Rank 'em
Someone sent me an email asking why I don't do rankings like Luis does here on the blog. Well, I actually do. I send in my rankings as part of the compilation that goes to ESPN.com for their Power Rankings. They're edited together there. If you're curious as to what my rankings were compared to the collective, here they are. - Kansas City Wizards – Freddy Adu named them as the best team in MLS and who am I to argue, especially when they hung tough without Eddie Johnson.
- New York Red Bulls – Angel is class, but Watterus is revealing a few chinks in his armor.
- FC Dallas – No Cooper and a weary Ruiz adds up badly, but still better than the Toronto scoreline indicates.
- New England Revolution – No Ralston, no Twellman, no Parkhurst but Nicol’s boys still display his gritty fight.
- Chivas USA – Brad Guzan is priming for the Copa America
- DC United – Putting the early season Humpty Dumpty together again.
- Colorado Rapids– It’s hard to remember when Conor Casey was going to be the next McBride.
- Chicago Fire – Were probably cheering Costa Rica in the Gold Cup in hopes of getting Cuauhtemoc Blanco in sooner.
- Houston Dynamo – Waiting on the return of their Canadian contingent.
- Toronto FC –Four goals is a nice way to leave their fans hungry for more just before their extended road trip.
- Los Angeles – Nate Jaqua can score! So can Edson Buddle! The news was almost as shocking as watching that makeshift backline play together for the first time.
- Columbus – They do have some good players – and it will probably be more fun to watch Danny Szetela, Robbie Rogers and Tim Ward in the U20 World Cup and Ned Grabavoy in the Copa America than with the Crew.
- Real Salt Lake – One keeps fighting the urge to want to see Jason Kreis pull off his business suit, Superman-style, and run out to the pitch to score and save this team.
6 comments:
I think you've got Dallas too high on the list...sure, they're better than that 4-0 scoreline indicates, but they've played 14 games (the entire league seems to have at least two games in hand on them) and their current form is officially Not Good (that second-half stoppage time winner at RSL saved them from further embarrassment this past week).
They've been on the road quite a bit, so they might pick up steam in the next few weeks, but I'd put them below at least Chivas in the west.
I guess that part of what I consider to be a good quality for a team, though it might sound backwards, is that they manage to get results even when they're not playing particularly well. I noticed that in Dallas' first game in LA this season. LA mostly outplayed them, and Dallas won, 2-0. It may not look great, but I'm always impressed by teams that can pull that trick off.
Wow!!!! You have DC United ranked 6th? They have not lost in 7 games and beat a few teams that you have higher on the list (Red Bulls and Chivas). The only team that has looked better than them was KC.
Sorry, but DC's early season form is etched into my brain rather firmly. I have to see more of them playing well before I believe that it's something more than a surge triggered partly by other teams, like me, taking them a little lightly given their previous struggles.
I'm especially not impressed with how the ref has been instrumental in a couple of results for DC, though Olsen's hat trick was quality.
So at least you aren't the one bringing down Chivas' ranking. I don't see how they can win their third game in a row, their third shutout in a row, have the league's best defense, a plus-seven goal differential, move up to second in the west and drop a spot in the soccernet rankings.
It's the Chewbacca defense: it doesn't make sense.
I guess that's why I started my own rankings, because at least if I disagree with mine, I can complain directly to the author :)
With regards to D.C., their defense is still a bit suspect. They have one shutout this season, and that was in game that players said afterward that they were lucky not to have lost 2-0.
They have defensive issues but certainly have been getting results nonetheless.
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