Folks, the stability is gone. There are really three teams that our voters think have some kind of claim on our top spot and you can see a certain logic in all of them. RSL is the newest leader, marking the third change in as many weeks.
MLS Power Rankings, Week 10: Real Salt Lake Back On Top
After beating the Sounders, our voters rewarded RSL with the top spot in the Week 10 MLS Power Rankings.
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The good news is that all of them are on pace to have great seasons, which could make for a very exciting close to this season. Even in the Eastern Conference, which just a few weeks ago seemed to be all but locked up, has a new points leader.
Just another week that reminds us that this is MLS and nothing is forever.
This weeks rankings are themed by Interpol:
1. Real Salt Lake (Average ranking: 1.88; Last week's average: 3.16): Gotta give them respect. They've had some hiccups this season, but their win over the Sounders was another remind that they are going to be there when the dust settles.
2. Seattle Sounders (2.35; 2.26): Hard to ding them too hard for losing at home to RSL while playing their fifth game in 15 days, of which they won four. But also hard to rank them any higher.
3. San Jose Earthquakes (2.59; 2.11): Their star has lost a little bit of shine after failing to win consecutive games, but showed some grit by pulling out a point against Chivas USA.
4. Sporting Kansas City (4.29; 2.74): Three straight losses have brought Sporting crashing back to earth. Still look capable of making a serious Suporters' Shield run, but need to kick it back into gear.
5. New York Red Bulls (5.06; 7.00): Have shown some real grit in recent weeks despite missing Thierry Henry. They put that together with the flash from earlier in the season and we really have something.
6. D.C. United (7.35; 5.84): Still pretty unpredictable from week-to-week. But no real shame in losing to the Dynamo in their home opener.
7. Vancouver Whitecaps (7.71; 6.21): Played a little short-handed in their thrashing at New England, but that was to gear up for busy next couple weeks. We should learn much about this team soon.
8. Houston Dynamo (8.06; 9.16): Finally off their mammoth road trip, some games at home are just what they needed.
9. Chicago Fire (8.65; 10.95): When it's all clicking, they can compete with anyone. But it hasn't been clicking enough. Beating Sporting KC was a step in right direction.
10. Colorado Rapids (8.71; 8.63): If there's one Jekyll-and-Hyde team, this is it. Up and down, up and down. Good test this week against United.
11. LA Galaxy (10.76; 9.89): We keep expecting them to wake up and start crushing opponents. Then they do something like tie the Impact. Maybe they just aren't that good.
12. New England Revolution (12.71; 14.68): There's no way to deny that this team looks better than we expected. Absolutely dominated a decent Whitecaps team that probably registers as their biggest win in two years.
13. FC Dallas (12.88; 11.21): The top end talent is still quite good, but there's just no depth.
14. Montreal Impact (14.00; 14.74): They aren't awful. They might even be good enough to make the playoffs. For an expansion team, that's nothing to scoff at.
15. Columbus Crew (14.71; 15.00): This seems about perfect for them. Not good enough to get excited about, not bad enough to totally freak out about.
16. Chivas USA (15.25; 14.68): Nearly pulled off a rather huge upset of the Earthquakes, but really didn’t even deserve the point they got.
17. Portland Timbers (16.59; 16.11): Had the week off. Maybe they figured something out.
18. Philadelphia Union (17.53; 16.79): Looked spry against the Red Bulls, but their defense couldn’t overcome their man disadvantage. Bad teams just kinda find ways to lose.
19. Toronto FC (18.82; 18.89): Their improvement in average ranking can be chalked up to have one less voter casting a ballot.
How the poll works: Each voter ranks the teams from 1-19. The teams are then ordered by average, with the lowest average going first and so on. The editor then splits the rankings into five tiers, looking for natural breaks in the averages. We then pick some kind of group of songs to theme them to.
Who participated: Jeremiah Oshan (SB Nation, soccer); Aaron Campeau (SB Nation, soccer); Ryan Rosenblatt (SB Nation, soccer); Drew Epperley (SB Nation, soccer); Jason Anderson (SB Nation, soccer); Phillip Quin (SB Nation, soccer); Martin Shatzer (Black and Red United); Scott Kessler (Brotherly Game); Denzel Eslinger (RSL Soapbox); Robert Jonas (Quake, Rattle and Goal); Daniel Robertson (Big D Soccer); Dave Clark and Josh Yockey (Sounder at Heart); Duncan Fletcher (Waking the Red), Steve Stoehr (The Bent Musket); Ben Schneider (Once a Metro); Alicia Ratterree (The Goat Parade); Brenton Walters (The Vancouver Whitecaps Offside); Geoff Gibson (Stumptown Footy); Sofiane Benzaza (Mount Royal Soccer); Alex Englen (The Daily Wiz); Tweed Thornton and Ryan Sealock (Hot Time In Old Town).
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