Following Round 11 of league play, here are Nos. 1-10 in ProSoccerTalk’s weekly MLS quality rearrangement:
10. Real Salt Lake – RSL fans are seFollowing Round 11 of league play, here are Nos. 1-10 in ProSoccerTalk’s weekly MLS quality rearrangement.eing red over the fact that Marco di Vaio’s important goal was clearly offside. It was the equalizer in a Montreal’s 3-2 draw north of the border.
9. LA Galaxy – After some degree of success last month, attempting to score goals without injured DP striker Robbie Keane is getting increasingly difficult for Bruce Arena’s team. LA has lost two in a row, with just one goal in those 180 minutes. What say you, Landon Donovan?
8. Colorado Rapids – Another week, another well-managed shutout for the men of DSG Park. Let’s talk about them more often going forward, can we? (By the way, in that linked piece, I should have mentioned 19-year-old center back Shane O’Neill (pictured above), filling in so admirably now for veteran Marvell Wynne.)
7. Seattle Sounders – We wondered aloud if this was one of the best weeks in Sounders’ history, with a huge 1-0 road win over Sporting KC and then a resounding 4-0 spanking of San Jose back at CenturyLink? It’s got to be Top Five, at least, right? Based on current form, Sigi Schmid’s team may deserve to be higher in our PST ranking, but we’ll hold off just a bit until, pending just a little larger sample for assessment (and a record of 3-3-3 that still falls under “just OK.”)
6. Montreal Impact – No time to celebrate Saturday’s swell comeback, a 3-2 win at home over Real Salt Lake. Marco Schallibaum’s bunch faces Vancouver at Stade Saputo on Wednesday in the first leg of the Amway Canadian Championship final. The stakes are more than northern bragging rights; there is a CONCACAF Champions League berth at stake, too.
5. Houston Dynamo – Will Bruin sure had a big week, getting a paw on every goal in a 4-0 road win, a fairly rare beast of the MLS jungle. Sporting Kansas City upended the Dynamo’s splashy home unbeaten streak, true enough. But the team from Texas appeared to get the last laugh in the Twitter scrum that followed.
4. Portland Timbers – Like the Cascadia rivals just up the road (Seattle, that is), Round 11 was quite a week for the men of Jeld-Wen Field. Caleb Porter’s possession specialists earned a quality draw in Dallas, and then followed up with a memorable afternoon against Chivas USA. Rodney Wallace as a converted left winger? Yep, that’s working out about as well as it possibly could.
3. New York Red Bulls – Thierry Henry’s spectacular overhead kick saved the day in a highly credible road win at Montreal. But they couldn’t quite replicate the feat in New England, although a 1-1 draw with the Revs (where Mike Petke’s men did rally quickly from a goal behind) surely made Week 11 a success for the Red Bulls.
2. Sporting Kansas City – Sporting Kansas City bounced back from a loss at home (to in-form Seattle) with a gritty, well-earned 1-0 win in Houston. That snapped the Dynamo’s league-record 36-game unbeaten streak across all competitions. Kei Kamara got back on the field for manager Peter Vermes, and that’s a swell addition by any measure.
1. FC Dallas – A 2-1 win over beleaguered D.C. United may not look like a praiseworthy result around FC Dallas Stadium. But Schellas Hyndman rolled the dice by leaving five starters on the bench, including his two best players. So getting all three points to stretch its lead in the West was, actually, a bit of win to savor.