Photo by Gary A. Vasquez/USA TODAY Sports
By RYAN TOLMICH
In a busy weekend of MLS action, the league’s top contenders did well to hold serve by picking up victories.
The LA Galaxy picked up a late win over fellow Western Conference contender Sporting KC, while the New York Red Bulls protected their home field with a 2-0 win over the Earthquakes.
The Seattle Sounders, Vancouver Whitecaps and FC Dallas all rebounded well from poor performances with victories this past week. Meanwhile, Toronto FC and Orlando City slumped to disapointing defeats at the hands of FC Dallas and the Columbus Crew, respectively.
Here is a look at SBI’s MLS Power Rankings following MLS Week 7:
SBI MLS Power Rankings (Week 7)
1. (1)Â LOSÂ ANGELESÂ GALAXY (3-2-2)
LAST WEEK: Defeated Sporting KC, 2-1, last Saturday
THIS WEEK:Â at New York Red Bulls on Sunday
OUTLOOK– It may have taken a late Omar Gonzalez header, but the Galaxy took care of business against an always-difficult Sporting KC side. Saturday’s victory marks two straight wins over Western Conference contenders as the Galaxy have started to round into form.
————————-
2. (2) Â NEW YORK RED BULLS (3-0-2)
LAST WEEK: Defeated San Jose Earthquakes, 2-0, last Friday
THIS WEEK:Â vs. LA Galaxy on Sunday
OUTLOOK– The New York Red Bulls just keep picking up results, this time against the Earthquakes. The Red Bulls have emerged unscathed  through the team’s opening five games, ensuring a high spot in the rankings, but the team’s biggest test to date comes next week in a matchup with the Galaxy.
————————-
3. (3) SEATTLE SOUNDERS (3-2-1)
LAST WEEK: Defeated Colorado Rapids, 3-1, last Saturday
THIS WEEK:Â vs. Portland Timbers on Sunday
OUTLOOK– It wasn’t always easy, but the Sounders emerged as the dominant side against the Colorado Rapids. Lamar Neagle was spectacular and the Sounders scored goals, both pretty and ugly,signs that the Sounders are beginning to get some of their mojo into working order.
————————-
4. (4) VANCOUVER WHITECAPS (5-2-1)
LAST WEEK: Defeated Real Salt Lake, 1-0, last Saturday
THIS WEEK: vs. D.C. United on Saturday
OUTLOOK– After a bit of a letdown the the previous week, the Whitecaps picked up a big time road victory over a tough RSL side. Darren Mattocks’ finish shows that the Whitecaps are far from a one-man team, despite all of the heroics of Octavio Rivero.
————————
5. (6) FC DALLAS (4-2-1)
LAST WEEK: Defeated Toronto FC, 3-2, last Saturday
THIS WEEK:Â At Colorado Rapids on Friday
OUTLOOK– FC Dallas bounced back with a rain-delay ridden victory over Toronto FC, putting a lid on some of the concerns that resonated following a 4-0 shellacking at the hands of the Colorado Rapids. FC Dallas gets a chance to quiet those doubts completely on Friday in a rematch.
————————
6. (7) D.C. UNITED (3-1-2)
LAST WEEK:  Tied Houston Dynamo, 1-1, last Saturday
THIS WEEK: At Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday
OUTLOOK– Still unbeaten since their early fiasco at Red Bull Arena, D.C. United has been solid, albeit unspectacular, in recent weeks. With Fabian Espindola set to return, things should open up for a D.C. side that has kept pace in his absence.
————————-
7. (5) Â SPORTING KANSAS CITY (2-2-2)
LAST WEEK:Â Lost, 2-1, to LA Galaxy last Saturday
THIS WEEK:Â At Houston Dynamo on Saturday
OUTLOOK– Sporting KC’s recent run came to a screeching halt in LA after conceding a late winner to Omar Gonzalez. Through six games, the club certainly has the look of a playoff contender, but it remains to be seen just how big the loss of Ike Opara will hurt in the long run as it did Saturday night.
————————-
8. (8) COLUMBUS CREW (2-2-2)
LAST WEEK: Defeated Orlando City, 3-0, last Saturday
THIS WEEK:Â vs. Philadelphia Union on Saturday
OUTLOOK:Â In what was likely their most impressive performance to date, the Crew completely overwhelmed 10-man Orlando City last time out. Kei Kamara looked as threatening as ever, while Justin Meram, Federico Higuain and Ethan Finlay continue to create havoc behind him.
————————-
9. (10) NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION (3-2-2)
LAST WEEK:Â Defeated Philadelphia Union, 2-1, on Sunday
THIS WEEK:Â vs. Real Salt Lake on Saturday
OUTLOOK– The Revs looked much-improved Sunday in coming from behind to knock off the Union. Teal Bunbury looked like a true threat off the bench, offering a welcome weapon to a Revs team with plenty of force in the attack.
————————
10. (12) REAL SALT LAKE (2-1-3)
LAST WEEK: Lost, 1-0, to Vancouver Whitecaps last Saturday
THIS WEEK:Â at New England Revolution on Saturday
OUTLOOK–Â Real Salt Lake’s undefeated run was put to a halt Saturday by a late winner from Darren Mattocks. Although unassuming to this point, RSL remains a contender based on the ability to generally grind out results, an ability that failed them for the first time this past outing.
————————-
11. (9)Â ORLANDO CITY (2-3-2)
LAST WEEK:Â Lost, 3-0, to Columbus Crew on Saturday
THIS WEEK:Â vs. Toronto FC
OUTLOOK– Orlando City’s worst performance to date came Saturday, as Rafael Ramos’ early red card doomed the Lions to a defeat. That defeat was resounding, sure, but mistakes should be expected from time to time for a young team still trying to find its place in the league
————————-
12. (15) PORTLAND TIMBERS (2-2-3)
LAST WEEK: Defeated NYCFC, 1-0, last Sunday
THIS WEEK: At Seattle Sounders on Sunday
OUTLOOK– The Timbers did well to dig in and pick up a road victory over a tough NYCFC side. After dominating teams and losing, the Timbers did enough to pick up a win despite not being the aggressor, a promising sign going forward.
–————————-
13. (11) NEW YORK CITY FC (1-3-3)
LAST WEEK: Tied Philadelphia Union, 1-1, last Thursday; Lost, 1-0, to Portland Timbers last Sunday
THIS WEEK:Â At Chicago Fire on Friday
OUTLOOK–Â Injuries have come to define NYCFC in recent weeks, as the absence of David Villa and Mix Diskerud proved fatal over the weekend. Late goals are becoming too common at Yankee Stadium, a theme that will need to be addressed by Jason Kreis in the coming weeks.
————————-
14. (14) TORONTOÂ FC (1-4-0)
LAST WEEK: Lost, 3-2, to FC Dallas last Saturday
THIS WEEK: At Orlando City on Sunday
OUTLOOK– Bad news for fans of TFC: it has gotten worse. A long rain delay only lengthened the game time of yet another loss, TFC’s fourth in five games. It’s been an ugly start for TFC, a team with way too much talent to have any excuse for performing so poorly.
————————-
15. (13) SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES (3-4-0)
LAST WEEK: Lost, 2-0, to New York Red Bulls last Friday
THIS WEEK:Â BYE
OUTLOOK– The Earthquakes continue to be wildly inconsistent, slumping to defeat once again. It’s been a start full of ups and downs, but the Earthquakes have yet to really demonstrate that they are a contender in the ridiculously competitive Western Conference.
———————–
16. (17) CHICAGO FIRE (2-3-0)
LAST WEEK:Â BYE
THIS WEEK: vs. NYCFC on Friday
OUTLOOK– By the time the Fire take the field on Friday, it will have been nearly three weeks since they last played. Having moved past the opponent that is MLS’ scheduling, the Fire look to build upon a strong performance last time out: a 3-2 victory over TFC on April 4.
————————-
17. (16) HOUSTON DYNAMO (2-2-3)
LAST WEEK:Â Tied D.C. United, 1-1, last Saturday
THIS WEEK:Â vs. Sporting KCÂ on Saturday
OUTLOOK– The Dynamo earned a well-fought point against D.C. United, a true theme of their season thus far. Never flashy, the Dynamo have proven to be grinders to this point and have done well to collect some of the results they have so far.
————————-
18. (19) PHILADELPHIA UNION (1-4-3)
LAST WEEK: Tied NYCFC, 1-1, last Thursday; Lost, 2-1, to New England Revolution last Sunday
THIS WEEK:Â At Columbus Crew on Saturday
OUTLOOK–Â The Union did well to claim four points from a pair of contests with NYCFC, but took a slight step back Sunday against the Revs. Still, the Union have looked much improved since swapping goalkeepers, as the team’s confidence, and even a bit of swagger, does seem to be returning.
———————–
19. (18) COLORADO RAPIDS (1-2-3)
LAST WEEK:Â Lost, 3-1, to Seattle Sounders last Saturday
THIS WEEK:Â vs. FC Dallas on Friday
OUTLOOK–Â It’s hard to knock the Rapids for their performance against a much more talented Sounders team, as the hosts did well to maintain a foothold in the game for most of the contest. The rebound now comes against FC Dallas, a team that they throughly outplayed in their matchup two weeks prior to their clash on Friday.
————————-
20. (20) MONTREAL IMPACT (0-2-2)
LAST WEEK:Â BYE
THIS WEEK:Â BYE
OUTLOOK–Â It’s all hands on deck for the CONCACAF Champions League, as two legs stand between the Impact and a CCL crown. MLS play is put on the backburner for a few weeks as the Impact focus on continental competition, where they have fared much better than in the league.
————————-
What do you think of this week’s power rankings? Do you think any team is ranked too high? Any too low?
Share your thoughts below.
If Dallas dismantles Colorado 3 or 4 to nothing like they did us, does that put FCD back to number 3?
Ives and gang,
I dont care how many times you guys keep saying it, but beating DC United by a scoreline of 2-0 without their top two scorers in Espindola and Silva, and Chris Pontius missing a penalty kick, doesn’t make it a “domination” or “destruction” of DC United. How many weeks are you guys going to keep hanging on DC’s supposed “fiasco” in New Jersey?
People need to realize by looking at the records, every team is basically a .500-ish team right now.
Montreal and Toronto, no. NY is undefeated. Other than that, pretty much yes.
The trolls can have a field day on it, but MLS is just that tough.
My thoughts. LA and NYR are overrated. Seattle is the best team. You can’t argue with the Dallas and Vancouver play. There are a lot of very good teams like DC out there. It will be a huge battle for playoff spots. MLS didn’t need to cheapen itself by giving more than half the teams playoffs spots.
Do we need playoffs at all? We should just lengthen the season and add another cup competition…the season will probably need to be lengthened a bit anyway once we get up to however many teams the league wants to stay at for the foreseeable future. If the US Open Cup is the equivalent of the FA Cup, then we could use our own version of the League Cup and maybe even a Johnstone’s Paint Trophy-type cup for the “lower” leagues.
Dynamo haters on here.
ahead of 11 teams in the standings but only ahead of 4 teams in the SBI standings… I know you weigh more than standings/points but the dynamo don’t deserve to be that far down.
Could Houston be a bit higher? Perhaps 1-2 spots, but beyond that I’m not sure how anybody could objectively look at their matches this season and say they’re better than more than 6-7 teams in the league. Time will tell, but their level hasn’t been that high.
What they are saying is once Cubo Torres joins Houston, the Dynamo ranking should jump to the top ten regardless of game results.
No Max, but if Houston starts to actually play better then they’re ranking will go up, and Torres should help them play better.
Lol, the comment didn’t put the Iphone emoji to show it was a joke.
But seriously outside of the Dero/Holden years the Dynamo have never played “attractive” soccer.
Count me amongst those who are a bit befuddled by these rankings. Sure, I have always taken them with a grain of salt, seeing them as the staff’s perception of what’s going on in the league, which I think is very valuable b/c they tend to capture things that cannot be stated on record by anybody in the league, behind the scenes stuff, things that can only be witnessed live, etc.
But I’m a lifelong Galaxy fan, at opening day in the Rose Bowl in ’96, etc. I cannot see how LA is #1 right now. From my perspective, all I see is the hole left by Landon and a crew of guys determined to move ahead, patch that hole, re-create a new team, etc. But the hole is still there. And LA is simply not a whole team just yet to be deserving of #1 ranking.
Agreed 100%, LD is VERY missed.
1) To me calling these “power rankings” suggests that there is some science or math behind them.
2) A better name would be “SBI Staff Poll” or something like that.
3) We should see the breakdown of the votes, who voted for what team etc.
4) The “outlook” part of the summary is often times more like a recap of recent performance. I would like to see two sub-sections, a true recap and true outlook for each team.
We should start a twitter campaign to @fivethirtyeight and get them to start a power rankings for MLS
Forgot my final reason for preferring Sandoval to Saborion in a stopgap RSL 4-3-3… He’s more more mobile and scrappier than saborio.
A bit sobering that the best i can realistically expect of RSL at this point in the season is they grind out a tie with solid defense… maybe get a lucky bounce and knick a set piece goal.
The reason for moving to 4-3-3 was a higher scoring/more exciting offense… utter fail so far… and that the league had our 4-4-2 fugured out. Well theyve got our 4-3-3 figured out too. Also, last i checked, plenty of teams around the world have, and continue, to play a 4-4-2 without an entire league nullifying the system.
Jordan allen is the only dangerouse striker so far in the 4-3-3. Saborio isnt dynamic enough, garcias decisions are too predictable, jaime is too slow. if Gil, Plata, and Allen could get some time together MAYBE RSL could be a legit 4-3-3 style team. Thats not gonna happen any time soon, if ever. A stop gap to give RSL a chance untill Plata returns would be Gil left, Sandoval center, Allen right. Sandoval wont score, but neither is saborio. Sandoval is more committed to distribution and hold up play than saborio which makes Gil, Allen, and Javi (players who WILL score in a 4-3-3) more likely to score.
COME ON YOU RED BULLS!
This is just getting insane. RSL jumps up 2 places after a home loss? DC gets outplayed and draws at home and jumps up? I used to view SBI’s rankings as real and MLS’s a bit fluffy, but not it’s the opposite.
I agree. No idea how SKC was ahead of DC. Also don’t know how DC’s win had them move up… other than SKC falling I suppose.
How does LA get above RBNY or Vancouver? Not to mention Seattle also over Vancouver.
Weird rankings.
Before Opara’s injury, KC just flat looked more impressive than D.C. If you only go by results, and ignore things like level of play, opposition, key players missing or returning, then sure, you’re going to look at team records and ask how certain teams are ahead of others, but that’s the point of the power rankings. To give people a truer sense of where teams stand strength wise at any point. Do I agree with all our rankings? No, but again, these are staff picks, and some people rank certain teams much higher than I would. Having multiple voters can balance things out at times, but sometimes not.
Rankings don’t occur in a vacuum. If the teams ahead of one team do really badly, but the teams ahead of another team do really well, you can see a disparity in ranking changes. It really isn’t that tough to figure out. In the end, you don’t have to agree with the rankings, but suggesting there’s no rhyme or reason to them is just lazy.
Ives, understood and thanks for personally responding. I also appreciate that these are not supposed to be the same as league standings or it would not be too much fun. However, I just felt that this year it’s a little bit too much of “well, Galaxy is always #1” (and neither their results nor level of play have been impressive). I am just using this as an example.
I can definitely hear an argument for LA not being No. 1, and for me having them at No. 3 would be about right. That being said, they’ve played three of their past four without Keane, and have now won two straight against good opponents without him. It would also not be a stretch to say most people would put their money on LA with a healthy Keane being favored against the Red Bulls this weekend. That game should tell us a lot about just where both teams really do stand.
So when the Bulls beat the Gals on Sunday I sincerely hope they will be back up in to #1. 🙂
OK, SBI, you got me to click and comment here. If RBNY were to lose two games and thus match LA’s record, would they jump to first?
LOL. NO, LA, no matter how badly they play will always get the nod.
Thanks for asking.
To rank the power of a team is different than ranking the results or quality of play so far. My understanding is that power ranking is more related to outlook for the entire season. I think 3 titles in 4 years makes it hard to rank LA very low on the power scale. They have a quality roster that only gets better as the year goes along. Arena knows how to prepare MLS champions. The Galaxy are doing better right now than they did during 2 of the past 3 championships. Not arguing that the Galaxy should be on top (I personally don’t think so), but I understand the argument.
Then call it MLS Roster Review.
According to Ives twitter account the rankings are based off staff votes. I asked him to breakdown the criteria in the next podcast. Haven’t listened yet so I don’t know if he did or not.
Also based on how the rankings have been going was anyone really surprised they put LA back at number one?
I listened to his podcast and I understand his thoughts on power rankings (which were discussed), but they tend to favor teams with a particular style (or roster makeup) over getting results. And the only thing that matters is getting results. Some teams play attractive soccer, usually lose, and he ranks them high even though they didn’t get the job done.
Again, I appreciate all of the content here. I wonder how this would look if you just added up their points (granted, they have played different teams).
You seem to be missing the entire point of Power Rankings. Just adding up the points is just, well, rankings (or standings if you prefer). Those unbiased, purely objective rankings based on the only thing that matters (results) can be easily found on MLS dot com.
I really like the content on this site. But having said that, these power rankings just seem like a judgment in roster strength. Some teams are on horrible form, and never drop. And the same goes for teams on good form, they never go up.
I actually wouldn’t mind a team recap as opposed to rankings. The only thing that really matters is the table anyway.
Again, I appreciate the content.
Clicks count too. And we are talking about their misguided picks ( I don’t think it is on purpose, I think people just see things differently )