Thursday, April 14, 2011

Number One, By A Mile

I don't do MLS rankings. I probably will at some point. I got the itch to do some before the season started but didn't have a place to put them but now I do.

Had I been doing rankings, I would have started the season off with Colorado in the top spot. Defending champs and all, I feel they should start at the top since they left off at the top.

After Colorado lost to Dallas, they pretty much lost the right to remain at the top. And after Wednesday's loss to RSL, there really is no doubt who the best MLS team is right now.

Real Salt Lake should be numbers 1, 2 and 3, they are that much better than anyone else in MLS right now. There's an argument as to the second-best team in the league is, but whether you put in.... uh.... LA? Philly? Seattle? blech.... whichever one of those teams you put in at number two, there is a huge chasm in between RSL and LA/Philly/Seattle/someone-else.

What was more impressive than their victory over Colorado was their win over New England.

Yeah, the gawd-awful Revolution.

Look at RSL's lineup in that match - Reynish; Beltran, Schuler, McKenzie, Russell; Johnson, Alexander, Warner, Grabavoy; Alvarez, Paulo.

What other team in the league can field second-stringers and still get a road shutout?

Real Salt Lake has built up the league's best and deepest team. They can beat teams by overpowering them as they did against the Galaxy on March 26 or by playing solid defense as they did against Colorado. They're mentally strong too - their 2-1 defeat at Saprissa on April 5 is testament to that.

So when I get ready to do my rankings, as will inevitably be the case, the top might look like this:

1. Real
2. Salt
3. Lake

1 comment:

HammerBro said...

Hard to argue with 4-0-0 form and exciting offensive play.

How much of it do you think has to do with RSL's "early" preparations for the Champions League?

How much of it do you think will affect RSL at the tail end of THIS year?

How many goals from Chicharito in the Gold Cup do you think it will take for Jason Kreis to replace Bob Bradley?