MLS Power Rankings: Fire stays second behind TFC
- by Ridge Mahoney @ridgemax, Jun 6, 2017
A 0-0 tie ended the Fire’s four-game winning streak and left it just behind leader Toronto FC, which lost, 3-0, to New England to end an eight-game unbeaten run. New York City FC regained its stride by tying the Revs, 2-2, and defeating Philadelphia, 2-1 to hold onto third place.
Of the eight teams that played both midweek and on the weekend, only the Revs and Orlando City -- a 2-0 winner over D.C. United on Wednesday -- managed to extract as many as four points.
The Galaxy continued its climb up the ladder with a 0-0 tie at D.C. United. Its current six-game unbeaten streak is tied with Chicago for the longest current run and in 2017 stands third behind FCD’s nine-game roll to open the season and TFC’s eight-gamer (including seven wins) that ended at Gillette Stadium.
At the bottom end, no team is deeper in the yogurt than Real Salt Lake. Back-to-back thrashings leave it with seven losses in the last nine games and as league leader with 10 defeats.
MLS Results, Week 14
May 31
New York City 2 New England 2. Highlights
Houston 5 Real Salt Lake 1. Highlights
Columbus 3 Seattle 0. Highlights
Orlando City 2 D.C. United 0. Highlights
June 2
Portland 2 San Jose 0. Highlights
June 3
New England 3 Toronto FC 0. Highlights
Vancouver 3 Atlanta United 1. Highlights
Sporting KC 3 Minn. United 0. Highlights
Montreal 1 NY Red Bulls 0. Highlights
Colorado 2 Columbus 1. Highlights
NYCFC 2 Philadelphia 1. Highlights
D.C. United 0 L.A. Galaxy 0. Highlights
FC Dallas 6 Real Salt Lake 2. Highlights
June 4
Orlando City 0 Chicago 0. Highlights
Seattle 1 Houston 0. Highlights
Only league results are factored into the Power Rankings, which combine recent form with overall performance. They include a team’s record in parentheses and rank last week.
1. TORONTO FC (8-2-5), 1. TFC, shorthanded by international callups and injuries, still hung tough until the final half-hour. With its best scoring chances Victor Vazquez headed over the bar from close range and Justin Morrow clanged a shot off the far post. On the plus side, Sebastian Giovinco played the full game for the first time in a month. Jozy Altidore and Michael Bradley were on international duty.
2. CHICAGO (7-3-4), 2. The Fire left Florida frustrated after firing off 21 shots, two of which struck the woodwork in stoppage time, and failing to score against nine men. In his easiest game since taking over as the starter, Matt Lampson posted his third shutout. He has conceded just four goals during the Fire’s six-game unbeaten streak.
3. NEW YORK CITY FC (7-5-3), 3. Defenders Maxime Chanot and Alexander Callens did the goalscoring honors on corner kicks to earn NYCFC its fourth home victory after it blew two leads midweek. Chanot converted the serve of Maxi Moralez, who five minutes later knocked over another corner that wound up in the net when Callens banged in the rebound of a saved David Villa shot. On Wednesday, NYCFC squandered leads provided by the goals of Jack Harrison, set up by Villa’s mazy dribble, and Miguel Camargo, his first in MLS that was tallied from a Moralez cross.
4. SPORTING KC (7-4-4), 4. SKC needed two minutes of first-half stoppage time to turn its dominance (27-7 in shots) into a lead, and once Ike Opara had belted home a long-distance shot it rolled to a comprehensive victory. Jimmy Medranda scored early in the second half and Saad Abdul-Salaam, starting at right back in place of Graham Zusi, notched a first MLS goal in his 55th appearance. SKC has outscored opponents, 16-2, while sweeping its last six home games.
5. FC DALLAS (6-2-5), 6. A Roland Lamah hat trick propelled FCD to a stabilizing victory that ended a four-game winless run. After setting a league record by scoring five in the first half against a shorthanded and tuckered-out foe, FCD added a bit of history when Jesus Ferreira, 16, debuted and scored.
6. L.A. GALAXY (5-5-3), 7. The points just keep on coming. Galaxy II keeper Jon Kempin, pressed into duty by a groin injury to starter Brian Rowe and a Senegal callup for Clement Diop, earned his first MLS shutout. In his seventh league appearance Kempin made six saves and got a big goal-line block by Ashley Cole as the Galaxy ended a four-game road slog with the tie on top of three victories.
7. VANCOUVER (6-6-1), 10. The ‘Caps rallied to win with two goals by centerback Kendall Waston, who played target striker to polish off a great chip from Andrew Jacobson to tie the game, then rose to nail home a Cristian Techera corner kick. Waston nearly notched a hat trick before Fredy Montero iced the victory on a rebound of a saved Tim Parker shot that might have already crossed the goal line. ‘Caps have won four of their last six.
8. ATLANTA UNITED (5-5-3), 5. A bright start -- Greg Garza ghosted in at the back post and tucked home a great feed from Julian Gressel -- fell apart when three corner kicks produced three goals. AUFC must defend better on set plays and turn its dominance -- in this case 66.6 percent of possession and 82 percent of 514 passes completed -- into more than one goal.
9. HOUSTON (7-6-2), 9. The familiar pattern was repeated, except that Houston hung tough on the road before falling to a goal by one of its former players and it needed eight saves from Tyler Deric to register such a scoreline against RSL. Mauro Manotas and Erick "Cubo" Torres each notched a goal and an assist after an RSL own goal in the third minute prompted a deluge.
10. NEW ENGLAND (5-5-5), 15. Nearly halfway through the season the Revs are among those teams winless (0-5-3) on the road and unbeaten (5-0-2) at home. Equalizers by Kei Kamara and Xavier Kouassi earned them a midweek point, and a two-assist performance by Kelyn Rowe powered them past TFC as Benjamian Anguoa, Diego Fagundez and Juan Agudelo scored.
11. MONTREAL (4-4-4), 16. Swiss midfielder Blerim Dzemaili got his first MLS goal after an earlier effort had been disallowed as the Impact posted its third win in the last five games. He knocked home a typically precise feed from Ignacio Piatti, who has only two assists this season. With the fewest games played (12) the Impact has the same points per game (1.33) as the teams tied for sixth place in the conference.
12. COLUMBUS (7-8-1), 12. Crew SC faded down the stretch to squander a 1-0 lead and a match in which it controlled 62.3 percent of possession. Federico Higuain notched his sixth goal but two goals in the final 10 minutes -- altitude, you know -- dropped Crew SC to its fourth loss in the last six games. Higuain and Justin Meram scored early goals to forge a defeat of Seattle and they both earned assists on Ola Kamara’s coup de grace in the 59th minute.
13. SAN JOSE (5-6-4), 8. A 2-0 loss at Providence Park played with 10 men for the majority of the match is no great shame, and the ejection of Darwin Ceren did not trigger a collapse. Yet three losses -- including 4-2 at home against the Galaxy -- has tainted their playoff prospects. On the docket after the FIFA break is a run of three straight at “home” against conference foes that ends with the annual Stanford Stadium Cali Clasico July 1.
14. PORTLAND (6-5-3), 14. The Timbers snapped a five-game winless streak against a team that beat it, 3-0, in April and went down to 10 men late in the first half. Diego Valeri’s goal in the 50th minute proved to be sufficient but not until the 94th minute did he bag the clincher. A game with FC Dallas Saturday -- during the FIFA break -- kicks off a crucial stretch of five intraconference matches in 22 days.
15. ORLANDO CITY (7-5-3), 17. After a bleak streak of six games without victory, the Lions got four very valuable points and further enthralled their fervent fans. Cyle Larin and Giles Barnes netted against D.C., and a gutty 0-0 tie following the dismissals of Rafael Ramos (a very dubious decision) and Antonio Nocerino (stone-cold guilty) moved their fans to stand and applaud as the final seconds ticked down.
16. SEATTLE (5-6-4), 18. Former Dynamo Will Bruin rescued the game, and the week, for the Sounders, which rebounded from a rough night in Columbus to win its third match in the last four. A ball sprayed wide by Ozzie Alonso, a classic cross from Cristian Roldan, and a torpedo header by Bruin -- his fourth goal in 12 games as a Sounder -- got the job done.
17. NY RED BULLS (6-7-2), 11. It all came together in a bad way as the Red Bulls lost their sixth straight road game. An 11th goal conceded from a set play negated a tremendous save by Luis Robles.
18. PHILADELPHIA (4-6-4), 13. After winning four straight Philly has lost two in a row, and fell on Saturday after Fafa Picault scored in the 69th minute. Tied at 1-1 late in the game, a Roland Alberg free kick cleared the lunge of Sean Johnson but hit post instead of net. NYCFC got the winner three minutes later with a second goal scored from a corner kick.
19. COLORADO (4-8-1), 22. The King of Late Goals, Alan Gordon, struck in the 86th minute with his first goal for the club. It capped a Rapids rally and ran their home winning streak to three games. Fellow sub Josh Gatt notched his first MLS assist with a deep ball to the back post that Gordon nodded in just six minutes after Kevin Doyle had equalized.
20. D.C. UNITED (4-7-3), 20. The goalless and winless skid at RFK stands at four games after the Galaxy’s last visit -- assuming D.C. doesn’t host L.A. in the MLS Cup final -- ended scoreless. United did get six shots on goal and posted its third shutout of the season but fell to last in the conference with a 2-4-2 home record that is the worst in MLS. It has also been blanked in nine of 14 games. Ouch.
21. MINNESOTA UNITED (4-8-2), 21. The Loons have improved after a shocking first month in MLS but can’t string wins together, and looked very ponderous at SKC while being outshot, 27-7. After the FIFA break they play seven of nine at home and during that span a playoff push can be launched.
22. REAL SALT LAKE (4-10-2), 19. After setting a league record by conceding five goals in the first half at FCD, RSL got a pair through Kyle Beckerman -- who landed all three of his shots on target -- and Omar Holness. Off at halftime was Yura Movsisyan, who generated zero shots and committed four fouls. In Houston the score was 4-0 before Joao Plata scored but to its credit RSL landed nine shots on goal and Jefferson Savarino went 4-for-4. A defense desperately needing reinforcements gets back U-20s Justen Glad and Danilo Acosta.
