MLS Power Rankings: Top teams hold, Seattle surges
- by Ridge Mahoney @ridgemax, Aug 7, 2017
Seattle also romped, 4-0 at Minnesota United, to move up another notch and the Quakes stayed right behind by beating Crew SC, 2-1. At the other end of the rankings, another loss for the Galaxy dropped it into the bottom three.
MLS Results, Week 22:
Aug. 5
D.C. United 1, Toronto FC 1. Highlights
Philadelphia 3, FC Dallas 1. Highlights
Montreal 2, Orlando City 1. Highlights
Minnesota United 0, Seattle 4. Highlights
Chicago 4, New England 1. Highlights
Colorado 2, Vancouver 2. Highlights
Real Salt Lake 0, Houston 0. Highlights
San Jose 2, Columbus 1. Highlights
Aug. 6
Portland 3, L.A. Galaxy 1. Highlights.
New York City FC 3, New York Red Bulls 2. Highlights
Sporting Kansas City 1, Atlanta United 1. Highlights
Only league results are factored into the Power Rankings, which include a team’s record in parentheses (W-L-T) and its rank last week.
1. TORONTO FC (12-3-8), 1. Unable to break down the league’s worst team down to 10 men for the entire second half, 1-1 on the road goes down as a disappointing result. Only goal was an own goal and TFC controlled 80 percent of possession in second half without putting a shot on target.
2. ATLANTA UNITED (10-7-5), 2. A point at a tough venue is another notch in the belt for a very precocious expansion team, and rather than one of its star attackers, a role player -- midfielder Jacob Peterson -- scored the goal in front of his former fans. The grit to go with the glitz is an apparently in place.
3. NEW YORK CITY FC (12-7-4), 3. As if to silence those few critics who claim his prowess is mostly due to great service, David Villa slalomed past several foes to score one of his three goals that give the league lead with 17 goals. He’d scored only once in seven previous games against the Red Bulls. Only two wins in its last five games puts the onus on NYCFC to rev up for the final stretch.
4. CHICAGO (12-5-5), 5. Goals by four different players ran the Fire’s home unbeaten streak to a team-record nine games. Patrick Doody set a personal best with three assists, one of them shrewdly dummied by Bastian Schweinsteiger. Crushing a weaker foe at home is what good teams are supposed to do.
5. SPORTING KC (9-4-10), 4. SKC surrendered an equalizer in stoppage time and though unbeaten at home (7-0-5) leads the league in ties, as well as fewest goals allowed (18).
6. NY RED BULLS (11-9-2), 7. How can a team go up after losing? Well, the defeat that featured two goals by Bradley Wright-Phillips ended a four-game winning streak and a loss at Yankee Stadium is no disgrace, though head coach Jesse Marsch thought the referee’s performance was.
7. VANCOUVER (9-8-4), 6. The ‘Caps tagged their seventh point in the last three road games with goals by Tony Tchani and Fredy Montero, who leads the team with nine.
8. HOUSTON (9-7-7), 8. The Dynamo, down to 10 men after Alex took his second caution midway through the second half, slogged out a point to extend its unbeaten run on the road to four games. Outshot 21-9, its players blocked 10 shots and none of the other 11 hit the target.
9. SEATTLE (9-7-7), 10. Two goals by Clint Dempsey paced the Sounders, which have amassed 15 points during a seven-game unbeaten run. Jordan Morris and Will Bruin also scored, Jovien Jones earned his 10th assist, Stefan Frei his eighth shutout.
10. SAN JOSE (9-9-5), 11. Though a modest 3-3 in league play since Chris Leitch replaced Dominic Kinnear, th0e Quakes have look0ed committed and hungry in every game. They outshot Crew SC, 20-10, and hit the woodwork twice after Marco Urena and Chris Wondolowski scored.
11. FC DALLAS (9-5-7), 9. A change in goal -- Chris Seitz instead of Jesse Gonzalez -- failed to stem the torrent of goals conceded. FCD trailed, 2-0, midway through the first half and didn’t score until Michael Barrios netted in stoppage time. It has allowed 10 goals in the last four league matches.
12. MONTREAL (7-8-6), 12. The Impact can’t seem to get on a roll but won their fifth home game of the last six. Homegrown product Anthony Jackson-Hamel scored his sixth goal of the season five minutes after entering the game off the bench. In his first start since June 24, Ignacio Piatti -- who had been sidelined by an adductor strain -- earned and converted a penalty kick and banged a shot off the crossbar.
13. PHILADELPHIA (8-10-5), 15. Two more goals for C.J. Sapong upped his season take to a dozen; with a goal and two assists Ilsinho upped his totals to four and three, respectively. Philly has scored three goals in each of its last three victories.
14. PORTLAND (9-8-7), 17. Following a VAR review and disallowed Galaxy goal, Diego Valeri blasted a golazo for the winner. In his first match since June 10, defender Liam Ridgewell scored a goal, was cautioned, and took a knock to the head.
15. REAL SALT LAKE (7-12-5), 14. RSL has tied three in a row at home -- and for the season is a very tepid 4-4-4 at Rio Tinto -- after beating Portland and L.A. on the road by combined scores of 10-3. This week, back on the road again at D.C.
16. NEW ENGLAND (7-10-5), 13. The Revs could not follow up on a Kei Kamara equalizer and as one of those Jekyll-Hyde teams – 7-2-2 at home, 0-8-3 away – are slipping away from the playoff tier. At outside back, Kelyn Rowe drew as many fouls as Schweinsteiger.
17. COLORADO (6-12-3), 19. Defender Alex Sjoberg celebrated his new contract by scoring an equalizer and forward Kevin Doyle bagged his fifth goal to provide a lead the Rapids could not hold at home, where they are 6-4-2. The dismal road record (0-8-1) goes up for review this weekend at FC Dallas.
18. COLUMBUS (10-12-2), 16. Former Quake Adam Jahn scored off the bench against his former team after a bad mistake by rookie centerback Alex Crognale enabled the first San Jose goal. Off nights for Kekuta Manneh, Ola Kamara, and Justin Meram contributed to a ninth road defeat.
19. ORLANDO CITY (8-9-6), 18. Not since May 31 had Cyle Larin scored in league play and the Lions couldn’t build on his ninth goal of the season after he struck in the 12th minute. They have lost three of their last four games. Dom Dwyer has played 73 minutes in each of his games for OCSC and managed one shot.
20. L.A. GALAXY (6-11-5), 20. The Galaxy lost a goal when VAR revealed a handball by Gyasi Zardes had set him up to score, and conceded goals partially caused by clumsy defending from Jermaine Jones. Two years to the day after brother Giovani, Jonathan Dos Santos debuted for the Galaxy.
21. MINNESOTA UNITED (6-13-4), 21. A new centerback pairing of Michael Boxall and Francisco Calvo came under siege often, and the Loons’ league-worst goals-allowed total ballooned to 49.
22. D.C. UNITED (5-14-4), 22. United hung on for a point while down a man to break a six-game losing skid and only conceded when an attempted clearance bounced off defender Steve Birnbaum into his own net. Lloyd Sam set up a goal for Kofi Opare, then went off with a straight red card. Luciano Acosta drew six fouls, rest of team combined drew seven. How about a little more help, guys?
