Photo by ISIphotos.com
Just when Houston and Columbus was beginning to have their way with Major League Soccer, a pair of struggling sides helped slow down the streaking title contenders.
FC Dallas defeated Columbus while Real Salt Lake held the Dynamo to a draw in a week of MLS action limited by SuperLiga.
One team that did well near the top of the rankings was Colorado, which returned from its bye week to thrash D.C. United at home. Now the surprising Rapids sit just behind Houston and Chivas USA both in the West standings and in the SBI MLS Power Rankings.
Here are this week's rankings:
SBI MLS Power Rankings (Week 14)
1 (Last week- 1). Houston Dynamo (8-2-4)
2 (2). Chivas USA (8-4-3)
3 (7). Colorado Rapids (5-2-5)
4 (4). D.C. United (5-3-8)
5 (3). Columbus Crew (4-3-7)
6 (5). Seattle Sounders (5-3-7)
7 (6). Chicago Fire (5-3-6)
8 (8). Kansas City Wizards (5-5-4)
9 (9). New England Revolution (4-4-4)
10 (10). Toronto FC (5-5-4)
11 (11). Real Salt Lake (4-6-4)
12 (13). FC Dallas (3-7-4)
13 (14). San Jose Earthquakes (3-8-3)
14 (12). Los Angeles Galaxy (2-3-9)
15 (15). New York Red Bulls (2-10-4)
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Some Week 14 thoughts:
D.C. United got thrashed by Colorado but MLS schedule-makers didn't do D.C. any favors. First, United had to travel to Seattle in mid-week (where it managed a draw) and then had to travel to Colorado to face a rested Rapids side coming off a bye week. That's not to take anything away from the Rapids, which played very well despite the absence of scoring leader Conor Casey.
If anything, Casey's absence has allowed Omar Cummings a chance to shine. The speedy Jamaican is enjoying a great year and is rewarding the Rapids, who turned down at least one major trade offer for him this off-season.
Seattle is playing some of the quality attacking soccer we saw earlier in the year, but the Sounders still can't finish. The result is a two-draw week when the Sounders had the better of the play in both matches. Those draws leave Seattle's record at 2-3-7 since that memorable 3-0 start to the season.
FC Dallas has been playing better in recent weeks and that improved form finally resulted in a victory against the previously red-hot Columbus Crew. With contributions coming from youngsters such as Brek Shea, Anthony Wallace, Eric Avila and Ray Burse, the future is bright in Frisco. Now if only they could get fans to turn out.
As happy as U.S. national team fans were to see their team reach the Confederations Cup semifinals, LA Galaxy fans can't be quite as happy considering that means one more week without Landon Donovan. LA looked terrible vs. San Jose and will now be missing Donovan for its showdown with first-place Houston.
As you may have noticed, I've changed the format for the MLS Power Rankings, no longer including schedules And results, and also scrapping the individual team outlooks for this post-ranking recap. You can find results and the upcoming schedule here.
What do you think of this week's rankings? Which team impressed you in Week 14? Which team disappointed you?
Share your thoughts below.
My mistake folks. RSL should have stayed ahead of FC Dallas. I’ve corrected that.
As for SuperLiga, I’m not using those games for ranking purposes because not every MLS team is in that competition. I’d be more inclined to use U.S. Open Cup results since every MLS team had a chance to take part.
Joey the troll- Maybe DC just wasn’t all too comfortable with the atmosphere. Kinda like walking by a “left coast” bar.
Agreed. RSL got snubbed a bit… I understand that the hesitation to give them more than they deserve for their play in the past, but surely they deserve better than FC Dallas…
i’ll chime in about RSL’s ranking… how does that make sense?
I too like the old format better.
RBNY in last place? Yup, that’s about right. This is one time when you wish MLS didn’t have so much parity. Would be great to see the red bulls sign duka and exantus, waive some dead weight and trade a few guys and let the young guys play.
But in MLS they win 2 games in a row and suddenly you’re in the hunt for a playoff spot.
Funny how everyone was saying that the East was going to dominate this year, and the guy who does SI’s power rankings said that the West was stronger and everyone ripped him for being clueless. Personally, I don’t think there’s that much of a discrepancy between teams anyway because of MLS’ parity but it still amuses me
surprised to see Seattle go down, getting a win and two draws in 8 days. Only game that disappointed me was saturday away to NYRB. Should have won that, should have won against DC.
But I guess an MLS Cup isn’t made of “should haves.” The second half of this season is gonna be exciting.
RSL gets dropped for the following reasons:
1. It was an own goal. For some reason they gave Espindola credit but that was a Houston defensive error for sure.
2. Houston missed a PK which should have won the game.
3. RSL played like (crap) after they “scored” and barely escaped with the draw, despite their Serie A level theatrics.
The only player on RSL who did anything of note was Rimando (aka Hugo Chavez Jr.)
Hey Seattle fans,
Maybe we should shut up in order to give LA, San Jose,Dallas and the NYRB a chance to brag a little bit.
Sheesh, why the hell should we shut up? Our team is in the thick of the race. We play an entertaining style of futbol. Frustrating we haven’t been able to finish yet but as long as we continue to create opportunities, we’ll eventually get it right. Great Stadium, full house every game. Terrific atmosphere.
Why shouldn’t we woof a little or a lot? At least we appear to give a sh*t which is more than one can say for Dallas or NY.
Maybe the hideous MLS officiating and disadvantageous scheduling will eventually grind us down to the bitter, cynical level of long time MLS fans but for the time being…GO SOUNDERS!
Colorado = overrated! they’ve only played 12 games (fewest in the league). Seattle + DC, like Ives said, had 3 games in 7 days. CO ranking will drop when they face Seattle and then Chicago in the next few weeks.
“And yet, Sounders fans still won’t shut up!! ;)”
Weds. night’s game was some of the best soccer in the MLS this year, IMHO.
Fortunately, all the games count last I checked and the expansion Sounders are in the thick of it. Unfortunately, creating quality chances doesn’t equal balls in the net ; )
“Those draws leave Seattle’s record at 2-3-7 since that memorable 3-0 start to the season.”
And yet, Sounders fans still won’t shut up!! 😉
USA4Life:
Conor Casey looked pretty good to me in the few minutes he got against Egypt. He’s having a good MLS season after rebounding from an injury, so he hasn’t had much int’l exposure in a while. I think he’s clearly good enough to play coming off the bench, not sure why you think he’s not even talented enough to make the roster.
Clark also continues to refine his game. Yeah, it’ll be nice to have Jermaine Jones in there, but Clark (when he’s not getting shown the red) brings some steel.
Beckster: DC never wins in CO, but CO’s ranking shouldn’t reflect that? It seems like that reflects well on CO and poorly on the boys in the black jerseys (maybe they can’t play well in fresh air out of the swampy East Coast), so the ranking impact seems fairly clear and rational. Your logic is…special.
Yeah, count me in as confused about RSL’s drop in the standings.
YES the Red Bulls pull off the last ranking! Way to go boys!!!!!!
Rapido you are an idiot if you think Clark played a good game.
He scored because Cummings beat a few defenders and made a beautiful cross.
Clark still almost missed that shot.
I said Casey wasn’t good enough for the Nats even though he was playing well for the Rapids and no one believed me.
Clark is not good enough for the Nats.
He is 25 years old and is not going to get much better, he is not some young stud who makes mistakes.
Are Concacaf CL/Superliga games going to be taken into account when these are made?
How does RSL get dropped for drawing the best team in MLS when they played the final 32 minutes with 10 men?
“trent- Marshall was beat and he just pushed down ferreira. it was an obvious pk call”
Completely agree. Just because the bozo ref has made horrid calls in the past, doesn’t mean this one was.
Quakes v. Galaxy was tough to watch on Saturday, though I did like the play of Ryan Johnson. That kid was throwing himself around the field, definitely a player I’ll follow closely. Galaxy w/o Donovan is truly a bottom table team. SJ may surprise people this summer. They got hot in July last season, and nearly snuck into the play-offs. LA will need more than just DB23 back for a couple months to be relevant again.
John,
I was in Section 131 for DCU-SSFC. It was a great night and some great football. Thanks for the shout out.
This is turning out to be a great year for MLS. The addition of Seattle has really changed things as far as expectations for attendance and the viability of soccer in the US. As a DC fan I’d like to thank the Sounders fans for being such great supporters and for such a great game Wednesday night. I’m only sad I only got to see 27 minutes of it thanks to ESPN being dicklickers.
Can’t wait to see the playoffs this year.
San Jose and the Galaxy played an entertaining game and clearly are appropriately ranked above the red bulls.
DC never wins in Colorado so wouldn’t + or – either team based on that result. Overall, rankings look pretty good.
Why should Chicago’s admittedly fine result in SuperLiga reflect on an MLS power ranking? The Fire didn’t play this week, Colorado did, and Colorado moved up a lot to reflect the way they’ve quietly moved up to be third in the league (on points per game). As far as the West’s dominance in the league, I find in curious that no one seems as interested in talking about it as they did last year’s Eastern dominance.
Houston had a rare off night at home and the ref stops the game for a water break in the first half? What a joke.
i preferred the old format.
and also disappointed that the fire dropped in your rankings
I miss every team getting a blurb as well.
Also, the west went undefeated against the east this week. Wonder when was the last time that happened? Other than MLS cups of course…
How does Colin Clark not get called for the Gold Cup? He is playing downright nasty.
trent- Marshall was beat and he just pushed down ferreira. it was an obvious pk call
Nice photo of Compost and Brainfarter – truly the bottom of the heap.
Remember that Columbus only lost b/c Terry Vaughn was the ref and called another horrendous pk so he could decide the game himself. Remember Chivas/Chicago? This guy has got to go.
Kevin-
I agree…
the Fire beat a team that made the second round of Copa Libertadores and drop in the rankings… hmmm.
I kinda miss the individual team outlooks also.
Don’t forget about Dax. He is what makes FCD run. As soon as he started getting more time on the pitch FCD picked up their game. Dax and Drew Moor deserve a call up. Both have been playing great this year.