto FC (-): Their lack of creativity without Djordje Mihailovic is going to be an issue over the next few months. Over the next few weeks, they're going to be working on not conceding late, because they'd be on a five-game winning streak if they could lock it up in second-half stoppage.
17. St. Louis City (+4): I like the way the play. I just don't understand some of Yoann Damet's personnel choices, as the guys he's putting on the field aren't producing.
18. LA Galaxy (+1): Very good and very necessary result. And it's worth mentioning that they're on the fringes of the top 10 in xG differential. I'm not certain that matters with this team – they have reliably conceded the same goal for a half-decade now – but we'll see.
19. New England Revolution (+3): Three wins in four, and two straight shutouts. Not exactly facing murderer's row, but results matter.
20. Austin FC (-2): Just a pretty average team in almost every way, except for two: open play chance creation, in which they're very bad; and shot-stopping, in which Brad Stuver is still one of the league's best. Honestly surprised he didn't do better on Erik Thommy's winner.
21. Houston Dynamo (-4): Every single year, according to all the data, Jonathan Bond nets out as one of the league's worst shot-stoppers.
    So far in 2026 he's 29th out of 30 starting 'keepers. The Dynamo don't have enough talent to overcome that.
22. D.C. United (-2): Not enough talent – a front-office problem – especially when it comes to chance creation. And I haven't seen much in the way of player development or tactical creativity from head coach René Weiler to address it.
    One win in five, no goals in the past three... I suspect this is the start of a season-long downward spiral.
23. Columbus Crew (-): A costly point, given Wessam Abou Ali's season-ending torn ACL.
    Here's the test for the Crew's culture in re: player development: Chase Adams, who turns 18 this week, is a true No. 9 who has been killing it in Next Pro (4 goals in 5 games and great underlyings). He's the same age as Julian Hall and is the closest thing Columbus have to a like-for-like replacement for Abou Ali.
    Teams around the league are trusting young players more than ever before. It's the Crew's turn to take that plunge.
24. FC Cincinnati (-): Grabbing a come-from-behind road point while down a man is, by definition, a good result. But they are nothing close to what people had hoped they'd be this year.
25. Philadelphia Union (+1): Finally got themselves a win. Next up should be getting one of their forwards a goal or two.
26. Portland Timbers (+1): They needed those three points in the worst way. I don't think it portends anything in particular given it was at home against LAFC's back-ups – the Timbers are not a team that's about to run off four straight or anything like that. But nothing wrong with enjoying these moments when they come.
27. Atlanta United (-2): The xG data suggests they had some life. The scoreboard suggests they still sucked. At this point I trust the scoreboard and the standings more than the single-game xG data.
28. Orlando City (+2): A point!
29. Montréal Impact (-): Kendall and Roman will fix it this time, I am certain.
30. Sporting KC (-2): Their per-game xG differential is -1.70. To put that into context, last year's Spoon-winning D.C. side were -0.32. That famously bad FC Cincy 2019 expansion team? -0.82. The worst of the late Chivas teams? -0.80, back in 2013.
    "Impossibly bad" is a fair descriptor of any of these bottom three teams. But Sporting really are plumbing new depths.

I was traveling on Monday so no Soccerwise for me, but Tommy Scoops is officially back: