Power Rankings, 1-30 | Matchday 29
Messi's back, Nashville's out of gas, and the middle is mid
We’re officially into the stretch run of the MLS season (which also, of course, means we’re into the final few games of the Leagues Cup. Summer of Soccer forever!). Here’s my Sunday column1:
• Evander makes magic, Columbus Crew's concern & more from Matchday 29
Back to the Leagues Cup for a second: I am excited about Wednesday’s slate of semifinals. I know there’s a level of skepticism about the tournament – and believe me, I understand why – but the “every game is MLS vs. Liga MX” format has ended up being really fun. And the remaining eight teams really, really want to win this thing.
Six of them actually have a chance. I wrote about that last week: Who are the favorites
Transfer window closes Thursday. I haven’t heard any big moves are coming, but you never know.
OK, here’s my vote for this week’s MLSsoccer.com Power Rankings:
Inter Miami: Messi’s back and it turns out that matters a bit. If Suarez – who finally scored from open play after a million games without one – can get hot down the stretch, this team’s about to win stuff.2
San Diego FC: Short-handed and didn’t play well on the road against a desperate team. Won anyway. If it was any other season besides 2019 or 2015 (or, obviously, the Era of Mess), Anders Dreyer would be running away with the MVP.
Seattle Sounders: Played well! And look, while I understand that folks will get on Osaze de Rosario, my rule is my rule: I trust strikers who find chances to eventually finish them.
FC Cincinnati: Didn’t play all that well but my god this group’s got insane talent. And they’re starting to develop some kids, to boot.
Philadelphia Union: Only one win in four and after beating up on the dregs all year they’ve suddenly started dropping points. Schedule the rest of the way is not easy.
Orlando City: Four straight wins, a place in the Leagues Cup semis, and a gigantic six-pointer coming up next weekend at Nashville. Wish they were pitching the occasional shutout, but still.3
LAFC: The second half was really encouraging re: growing chemistry between Son and Bouanga.
Columbus Crew: Just one win in four, and it’s looking a little stale all of a sudden.
Minnesota United: A very good win that doesn’t change my opinion of their game model in any way. Wish they could do anything besides dance on the knife’s edge to close out games. New Austrian attacker Tom’s reporting on seems like he should help, though I still think they need to target something deeper in central midfield.
Associação Charlotte de Futebol: Six straight wins, three straight shutouts.4
Nashville SC: They look almost completely out of gas – Hany Mukhtar’s turnover and lack of re-press on NYCFC’s game-winner was brutal.5 Have an enormous six-pointer at home this coming weekend against an Orlando side that’ll be on short rest.
Vancouver Whitecaps: Looked very good. Should’ve won. Bet they’re back in the top 10 in a couple of weeks.
NYCFC: They’ve put together a good mix now, even if an uncomfortable amount of it still relies upon the health and quality of 38-year-old Maxi Moralez.
Chicago Fire: Philip Zinckernagel showed why I think they’ll make the playoffs. The backline showed why I would not be at all shocked if they fucked it all up once again.
RBNY: Two straight league wins, and looked pretty decent in the USOC quarters at Philly. They are clearly going to make Chicago and NYCFC earn those wild card spots.6
Portland Timbers: Played really, really well once going down 3-0, which… yeah. One win in six now, and four of their next five on the road.
Austin FC: They’re the least bad of the remaining teams, but not exactly cruising through what should be the easiest part of the schedule. Lucky it’s a tire fire behind them.
Colorado Rapids: Have done well getting out into transition the past two games, and with each of their next four against non-playoff teams they should be able to stay safely above the line. But that’s the ceiling.
Real Salt Lake: Three losses in four. Six of their next seven are against playoff teams. Good luck.
San Jose Earthquakes: True six-pointer at Houston this weekend. Win that one and they stand a very good chance of making the playoffs in spite of **gestures broadly at everything**
Houston Dynamo: They’ve done so much so well with this on-the-fly rebuild. Then there’s the DPs: Ondrej Lingr has two goals since April; Ezequiel Ponce three since May.
And Toyosi Olusanya (technically classed as a DP in the most recent roster release) is not an MLS player. edit: Olusanya is not even a TAM guy. Don’t know how I got my wires crossed that he’s classed as a DP, but my apologies for the error.FC Dallas: Hey they’re scrapping at least, and are somehow just three points below the red line.
Toronto FC: DeAndre Kerr, Malik Henry, Theo Corbeanu, and now Jules-Anthony Vilsaint… TFC are finally collecting young Canadians and putting them in spots to contribute.
LA Galaxy: Absolutely demolished for the second straight week.7 Season probably dies on Wednesday. For their sake, I hope the projected No. 1 pick is a can’t-miss domestic CB.
St. Louis City: Put up a good fight. They’ve definitely been more fun recently, but I remain perplexed by their indifference towards developing – and playing – their academy talent. We are well beyond the “what do you have to lose?” point in the season; why not get Miggy Perez and Mykhi Joyner some burn?
New England Revolution: Here’s a quote from Carles Gil, courtesy of our good friends at The Blazing Musket: “In the last two years, we’ve lost many games. We don’t win a lot, so it’s difficult to say we’re in a good way. We need to be honest: the reality is that we need to change things.”8
Montreal Impact: Dropping home points to D.C. means you drop in the Power Rankings, even if the teams jumping you actually lost.
Atlanta United: 10 winless. I thought Ronny Deila would be a good hire – it’s actually one of the first blogs I published on this site – and my god, I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Sporting KC: They’re actually playing better since moving to the 4-4-2, though the results have gotten worse.
D.C. United: Did they really just spend $1m on an attacker who’s scored four goals in three years?
Eagle-eyed readers will notice it’s about ~1200 words shorter than normal. That’s at the behest of the marketing folks who run editorial these days. ↩
I think it’s gone underappreciated how much better Miami are, structurally, than they were last year. You can see it in the underlying numbers, which have improved across the board.
Javier Mascherano was a meme at the start of the year, but he’s done a nice job in much the same way that Lionel Scaloni’s done a nice job with the Argentine national team: simplify everything, keep the lines tight, and let Messi decide the game. Scoff if you want, but it’s a great formula. ↩
Pretty sure this is Oscar Pareja’s best team since his 2016 FC Dallas side did the Shield/USOC double. And they’d have been a deeeeecent bet for the first domestic trebel if Mauro Diaz hadn’t popped his Achilles. ↩
Brandt Bronico as a pressing 10 in 2025. Is this MLS 4.0? ↩
He plays every minute because there is no other creativity on that roster. The good news this winter is that, with Gaston Brugman on a team option (no way they pick that up) and Walker Zimmerman out of contract (they will try to extend on a non-DP number), they should have significant room to make moves.
But, you know, that doesn’t exactly help right now. ↩
RBNY’s remaining schedule is brutal, so don’t be surprised if they start falling off from here on out. ↩
Yeah, Miami didn’t find the winner til there were 10 minutes left. But that game was never close. ↩
Bear in mind that they’ve already changed almost the entire roster. ↩
