Atlanta United and the New York Red Bulls, 1-2 in Soccer America’s MLS Power Rankings, remain the only teams that have clinched playoff berths with five weeks to go in the regular season. Atlanta willcarry a four-point lead into Sunday afternoon’s game at the Red Bulls.
FC Dallas moved up to third after winning at Vancouver and retaking the lead in the Western Conference. LAFC climbedinto fourth place after Seattle lost twice and Sporting KC fell at Philadelphia to a team of mostly second-stringers.
MLS, Week 30Results:
Wednesday, September 19
Portland 3 Columbus 2.
San Jose 3 Atlanta United 4.
Seattle 0 Philadelphia 1.
Saturday, September 22
LAFC2 San Jose 0.
NY Red Bulls 2 Toronto FC 0.
Atlanta United 2 Real Salt Lake 0.
Columbus 2 Colorado 1.
Orlando City 0 Houston 0.
New England 2 Chicago 2.
Montreal 1NYCFC 1.
Minn. United 3 Portland 2.
Sunday, September 23
Philadelphia 2 Sporting KC 0.
LA Galaxy 3 Seattle 0.
Vancouver 1 FC Dallas 2.
Only MLSresults are counted in the Power Rankings, which include a team’s record in parentheses (W-L-T) and rank last week.
1. ATLANTA UNITED (19-5-6), 1. The Five Stripesclinched a bye into the Eastern Conference semifinals with their two wins and NYCFC’s tie at Montreal.
2. NY RED BULLS (18-7-5), 2. With four matches remaining, the Red Bulls’ 18 winstied the franchise record set in 2015.
3. FC DALLAS (15-6-8), 5. Matt Hedges scored with three minutes left to lift FC Dallas pastVancouver at BC Place and back into the Western Conference lead. The first goal by Santiago Mosquera also came on a header off a Maxi Urruti set piece.
4. LAFC (13-7-8), 6.A pair of goals by center back Walker Zimmerman were all LAFC could score against last-place San Jose.
5. SEATTLE (13-11-5), 3. The Sounders’ nine-game winning streak came to an end against Philadelphia. The match at the Galaxy was over beforethe hour mark. By then, left back Brad Smith had exited the game with a hamstring injury.
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6. SPORTING KC (15-8-6), 4.The loss at Philadelphia dropped Sporting KC into second place in the Western Conference when FC Dallas won at Vancouver later in the evening.
7. NYCFC (14-8-8), 7.Norwegian Jo Inge Berget returned to the lineup after an injury layoff, and his energy up front gave NYCFC a big boost.
8. PORTLAND (13-9-8), 9. Asked by sideline reporter, formerTimber Nat Borchers, at halftime of the match at Minnesota what he was going to say to his players, Giovanni Savarese didn’t mince his words: “That they f****** were terrible today.”
9. COLUMBUS (13-9-8), 8. The largest announced crowd of the season — 19,121 — watched the Crew win its fifth straight game at Mapfre Stadium.
10. PHILADELPHIA(12-12-4), 12. The Union headed to Houston for the Open Cup final after its best week of the season — wins over Seattle and Sporting Kansas. In the latter game, Jay Simpson made hisfirst start of the season and scored both goals.
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11. REAL SALT LAKE (13-11-6), 10. In Marcelo Silva’s first game back after missing the last six matches with a foot injury. RSLdefense did a good job on Josef Martinez, limiting him to just one shot in the match.
12. MONTREAL (12-14-4), 11. Midfielder Micheal Azira tied the game with his first career MLSgoal in 97 games.
13. VANCOUVER (11-11-7), 13. The loss at home to FC Dallas hurt. A win would have put the ‘Caps within one point of sixth-place Seattle, which lost twice.
14. D.C. UNITED (9-11-8), 14. After a bye week, United has two games in hand on all six teams ahead of it in the Eastern Conference.
15. LA GALAXY (11-11-8), 17. Interim coachDominic Kinnear picked up his first win since taking over for Sigi Schmid. It moved the Galaxy into seventh place at 11-11-8 with four games to play.
16. NEW ENGLAND (8-10-11), 16.The Revs remained unbeaten in four games in September, but just six points leave them in eighth place, five points behind sixth-place Montreal with a game in hand.
17. MINNESOTA UNITED(10-16-3), 18. The Loons returned after seven weeks on the road and raced out to a 3-0 lead at the half against Portland. Romario Ibarra and Darwin Quintero combined for the first two goals.
18. HOUSTON (8-13-8), 19. Romell Quioto scored in the first half but had the goal disallowed after Video Review.
19. TORONTO FC (7-15-6), 15. Greg Vanney said the loss tothe Red Bulls summed up the Reds’ season. He doesn’t know if they’ve ever outplayed the Red Bulls in Harrison as much as they did on Saturday, but they still managed to find a way to lose.
20. CHICAGO (7-15-7), 20. The Fire twice went ahead against the Revs but couldn’t hold on for the three points in Foxboro. Veljko Paunovic wasn’t happy settling for one point but he likedwhat he saw from his players.
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21. ORLANDO CITY (7-18-4), 22. Adam Grinwis made his MLS debut against Houston, earning a shutout withthree saves.
22. COLORADO (6-17-6), 21. The Rapids’ losing streak is five games, the longest active streak in the league, but at least it managed a goal — from Albanian Shkelzen Gashi –after four straight shutouts.
23. SAN JOSE (4-18-8), 23. The Quakes’ first two games under interim coach Steve Ralston were tough ones: Atlanta United at home and LAFC on the road. Theylost both games — blowing a 3-1 lead against Atlanta — but showed some positive signs with their play.
MLS, Week 31Schedule:
Wednesday, September 26
NYCFC vs. Chicago 7 pm.
Saturday, September 29
Chicago vs. LAFC 3:30 pm.
Seattle vs. Colorado 4 pm.
D.C.United vs. Montreal 7 pm.
Toronto FC vs. New England 7:30 pm.
Columbus vs. Philadelphia 7:30 pm.
Minnesota United vs. NYCFC 8 pm.
Houston vs. San Jose 8:30 pm.
LA Galaxy vs. Vancouver 10 pm.
Portland vs. FC Dallas 10:30 pm.
Sunday, September 30
NY Red Bulls vs. Atlanta United 1 pm.
Sporting KC vs. Real Salt Lake 5 pm.
All times ET.