What a wild eight days of soccer it has been here in the States. We had midweek MLS action last week, rivalry weekend, and then midweek US Open Cup games. It made for a ton of soccer watching, which I will never complain about.
First I want to talk about St. Louis City SC playing host to Sporting Kansas City. The crowd was absolutely great (as has been the case for every St. Louis home game) and Bradley Carnell's side looked like they were geared up for a big rivalry game. Peter Vermes' side, not so much. St. Louis made Kansas City play their game. They let SKC control the ball for most of the game and they were vicious on the press.
First I want to point out one of the best players in the game that isn't getting a ton of credit, Njabulo Blom. He was fantastic in the midfield for St. Louis. He dispossessed Ghadi Kinda on a play that directly led to a St. Louis goal. He was just everywhere and causing havoc. Secondly whatever Bradley Carnell is doing defensively is working. They don't have Joakim Nilsson, one of their top earning players at center back. Tim Parker, Kyle Hiebert, and Lucas Bartlett have stepped up and played fantastic. Hiebert even played left back and more than held his own against Johnny Russell and the Sporting KC attack.
Everyone noticed the outstanding play of Nico Giocchini, Jared Strout, Indiana Vassilev, and Eduard Löwen. They were fantastic. Giocchini fully played the Joao Klauss role and Vassilev had a brace. This team in that stadium CAN be as dangerous as anyone in the league.
On the other side it looked obvious that it was Sporting's 4th game in 8 days. Add to that they don't have the youngest roster in MLS, Kinda and Pulido aren't fully fit, and they just grinned out a result at LAFC three days prior. I know those sound like excuses, and I don't think that is solely to blame on why they got blown out, but you could tell there were some weak legs on that squad.
Kendall McIntosh did not have his best game and all of the underlying numbers heavily favored SKC in this match. xG's were 2.25 to 1.84 IN FAVOR of SKC, who had possession for 68% of the game. Though you could argue the possession numbers are exactly what Bradley Carnell would've hoped for. Other than McIntosh Radoja did not look great, Rosero was playing frustrated, and Fontas just doesn't look great. You would've hoped Pulido, Russell, Salloi, Kinda and Walter could've broken down the St. Louis back line a little better.
The US Open Cup Tuesday games saw LAFC 2 lose to the Galaxy, Inter Miami beat Nashville, Houston steam rolled Minnesota, and FCC survived the Red Bulls in PK's. On Wednesday there were some absolute Cupsets. The night started with the Pittsburgh Riverhounds taking down the Columbus Crew and then Birmingham knocked off Charlotte. Both of those games were played at the underdogs home stadiums in front of great crowds. It was everything that was great about the Open Cup. The two later games saw a big win for the Chicago Fire over Austin FC and then the Rapids lost to RSL for the second time in less than a week at home. Absolutely brutal look for Colorado.
Let's get in to the top 8!
1. FC Cincinnati 9-3-1 Last Week: 2; What a week for this FCC side. They started off by beating red hot Montreal 3-0, followed that up with a 3-2 win in Hell is Real and then advanced to the US Open Cup quarter finals. They could not have had a better 8 days. Add to that they are now the clear leaders of the Supporter's Shield and this team is your clear number 1.
2. LAFC 7-4-1 Last Week: 1; LAFC have fallen out of the top spot for the first time in a while this week. They drew a hungry SKC team at home on Wednesday, revenged their lone loss of the season to San Jose, and then fielded essentially a B squad against the LA Galaxy starters and were knocked out of the Open Cup. Steve Cherundolo had to have known it would be impossible to win five trophies this year, but you always want to see teams go for all of them. It was pretty apparent by not having Buoanga, Vela, Ilie, Acosta, Chiellini, Long or Tillman even on the game day roster that LAFC did not care to move on in this tournament. To their credit winning CCL is a much bigger accomplishment and current MLS roster rules make it extremely hard to compete in five competitions in one year.
3. St. Louis CITY SC 7-1-4 Last Week: 8; There's definitely some recency bias here, and they are the only squad so far that only played one game since the last power rankings. But it was a beauty and they looked to have worked through some issues.
4. Nashville SC 7-4-3 Last Week: 6; Yes they stumbled in the Open Cup against Miami. They did however beat Miami last Wednesday and take all three points on the road against Charlotte. This team is steadily climbing the Eastern Conference standings.
5. Philadelphia Union 6-3-4 Last Week: 5; Gone are the worries of juggling CCL, the Open Cup, and league play. Now Jim Curtin can get his squad focused on winning games and that's exactly what the Union are doing. They drew a good DC team on Wednesday before rolling the Revs 3-0 on Saturday. They will miss McGlynn while he, Sullivan, and Craig are gone to the U20 World Cup, but this Union team is good.
6. FC Dallas 6-4-3 Last Week: 7; FC Dallas keep getting points. They beat Vancouver and then had a late draw against Houston. The Arriola injury is something to keep an eye on, but they are a good side that will be fighting for a home playoff game.
7. New England Revs 7-3-3 Last Week: 4; Since nearly claiming the top spot three weeks ago the Revs have lost to Inter Miami and the Union. It's definitely not panic time in Boston, but they aren't in their best form right now.
8. Seattle Sounders 7-2-5 Last Week: 3; This is far and away the biggest drop and the lowest the Sounders have been on the power rankings this season. Which will happen when you lose three out of four games. They're home to the Red Bulls this weekend and are needing a result to stay near the top of the Western Conference.
Bottom 5
25. CF Montreal 5-0-8 Last Week: NR; Unfortunately CF Montreal make a reappearance into the bottom five this week. After winning four straight, they've now dropped consecutive games. Although they did win the Canadian Cup semi final game last night, which will put them in the finals against the Vancouver Whitecaps.
26. Sporting Kansas City 2-4-8 Last Week: 25; It was a split week for SKC. They became the first team to take points away from BMO Stadium and then they got ran out of St. Louis on Saturday. I will be on scene this Sunday as they host the Timbers!
27. Toronto FC 2-7-5 Last Week: 29; There's no reason for Toronto to be this bad given the money they have spent. I'm sure there are some difficult conversations starting to be had in Toronto.
28. Colorado Rapids 2-6-6 Last Week: NR; You can't blame Robin Fraser here. They're dealing with injuries and the Kroenke's don't take this team seriously. Think of the departures since 2021 when they finished atop the Western Conference. They've lost Sam Vines, Kellyn Acosta, Auston Trusty, Mark-Anthony Kaye and others have come and gone. They don't spend money, they don't retain homegrowns, and they don't use their sister club (Arsenal) in a way a MLS club with a multibillionaire owner should. This team and this market could be one of the best clubs in the league, but ownership doesn't care. I personally think Robin Fraser has done good with the parts he's been handed, but this is just a tough season.
29. LA Galaxy 2-3-8 Last Week: 27; I'm just going to predict that the next time the Galaxy play LAFC it is going to be a blood bath. The Galaxy's first team starters took down LAFC 2 at BMO Stadium on Tuesday and celebrated like they won Soccer Bowl 2023. The previous two league games the Galaxy have gotten beat 0-5 combined by the Crew and DC United. They sit in last place in the league and have far more questions than answers. Maybe that win will boost their confidence going forward, but it may also bite them in the rear.
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