MLS Power Rankings

 MLS Week 8 is in the books and what a great weekend of soccer it was. The Portland-Seattle game was just phenomenal. There was a tornado near CITY Park in St. Louis (or a Tornado warned storm with a funnel cloud at the very least) and the most damage done was afterwards as City cruised to a 5-1 win over FC Cincinnati. 

With all of the wild matches in Week 8 there is definitely some shuffling at the top of this weeks' Power Rankings:

Top 8

1. LAFC 5-2-0 Last Week: 2; What can you say about LAFC other than they are the class of MLS right now. They're the last undefeated team in Major League Soccer and they're cruising through CCL. Carlos Vela may still be the best player in this league, and they took care of business in El Traffico this weekend. 

2. St. Louis CITY SC 6-0-2 Last Week: 6; As I've said before, if you beat (or destroy) the previous number one I will give you a nice bump in the power rankings. St. Louis ended their two game skid by dominating FCC at home. 

3. FC Cincinnati 5-2-1 Last Week: 1; Was the loss at St. Louis a one off or a trend? Vasquez hasn't been finding the back of the net, but they've been the most sound defensively they've ever been. I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt after one bad loss and keep them as my first team on the list from the Eastern Conference. 

4. New England Revs 5-2-1 Last Week: 4; The Revs dropped points from a winning position in the 98th minute at Columbus on Saturday. From the New England fan perspective, it was a devastating way to lose 2 points on the road. I have no doubt they'll be a heavy favorite this weekend at home against Sporting KC.

5. Seattle Sounders 5-1-2 Last Week: 3; The Sounders may still 1A/1B the best team in the league alongside LAFC, and they dominated 60 minutes of play in Portland before the Timbers broke through on a 71st minute bicycle kick goal from Asprilla. They're still very deep and very good. I would not want to be Minnesota this weekend.

6. Atlanta United 4-3-1 Last Week: 5; Toronto brought the game level in the death of the 95th minute on Saturday or the five stripes may be a little higher on the list this week. Young American Caleb Wiley has been called up for the USMNT match against Mexico this week, but I'm sure that the idea of losing Miles Robinson and Thiago Almada is still very much hanging over the room down south.

7. Columbus Crew 4-2-2 Last Week: 7; It took every added minute the ref would give them, but the Crew managed a point at home against a salty Revs team. I may be looking forward to the Battle for Ohio more than any other rivalry matchup this season.

8. FC Dallas 4-2-2 Last Week: NR; Welcome to the power rankings list FC Dallas! I expected to see them much sooner. They have a variety of proven vets like Lletget and Arriola with the young talents of Ferreira, Pomykal and Velasco. I think it took some time to replace long time defensive stalwart Matt Hedges, but this team can and does produce a ton of talent.

Bottom 5:

25. Colorado Rapids 1-4-3 Last Week: NR; I probably gave Colorado a pass on the rankings last week after beating SKC. They have some holes that they are going to have to fill. If only they had a owner that also owned one of the largest clubs in the world, like Arsenal and had access to loans. Well you can always dream and play the what if game. In all seriousness they are dealing with injuries and sold/traded away a ton of talent after their great 2021 campaign and haven't rebuilt yet. 

26. Charlotte FC 1-3-4 Last Week: 27; I can't really dog on Charlotte. Not every expansion team is going to catch fire right away. Plus they sell a ton of tickets and along with Atlanta are going to bring up the MLS average attendance numbers for the season. I just don't think that they are there yet. 

27. LA Galaxy 0-3-4 Last Week: 26; What separates the Galaxy from the two teams below them is talent. Puig, Neal, Alvarez, Edwards, Chicharito and Joveljic are all exceptional players. They just happen to play on a very dysfunctional soccer team. I could write 10,000 words on the Galaxy and legacy clubs and how important it is for them to be relevant, but here is where we stand: LAFC are the undisputed number one team in MLS and the Galaxy do not have a win. 

28. CF Montreal 1-0-6 Last Week: 29; Say what you will about Chris Klein and Greg Vanney, but they didn't trade their best player at the thinnest position in MLS along WITH $1.3 million in General Allocation Money for two younger prospects. That's exactly what happened with the Kamal Miller trade. Maybe he requested it and just wanted to go somewhere with a chance to win, maybe he's a Messi fan, that we don't know. What we do know is trading away a 25 year old Center Back who started in the World Cup for YOUR country in addition to over a million dollars seems like an awful idea.

29. Sporting Kansas City 0-3-5 Last Week: 28; I wrote an entire blog about it this week, but this team looks dysfunctional and appears to lack quality and depth. The first few weeks were filled with optimism for when everyone got healthy, but now that doesn't seem like it will help. They can't afford to not start winning games and it doesn't help that they plat at New England this weekend.