With the MLS Cup Playoffs starting tonight (Chicago v Houston on NBC Sports at 6 PM Pacific) this is the final SBN MLS Cup Power Rankings. As usual we'll focus on how the Seattle Sounders and their pre-season rivals looked. Before we get into that though here's the reminder that San Jose is still number one and KC is number two (getting all but one vote at that place).
If you are tiring of the San Jose Earthquakes being at the top of the SB Nation MLS Power Rankings you aren't alone. You are also quite likely to be tired for a long time. The 'Quakes, like the Sounders, haven't lost back-to-back games this year. On top of that they have one of the best offenses in MLS history, pacing for 70 or so goals.
So a big win for the Chicago Fire on Sunday night, knocking off the Houston Dynamo 3-1 to move
into sole possession of third place in the Eastern Conference standings.
Surely that would be enough to see the Men in Red leapfrog their orange rivals in the Week 25
MLS Power Rankings, right?
The most notable aspect of the forthcoming SB Nation MLS Power Rankings is the ability to judge
if people are paying attention to the league as a whole, late to make adjustments or just not
believing that recent form matters. There are two teams that should show positive movement on this
front (Crew, Dallas) and there are two teams that deserve negative movement off of recent form
(Revolution and United).
Seattle's last two losses in all competitions are to the San Jose Earthquakes and Sporting
Kansas City. In some ways it is fitting that these are the only two teams ahead of the Sounders in
the SB Nation MLS Power Rankings. Seattle is as high as it has been since week 11. The votes they
receive are primarily for 2 or 3 with two at 4 and one at 5.
We're quickly coming to the last part of the regular season here in Major League Soccer. August
is nearly wrapped up as we head into September. The final stretch of games is truly here.
I had a few changes in this week's rankings. One Western Conference club made a big climb in my
book while a couple others continued to stumble.
In the two weeks since the Sounders Centric Power Rankings graph there hasn't been much
movement. You can see a bit of up and down for most of the teams, except in the case of Real Salt
Lake. The one time darlings of the SB Nation MLS Power Rankings are now ranked just 6th overall and
are in middle of their second multi-week slide of the 2012 season.
The wild week in Major League Soccer ended with the same group on top as the previous week.
Really the only changes after Week 24 ended was in the middle of the order as Vancouver and Salt
Lake continue to slide while Chicago makes their way upward.
The third tier also saw some changes as FC Dallas and Montreal climb closer to a playoff
spot.
Despite the ESPN announcers perversely going on about Chivas making a run at the playoffs
despite a heavy loss to the Galaxy, the jockeying at this point continues to be more about seeding
than about the playoff participants. Chicago is starting to run away with the last slot in the
East.
Riding a five-game winning streak and six shutouts in their past seven matches, the Dynamo have
climbed to No. 1 in this week's SBI MLS Power Rankings. Houston's latest triumph, a 2-0 result
against the New York Red Bulls, put the Dynamo on top of the Eastern Conference as well.
Rankers in the SB Nation MLS Power Rankings still have doubts about the Seattle Sounders. They
are doubts that won't be answered by any singular win, or even a decent lossless streak. It will
take a run against a series of good teams. Maybe the August run of Galaxy, Sporting and Earthquakes
will be something to get that ever important * Power Rankings respect.
In the latest edition of the SB Nation MLS power Rankings the Seattle Sounders fell, fairly
significantly so for a team that didn't play a league match. To go from an average vote rank of
5.35 to 7 without a game isn't a recognition of the Sounders, but an indication instead that the
teams in the third tier (Whitecaps, Dynamo, United, Sounders and Galaxy) are quite similar at this
point of the season.
Don't look now, but here come the MLS Cup finalists.
After spending much of the season in the middle of the SBI MLS Power Rankings pack, the Houston
Dynamo and Los Angeles Galaxy have ridden unbeaten runs to the fifth and sixth positions,
respectively, in this week's poll.
Houston, undefeated in six and on a three-game winning streak, now sits third in the Eastern
Conference.
The real power rankings should be released anon, but for now it's time to get our crunch on
again, ranking teams by what the stats say they're doing, not by stupid standards like how much
they're actually winning. But seriously, this is actually a good time of the season to compare the
two. Now that we're just over halfway, you'll find more elements of human bias creeping into most
power rankings.
With the league's best record on the line, the San Jose Earthquakes came through Saturday in
spectacular fashion.
San Jose, the Supporters' Shield front-runner, rose to the challenge against second-place Real
Salt Lake on Saturday, cruising to a 5-0 win that secured a season sweep of RSL and a firm grasp on
the top spot in this SBI MLS Power Rankings.
As the Sounders get ready for a self-selected break to fit in their friendly versus Chelsea
their original opponent for the weekend is struggling. Not struggling like they look merely
average, instead Real Salt Lake is just plain bad lately. Lately in this case goes back about six
weeks. They are basically as bad as Seattle was during their slide, but the Sounders never lost to
a lower division team.
In the SB Nation MLS Power Rankings the Seattle Sounders are on the bounce. Getting off that
winless streak certainly helped, but so did some relatively poor performances (Fire, Whitecaps)
around them. Let's take a moment to remember that happens to other teams too.
One of the intriguing things about tracking the rankings via the graph is the extraordinary
stability by Real Salt Lake.
This week in the SB Nation Power rankings, the Chicago Fire took a bit of a fall, dropping into
eighth place after having climbed up to sixth the week prior. The Fire looked pretty tired and
didn't seem to show a lot of creativity on Sunday. A seventh place ranking would've seemed more
justified especially after getting results on the road the previous week.
As much as we pretend that they don't matter, that they don't affect us, that they're utterly irrelevant, the fact is, they mean something.
No, it doesn't matter as far as actual results go. The Chicago Fire are second place in the East; even if every soccer writer in the county argued that we weren't that good of a team, that fact would remain.
As we head toward the final month of the MLS regular season, the San Jose Earthquakes and Sporting Kansas City continue to set the pace in their respective conferences, but the LA Galaxy just might be rounding into the strongest team in the league.
The Earthquakes were thoroughly impressive in out-playing Seattle in Seattle last weekend to secure a win and hit the 60-point mark.
The San Jose Earthquakes continued to lead Major League Soccer as the steamroll toward an inevitable Supporters Shield, but they aren't the only team in the midst of a serious roll toward the pre-season.
The LA Galaxy pushed their unbeaten streak to five matches, posting their fourth shutout victory in five matches, with last Friday's victory against the Colorado Rapids.
Most teams did not play over the past week due to the international break which MLS mostly respected. In the past a team that didn't play stayed stable, while those that won would move past them. The past is gone. Sporting Kansas City took a tiny step up while the Seattle Sounders took a tiny step down in the SB Nation MLS Power Rankings.
The Columbus Crew are making some serious waves as the season reaches its most vital point on
the calendar.
The Crew's second consecutive six-point week not only catapulted them into the Eastern
Conference playoff picture, but also up a couple of spots to eighth in SBI's MLS Power Rankings as
they brace for another match Wednesday night against sputtering New England.
There is a new team atop the SBI MLS Power Rankings, and it's a team that knows what it feels
like to be in the top spot.
Sporting Kansas City has edged past the San Jose Earthquakes for the No. 1 spot after posting
their third straight league win with a road shutout against Toronto FC.
It sure didn't take long for the San Jose Earthquakes to climb back atop the ladder.
More late heroics gave San Jose a 2-1 win over the Seattle Sounders on Saturday, pushing the
Earthquakes back to the No. 1 spot in this week's SBI MLS Power Rankings after they had been
dethroned the week prior by the Houston Dynamo.
Another week down in MLS and another week with plenty of changes in the Power Rankings.
After all the talk about how good the Western Conference was going into this season, the top
tier actually now has three Eastern Conference clubs in it while the rest of the top clubs in the
West fill out Tier 2.
The US says "We won." Canada says, "We were robbed." Recaps and reaction to USWNT amazing
come-from-behind win against Canada in the Olympic semifinals. Power rankings and Generation adidas
Cup. More news.
After another full week of games and some upsets you'd expect some movement in this week's
rankings. Well, you thought wrong. Only a couple teams made some noise in the rankings. I nearly
made a new number one and almost moved a club back into the top tier but in the end decided against
it.
Also, we have a new addition to the bottom tier as the four groups begin to get a little more
evenly laid out.
After a weekend that saw the home sides go unbeaten, the road teams in Week 21 decided to make
sure it wouldn't happen again.
The San Jose Earthquakes remained the top dog in the rankings but teams 2-10 pretty much all
moved around after that. It was just that kind of week folks.
Team Rank (Last) Record (W-L-T) Comments Top Tier (teams seen to be head and shoulders above the
rest) 1 (1) 13-5-5 44 pts.
It was another busy, crazy week in Major League Soccer. Loads of games that saw the home teams
go unbeaten. So with that there was plenty of movement in the rankings here. We have two new clubs
in the bottom tier and above that saw teams swapping places left and right.
A few moves over all including a couple teams moving up tiers and one moving down to the bottom.
I still view the third tier as a total crap shoot you can move anyone around that group and be
fine.
Here in the next few weeks we should definitely see how the playoff race impacts these
rankings.
Hackworth says tonight's game against the Crew is huge, believes Jack McInerney is the key to the
Union getting goals on the scoreboard. Previews and power rankings. More on Freddy. With Perlaza
gone, Nowak's Mwanga deal means Union got nothing. River Cup raised $30k. More news.
Carli Lloyd will be signing autographs ahead of Wednesday's Union game against Columbus. Gaddis
wins PST Team of the Week honors. Adu on not starting against RSL: "It is what it is." Power
rankings. FIFA ethics investigator to look into awarding of 2018 and 2022 WC hosting. More.
Freddy Adu and John Hackworth on taking Sunday's penalty kick. Union moves up in power rankings.
USA face North Korea today. Colombian Lady banned for punching Abby. Locals receive PDL
All-Conference honors. Man U stock and Chevy. More news.
Is Hoppenot in the way of Torres? Union - "hottest team in the league" - rising in power rankings.
Reading United play for PDL Eastern Conference fourth seed spot tonight. Union academy goalkeeper
named US Development Academy U-15/16 East Conference Player of the Year. Manchester United tops
Forbes list.
The Houston Dynamo were in a bit of a tailspin mode in recent weeks, having won just one of their past seven MLS matches, but a change in formation and a well-earned victory have Dom Kinnear's squad back on track and back in the top half of the SBI MLS Power Rankings.
The Dynamo reverted to their old 4-4-2 formation in their 2-0 victory against the New England Revolution and the shift away from the 4-3-3 to a 4-4-2 produce the kind of performance Houston will need to solidify their hold on a playoff spot in the East.
