Power Rankings, 1-30 | Matchday 31
Sounders get their trophy, Philly make a statement, and a lot of bad teams get good wins
It was a weird week with a third of the league either finishing off the Leagues Cup or on a bye. Still, though, the Sunday column must be written!
• Philadelphia Union's statement, FC Cincinnati's worry & more from Matchday 31
Also making this a weird week was that a lot of the truly terrible teams won, and a lot of the good teams dropped points. Just looking at it… from Nos. 4 through 16 below, only one team (Charlotte… again!) actually won.
So if you’re a Cincy or Nashville or Columbus fan wondering why your team didn’t drop much… that’s why.
OK, here’s my vote for this week’s MLSsoccer.com Power Rankings:
Seattle Sounders: You win a trophy over Messi in dominant fashion despite missing two DPs, two other starters and multiple rotation guys, you get the top spot.1 Overall, this win was just a massive validation of Seattle’s approach to roster building, player development and talent ID.
Philadelphia Union: Needed a signature win and got it. Got a chance to add another in two weeks at Vancouver.
San Diego FC: Just gorgeous, fearless soccer, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that there are some warning lights flashing: los Niños have won the xG battle just once in their past nine2 league outings going back to the end of June.
Inter Miami: Got within spitting distance of another trophy.
FC Cincinnati: There were actually a few promising moments, though I think everyone’s still waiting for this group to show some chemistry.
Nashville SC: Two weeks off right now for almost everybody who matters (except Andy Najar, who’s on int’l duty with Honduras) is good timing.
LAFC: Should’ve gotten at least a point. Need to figure out how to compensate for the loss of Igor Jesus3, which will not be easy.
Minnesota United: Really good fight-back for a point after a pretty bleh 85 minutes.
An Cumann Peile Charlotte: The league-record winning streak, post-shootout era, is nine. Charlotte host Miami in two weeks with a chance to tie that mark in front of what I presume will be a full stadium.
Orlando City: Ran out of gas and then fell apart twice this week. Cesar Araujo in particular looks tired.4
Vancouver Whitecaps: Two weeks of needed rest. Hopefully Brian White and – dare we dream? – Ryan Gauld will both be available on the other side of it.
NYCFC: **fart noise**
Columbus Crew: Lost the midfield battle, and weren’t physical enough up top. Nothing’s really working right now.
Portland Timbers: They’ve actually stacked a few consecutive good performances, picking up road points in tough spots. Phil Neville sounds very confident in postgame pressers these days and I don’t really blame him.
Chicago Fire: The remaining schedule is pretty soft, provided they remember how to win at home. That includes this weekend – no int’l break for the Fire – when they host the Revs. Need to take all three.5
RBNY: Played well. Feels like maybe this team could’ve used another DP attacker, but I guess that’s too much to ask.6
Austin FC: Owen Wolff has turned into a pretty great two-way midfielder, and I liked the balance of the 4-3-3 they played this weekend.
San Jose Earthquakes: One step forward, two steps back. They still control their own destiny but the remaining schedule is not easy.
LA Galaxy: Only losses in the past six weeks have been to Seattle and Miami, so… honestly 19 might be too low. Now let’s hope that Greg Vanney starts getting minutes for more of the young guys, most of whom have thoroughly outplayed the veterans he’s refused to drop.7
Real Salt Lake: Diego Luna has not been productive since returning from the Gold Cup. Hopefully he’ll get recharged on international duty over the next 10 days and come back to Utah with some goals in his boots.
Houston Dynamo: As I wrote in the Sunday column, they’ve got a clear path to the playoffs right now. But it’s hard to trust a team that hasn’t been able to string results together all year long.
Colorado Rapids: If they beat Houston in two weeks they basically punch their ticket. Need to figure out the defense between now and then.
FC Dallas: A win in St. Louis this weekend and they’re just two points back of San Jose, and just three back of Colorado. And with a game in hand on both. Book’s not closed on this team yet!
New England Revolution: Actually played pretty well, save for a disaster of an outing from Brayan Ceballos.
Montreal Impact: Good road point, and there’s starting to be a fun little attacking core there. The Dante Sealy thing8 feels real.
Toronto FC: I am flummoxed at the lineup choices. How does Malik Henry not even get off the bench?
Atlanta United: First win in three months! It wasn’t pretty, but Jayden Hibbert gives them that UConn bump.
St. Louis City: A late flurry made the numbers – both boxscore and underlying – look a lot more respectable than they actually were.9
Sporting KC: That was fun! But a large part of that fun was Sporting not being able to defend at all, so. Yeah.
D.C. United: Good win and all but I’m not moving them out of this spot.
Brian White, Danny Musovski, Milan Iloski, now Osaze de Rosario… the hit rate on productive USL/Next Pro No. 9s is actually much, much higher in MLS than the hit rate on U22 No. 9s.
Something to think about when you start wishcasting where you want your team to spend money this offseason. I’m not saying I would never buy a young No. 9 – guys like Jhon Duran, Dejan Joveljic and Ramiro Enrique all came to MLS on U22 deals – but I’d think long and hard about whether that’s the best use of a premium roster slot. ↩
xG becomes predictive around an 8-10 game sample size, so San Diego are officially in the range where this matters. Of course, xG is much less predictive – parity and all that – in MLS than it is in the big Euro leagues. ↩
Didn’t love the 3-4-2-1 they started out in! I wouldn’t be at all shocked if they went out and got a veteran d-mid before the roster freeze (they can add free agents who were out of contract before the MLS window opened). Here’s a thought: they have an open DP slot and Josh Brownhill is a free agent. Hmm. ↩
Also… man did they miss Robin Jansson vs. LA this weekend. He’s maybe my favorite CB in the league, and I don’t blame anyone on Orlando for being pissed after that loss to Miami, but he absolutely can not take a post-whistle red with a CCC spot on the line.
Catastrophic indiscipline from a guy who’s never been prone to that. ↩
Fire fans, if you want to get some real hope for the future, I highly recommend this feature from MenInRed97’s Tim Hotze. If would not shock me if, by the end of the decade, we talk about the Fire the way we’re talking about Seattle and Philly. They’re well on their way already, to be honest. ↩
For the love of god just sign Christian Eriksen. ↩
I’m sure he’s a nice guy and all but we should never see Zanka play again. ↩
He’s never going to be a Best XI guy, but he can do a little something off the dribble, has clearly got a nose for goal and works hard off the ball. That’s a very nice skillset for a tertiary attacker. ↩
They need to keep playing Fallou Fall through the mistakes, and need to get Mykhi Joyner significant minutes down the stretch here, and need, this winter, to go out and get an actual d-mid. Or maybe just give Miggy Perez some time? ↩
