So yeah, I know we missed the rankings last week, since we were too busy with other stuff. Turns out tracking the international break and following MLS combined with our personal travel just means we fell behind here. However, our voters were rocking and rolling this week, so we were able to get out our rankings by Monday evening!
- Inter Miami (2): Well, look which team chose to play 3 more midweek matches to observe the International break. Oh wait, no one is surprised about this outcome. The league should not play through the International break, but most teams love their weekend revenue, and it’s a hard tradeoff.
- Charlotte FC (6): Charlotte has recovered in these rankings with a blowout win at home against San Jose that has put their man advantage loss to Miami to not look as bad now. They are probably the most fun team to watch in the league at the moment.
- Philadelphia Union (9): Even with a short-handed roster over the international break, the Union became the first team to score against St. Louis CITY this past weekend.
- Chicago Fire (14): Well if you win 3 on the road, including the previous top team in the rankings, you are going to shoot up these rankings. The Fire played with none of their preferred midfield starters, but took advantage of a similarly depleted Vancouver side. Soldier Field should be rocking on Saturday to face an interim coach and CF Montreal.
- Columbus Crew (4): A draw with a short-handed side against NYCFC and their kids is not a terrible result, but this team needs their Cucho replacement badly if they want to be a league leader again this season.
- Nashville SC (10): Nashville is another team that has shot up their ratings, and getting your opponent’s coach sacked is a good way to do that. Their first two matches were lackluster, but they found a rhythm and are honestly favorites now against FC Cincinnati next weekend.
- Austin FC (17): Austin became the first team ever to beat San Diego FC over the weekend and provided the rest of the league with the template to the Chrome and Azul (what a bloody awful name).
- Vancouver Whitecaps (1): Our staff was likely too harsh on the Whitecaps after their loss to the Fire, but it was ugly performance despite them remaining clear atop the Western Conference standings.
- NYCFC (8): No shame in playing the kids and getting a point in Columbus. The East is simply stacked this season.
- LAFC (15): After a surprising loss to Austin, they rebounded against a weak Sporting KC side. With two more midweek matches coming up against Miami, we would not be surprised to see LAFC drop more league points.
- New York Red Bulls (12): Beating Toronto at home should be the most straightforward thing in the league, but the Red Bulls made it look harder than need be.
- St. Louis CITY (3): Losing at Philly by a goal should not have dropped them 9 spots in the rankings, but our voters are harsh towards losses. They finally conceded a goal in this loss though.
- Orlando City (19): Orlando looked dominant on Saturday night over a decent DC United team.
- San Diego (5): Paddy McNair is really important to San Diego and it showed on Sunday. If Austin could finish, they could have scored 5-6 goals in that match.
- Portland Timbers (23): Going into Colorado and snatching a 3-0 is pretty impressive. As De Costa gets the hang of things, this Portland team is going to be in playoff contention.
- Seattle Sounders (13): We are firm believers in that you need to be able to score against Houston to succeed in this league.
- Minnesota United (11): If we had guessed at the beginning of the season that drawing the Galaxy at home would slide a team down 6 spots, we all would have laughed in your face. But MLS going to MLS and the Loons will regret letting a weaker than normal Galaxy team sneak a point out of Allianz.
- Atlanta United (18): Atlanta hasn’t won since opening day and that 3-2 win over Montreal loses luster by the day. Brad Guzan should not be a starting keeper in this league at 40.
- FC Dallas (24): Even with a man advantage, winning at altitude in this league is not easy, so props to the guys from Collin County.
- FC Cincinnati (16): They really need Matt Miazga back. The backline after the offseason sales is bad at the moment, especially when Miles Robinson is on International Duty.
- Colorado Rapids (7): The Rapids were likely over-ranked last week, but it’s never acceptable to lose by 3 goals at home, especially when you were expected to win the match. We know the xG wasn’t as wide as the scoreline, but it was still an ugly performance by the Rapids.
- LA Galaxy (25): Getting a point on the road in Minnesota was their first decent result of the campaign. It will likely only get better from here.
- Houston Dynamo (26): 0-0 draws in both Seattle and Columbus are impressive. 3 losses at home are not exactly impressive, especially in the ways which they have lost. Help is coming their way though Onerj Lingr from Slavia Prague.
- DC United (21): That was a full on yikes loss from the black and red down in Orlando. Having the Crew come to Audi Field will likely not help with the issues that they are facing.
- San Jose Earthquakes (22): San Jose has come back down to the Earth, and maybe Bruce Arena is not the savior he was hailed to be in the first few weeks of this season
- Real Salt Lake (20): This team without Diego Luna is going to be one that’s not close to the playoffs. It sure looked like there was no Plan B without him.
- New England Revolution (28): The bottom of the table is so bad that the Revs moved up a spot by not playing.
- Sporting Kansas City (27): After the comeback draw with Minnesota, there was some hope in KC, and LAFC made sure to extinguish that even without Bouanga.
- CF Montreal (29) Sacking a manager that made the playoffs last year after little to no investment in the squad does not make much sense to us, but we are not Joey Saputo.
- Toronto FC (30): DeAndre Kerr is way too good to be on this otherwise awful team.