Again life has been busy, but I am committed to getting my power rankings out each and every week. Before we get into league talk there have been some devastating USMNT injuries over that last little while. Tim Ream broke his arm over the weekend against Fulham, Cameron Carter-Vickers was ruled out for the rest of Celtic's season, and Malik Tillman and Alex Zendejas left their respective games with injuries. That's our two best center backs and two guys that were likely going to log a ton of minutes between Nations League and Gold Cup. Our depth and quality will be tested dramatically this summer.
However the most important injury may be to our most important player, Tyler Adams. If watching Leeds defense spiral as they fight to stay above the relegation line, it's glaring how much they miss Tyler Adams. You could suppose Kellyn Acosta, James Sands, or Aidan Morris could step up in the two CONCACAF tournaments this summer. Even if those guys play well you are replacing a Premier League starter with one of three MLS players. I blog to cover MLS so I'm not bashing the league these guys play in, but Tyler Adams is a world class defensive midfielder. Admittedly he could work on ball progression and being more comfortable with the ball at his feet if he were to achieve world class status, but our World Cup Captain is undoubtedly one of our most important players.
Across MLS it was another busy weekend and then we had the 2nd leg of CCL semi-finals which saw LAFC advance past Philly where they will face Leon from Liga MX in the CCL Finals with a spot at the next two FIFA Club World Cups on the line. Let's get to those power rankings.
1. LAFC 5-3-0 Last Week: 1; They're undefeated in league play and have advanced to the CCL Finals. They're deep and they're talented. LAFC are a monster right now,
2. New England Revs 6-3-1 Last Week: 4; The Revs lone loss this season was on the road at LAFC on a Sunday night. It looks like they'll keep their team together for the season, and Bruce Arena still has it.
3. FC Cincinnati 6-3-1 Last Week: 5; FCC's lone loss this season came at St. Louis who are proving to be a tough out. Losing Brenner is going to hurt, and it will hurt more if Vasquez leaves this summer instead of after the season but they are well coached and should hang around the top of the Eastern Conference even with the departures.
4. Seattle Sounders 6-2-2 Last Week: 3; A draw on the road in Salt Lake City isn't the worst result, but with all of the Sounders' fire power you almost expect them to win that type of a road match. They're at home to Sporting KC this weekend who they blew out on the road.
5. St. Louis CITY SC 6-1-3 Last Week: 2; City didn't have Joao Klauss who is likely the team MVP and should at least have some discussion for league MVP when they lost at home to Portland. This weekend's matchup at FC Dallas will be a pretty telling one as Dallas continues to find their form.
6. Nashville SC 4-3-3 Last Week: NR; Nashville took care of Atlanta United in a big way at home last week. They have a strong identity and if they are at home and they score first on you they are nearly impossible to beat.
7. Atlanta United 5-3-2 Last Week: 6; Atlanta drops a spot after losing the aforementioned contest at Nashville last week. They are undeniably talented, but everyone will continue to monitor transfer rumors through the summer.
8. NYCFC 4-3-3 Last Week: 7; We were all shocked when Toronto won a home match against a quality opponent. Not because Toronto isn't a really talented team, it's just not something they've done this year. NYCFC's spot in this list will be on the line when they play at Charlotte this coming weekend.
Bottom 5
25. Charlotte FC 2-3-5 Last Week NR; After escaping the bottom five Charlotte are back following a 0-3 loss at DC United. They look better than they did at the start of the season, but I still feel confident about their place in this week's power rankings.
26. CF Montreal 3-0-6 Last Week: 28; Montreal have now won back to back games thanks to playing two teams below them on this list. If you ever had to pick a time to play the Red Bulls and SKC on back to back weeks it was the last two weeks. I still don't believe that they'll compete for a playoff spot, but I feel confident in saying they are definitely not the worst team in MLS.
27. New York Red Bulls 1-6-3 Last Week: 27; I hit on a bunch of the NYRB problems last week, but they have a lot of internal issues to fix.
28. LA Galaxy 1-3-5 Last Week: 26; Plays (Hello Darkness My Old Friend)...The Galaxy had a tough match cross country at Orlando City who really needed a home win. Add to that Ricqui Puig's yellow card suspension and it was an uphill battle. The Galaxy are going to have to start finding wins quick.
29. Sporting Kansas City 0-3-7 Last Week: 29; There's not much to say that hasn't already been said. Sporting are the only winless team in MLS and they still can't score. They're approaching the all time winless streak to start a season in MLS history and they've made no coaching or front office changes. It's teams and seasons like this that make me yearn for promotion and relegation. The way the club is treating being all time bad knowing they'll still be in the league next year is uninspiring.
I feel like this forum doesn't allow for much opportunity to talk about in between teams, so I'm going to take a moment to do that now. DC United look as good as they have in a long time. This club looks like they're finding their way under Wayne Rooney. Speaking of teams looking better than in years past, the Houston Dynamo, San Jose Quakes, and Chicago Fire are all having solid seasons. San Jose and Houston sit at 5 and 6 in the West while Chicago are one point outside the playoffs. I think legacy clubs like these having success is great for the league. Hopefully they can continue to push and all make the playoffs this season.
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