Our weekly re-ordering of Major League Soccer teams, following 17 rounds of play:
19. Chivas USA – The Goats will now be without Eric Avila, who is moving to Chivas’ mother ship team in Liga MX. Oh, and they fell in the latest L.A. derby late on Sunday night.
18. D.C. United – United won. That’s not a mis-print. The hard-fought 1-0 win over San Jose snapped United’s 13-game winless streak, which stretched back to early March.
17. Toronto FC – Signs of life? Ryan Nelsen’s team has a win and two draws (including a pretty good weekend result, a 0-0 tie Saturday in Houston) in June.
16. San Jose Earthquakes – After two on the road to begin his stretch as interim manager (a win in Colorado and loss over the weekend at D.C. United), Mark Watson finally gets a game at home. The ‘Quakes face California rival LA Galaxy this week.
15. Columbus – The reality of life without two important pieces began to set it as Chicago took all three points out of Crew Stadium over the weekend. Robert Warzycha’s team is 2-3-3 at home with an unlovely plus-1 goal difference.
14. Colorado Rapids – After getting it together in May, the team has lost three in a row and has a very tough trip in Montreal up next.
13. Chicago Fire – Mike Magee’s arrival has been absolutely sensational; he has a goal in each of his first six matches, including four in league play and two in the U.S. Open Cup. The upswing in offense is helping ease the sting of Arne Friedrich’s retirement.
12. Vancouver Whitecaps – Martin Rennie gave his players four days off over an idle weekend. It was back to training on Monday, prepping for cross-continent travel and a visit to D.C. United.
11. New England Revolution – Maybe a weekend off was unfortunate timing, allowing the Revs to stew about that awful response late in the first half last week in Vancouver. Either way, time to bounce back, for a U.S. Open Cup opportunity is up Wednesday at D.C. United.
10. LA Galaxy – Bruce Arena is lamenting the loss of personnel ahead to the Gold Cup. Well, join the club. Lots of teams have been dealing with this stuff. His team snapped a three-game winless streak with Sunday’s 1-0 win over woeful Chivas USA.
9. New York Red Bulls – The internet is abuzz with rumors of Juninho’s retirement. Meanwhile, and Tim Cahill (pictured) should be back in the squad soon – all of which is partially obscuring the fact that Mike Petke’s team has lost three in a row and has not win in league play since May 19.
8. Houston Dynamo – Where has all the scoring gone for Dominic Kinnear’s team, which now has two goals in its last six league matches. Brad Davis’ return from U.S. duty will presumably help, although it didn’t in a scoreless draw in Houston against Toronto.
7. Philadelphia Union – Jack McInerney is suddenly snakebit, missing just wide or seeing a keeper make really swell saves off his shot. No matter. He’s still tied for top in league scoring with 10 goals. The Union took down New York (And how!) by a 3-0 score Sunday.
6. Seattle Sounders – How very different this team is when Osvaldo Alondo is not around to screen the back line. The visitors were scarcely competitive in a 2-0 weekend loss at Real Salt Lake.
5. Sporting Kansas City – C.J. Sapong really hurt his team with a silly, petulant little kick of the ball. Up 2-0 on the road at the time, his reduced team wilted in the Texas heat and eventually conceded two late goals to Dallas.
4. Real Salt Lake – The league’s hottest team (yes, perhaps even more than Portland considering all the Timbers’ ties) is 8-1-1 in all competitions since April. That includes the dominant 2-0 weekend win over Seattle.
3. FC Dallas – Blas Perez and Ramon Nunez came in to change the game as Dallas rallied for two goals and drew level with 10-man Sporting Kansas City. The team hosts Portland on Wednesday in a U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal.
2. Montreal Impact – Patrice Bernier, who is still underappreciated, had a wonderful assist in a 2-0 win over Houston.
1. Portland Timbers – The team, now unbeaten in 15 games, climbed a little closer to a league record. Two results in Round 17 got the Timbers a little closer, a scoreless draw in Los Angeles and then a commanding 3-0 win over Colorado at home.
