Power Rankings, 1-30 | Matchday 26
The final, full, three-game week of the season;
Sometimes, for the Sunday column, I’ll go into it with a plan. I know I want to write about this player, or this team, or this type of sequence, and I’ll make sure to cut it and build the longer parts of the column1 around it.
Other times, I’ll just watch the games with nothing in mind and go where the writing takes me. Literally, I’ll start writing the column not knowing which of the sections are going to be the featured one, and only once I’ve written them do I realize I went 300 words longer on one or two of the games than on the others. Thus by default, those become the featured sections.
That’s what this week’s column was:
• Philadelphia's flaw, Orlando's top-five chances & more from Matchday 26
There’s just not a ton that’s new to unpack about these teams at this point in the year (hopefully that changes once the window opens on Thursday), so what I find myself doing most often is reassessing the top teams, figuring out what makes them favorites and what’s holding them back.
I have no idea if that’s interesting to you at all. Just thought I’d pull back the curtain a little bit and give a slight peek at my process.
Anyway, this was the last full Wednesday slate of the year;2 everything else midweek is scattered make-up games from here on out.
And now, my vote for this week’s MLSsoccer.com Power Rankings:
Inter Miami: Just feels like everybody knows it’s the last hurrah for Suarez and Busquets, and they’re emptying the tanks to send those guys out on a high.
Saturday’s visit from Cincy – a chance for revenge for the Herons – is potentially one of the games of the year.3Nashville SC: That 3-0 over Columbus was wildly impressive. The 1-0 over TFC wasn’t, but they got the job done. And their underlying numbers are the best in the league.
Columbus Crew: Finally got Daniel Gazdag into the boxscore. Does he start making regular appearances now?
Philadelphia Union: Seven points from this week is one better than Miami, Nashville, Columbus and Cincy, but of that quintet, they’ve got the worst record against top competition.
FC Cincinnati: Really impressive bounce-back after the disappointment vs. Columbus last weekend. Massive “prove it” game at Miami coming up.
Seattle Sounders: Poor Jordan Morris can’t catch a break, but the attack is humming anyway and the defense is starting to get healthy. Still want to see them make a veteran d-mid signing after losing Joao Paulo for the year.
San Diego FC: One point from two home games against struggling teams. Lost their top scorer (hopefully just a temporary thing), and the defense is suddenly a little thin.4
LAFC: Second-best underlyings in the league and only one league loss in four months, so this team is clearly very good. But they badly need to go out and replace Aaron Long. And I’m very eager to see how they use their DP slot(s).
Minnesota United: They are who they are, and that’s very good. But it’s not great.
Vancouver Whitecaps: Huge four-point week – without Pedro Vite, who I will miss – to end a five-game road trip. Says a ton about this team’s mental toughness. Hope they can get some creativity back into the lineup soon.
Orlando City: I feel like the healthy, 2023 version of Duncan McGuire would be on 14 goals for this team.
NYCFC: They’re making moves in the transfer market. In theory that’s good, but then you look at their hit rate on big signings over the past few years and…
Chicago Fire: A four-point week is good, but it should’ve been six. Absolute must-win this weekend against RBNY.
Charlotte Peşəkar Futbol Klubu: Only team in the league to grab all nine points this week, and there’s been some real chemistry in attack recently. Yaxşı!
Colorado Rapids: They got their starters healthy and they’re suddenly good again. That’s wild.5
RBNY: Only one win since May, and they conceded 10 goals in three games last week. Maybe they should be lower.
Austin FC: 3W-1L-1D in their past five. Hasn’t exactly come against murderer’s row, but it’s not nothing. And they’ve got the easiest remaining schedule in the league.
Portland Timbers: Set piece defense is starting to fall apart. Toughest remaining schedule in the West. Uh oh.
San Jose Earthquakes: After a stretch during which the defense was looking better, it has looked much, much worse recently. Bruce has got to fix that.
Real Salt Lake: Their five-game unbeaten run came to an end in frustrating fashion, but it’s clear that things are trending strongly in the right direction.
Houston Dynamo: Any momentum they had after that huge win at San Diego a couple weeks back has kind of disappeared.
LA Galaxy: They’re 3W-2L-2D in their past seven, are winning the xG battle most weeks, their high-end attackers are starting to produce and their backline has stopped tripping all over themselves. A win this weekend and… I don’t know. It’s implausible, but the door is still slightly ajar.
FC Dallas: Are they better without Lucho Acosta? Seems like it.
Sporting KC: They’re massively overperforming, but keep getting results. Vibes matter.
Toronto FC: Two respectable showings.
Atlanta United: Winless since May. The Steven Alzate signing looks good, though.
Montreal Impact: Dollar dollar bill y'all.6
St. Louis City: Definitely should’ve just stuck with John Hackworth after last year’s promising stretch run, right?
New England Revolution: I don’t think the roster is bad.
D.C. United: I do think the roster is bad.
Just wanted to drop this here and publicize the fact that my very good friends at Soccerwise have executed a sort of merger, creating a new company called Kickback Soccer Media.
They’re all down at the All-Star Game in Austin this week, and will be hosting a live show on Tuesday evening at Haymaker.
I’m a big fan of everyone involved (except for Tom). Give them a follow on social media, and your support in whatever way you can manage.
Almost always just the first two sections, though back in the day I used to have THREE big sections per column. Once the league expanded past 20 that became kind of impossible. ↩
Regular-season only. Leagues Cup is coming next week, so… there’s that. ↩
Another thing that needs to be said: Miami’s a much better team than last year. I don’t think Javier Mascherano’s doing everything right, but he’s gotten the lines tighter, which has made them tougher to play against. There’s some overperformance, but not a historic amount. ↩
Still think they’re very good, and will be fine in the long run. But this is the low ebb of their expansion season thus far. ↩
Will they do anything with the open DP slot they now have since waiving Kevin Cabral? ↩
Wooden Wooden Spoon, y’all. ↩
