With last week featuring just two games, we skipped the Power Rankings and lumped the last two weeks into one ranking. For the sake of argument, we’ll call this Week 25.
Major League Soccer Week 25 Power Rankings: Welcome Back Real Salt Lake
Real Salt Lake storms back into our top tier after a road win over the Seattle Sounders.
Getty Images
Since last we met, there's been some significant movement. The biggest was Real Salt Lake re-entering our top tier after their road victor over the Seattle Sounders. Like all the teams not named the Los Angeles Galaxy, RSL's chances of winning the Supporters' Shield are slim, but our voters still consider them to be among the league's elite.
| Playing For The Shield | ||
|---|---|---|
 | Los Angeles Galaxy |  100% (60 out of 60 points) |
 | Seattle Sounders | 96% (58 out of 60 points) |
 | FC Dallas | 88% (53 out of 60 points) |
 | Real Salt Lake | 88% (53 out of 60 points) |
Once the season gets down to the last couple months, we really start to see a fight emerging among our voters: How literally do we take the titles of these tiers? At least one of our voters has decided to put the Galaxy in a tier all by themselves, bowing to the seeming inevitability that they will win the Shield. Expect to see more of this kind of stratification as the season comes to a close.
| Enjoy The Playoffs | ||
|---|---|---|
 | Sporting Kansas City | 73% (44 out of 60 points) |
 | Colorado Rapids | 70% (42 out of 60 points) |
 | Columbus Crew | 65% (39 out of 60 points) |
 | Philadelphia Union | 60% (36 out of 60 points) |
I don’t think any of our voters really expect any of these teams to miss the playoffs, but other than Sporting Kansas City none of these teams look to be particularly strong. The Crew have now been outscored 10-4 in their past two, the Union are winless in their past eight and the Rapids just got dominated by the Galaxy (even if the score was only 1-0) and have lost two straight.
| Still Something To Prove | ||
|---|---|---|
 | DC United | 48% (29 out of 60 points) |
 | Houston Dynamo | 36% (22 out of 60 points) |
 | New York Red Bulls | 30% (18 out of 60 points) |
 | Portland Timbers | 25% (15 out of 60 points) |
 | Chivas USA | 16% (10 out of 60 points) |
DC United was just one vote away from breaking into our second tier and it looks like many of our voters now believe they are a strong bet to make the playoffs. One more of these teams is bound to join them, but who that is remains a very open question. The Dynamo have still not won on the road, the Red Bulls look completely lost and the Timbers are still quite shaky away from Jeld-Wen Field.
| At Least There's No Relegation | ||
|---|---|---|
 | Chicago Fire | 6% (4 out of 60 points) |
 | San Jose Earthquakes | 5% (3 out of 60 points) |
 | Toronto FC | 3% (2 out of 60 points) |
 | New England Revolution | 0% (0 out of 60 points) |
 | Vancouver Whitecaps | 0% (0 out of 60 points) |
Amazingly enough, three of these five teams actually won this week. But none of our voters were particularly impressed. None of them are yet mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, but it would take a miracle run for any of them to make it.
How It Works: Each of the 20 participants puts Major League Soccer’s clubs into one of the four tiers. Teams in the top tier get three points. Next tier, two points, then one, then zero. Voters can put as many teams into each tier as they see fit. Though the vote total orders the teams, the clubs are intended to be grouped, not sorted. Although some of the names may indicate otherwise, the point of this is to assess current form and our voters are instructed to place teams in tiers based how those teams will fair in coming weeks.
Who participated: Jeremiah Oshan (SB Nation, soccer); Jason Anderson (SB Nation, soccer); Aaron Campeau (SB Nation, soccer); Ryan Rosenblatt (SB Nation, soccer); Drew Epperley (SB Nation, soccer); Steve Davis (Daily Soccer Fix); Martin Shatzer (Black and Red United); Scott Kessler (Brotherly Game); Zach Woosley (Dynamo Theory); Denzel Eslinger (RSL Soapbox); Robert Jonas (Quake, Rattle and Goal); Daniel Robertson (Big D Soccer); Dave Clark (Sounder at Heart); Duncan Fletcher (Waking the Red), Steve Stoehr (The Bent Musket); Tweed Thornton (Hot Time in Old Town), Ben Schneider (Once a Metro); Josie Bekcer (LAG Confidential); Alicia Ratterree (The Goat Parade); Brenton Walters (The Vancouver Whitecaps Offside).
See More:
