{"id":4828,"date":"2011-06-03T01:31:22","date_gmt":"2011-06-03T05:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=4828"},"modified":"2011-06-03T01:32:57","modified_gmt":"2011-06-03T05:32:57","slug":"mls-rankings-week-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=4828","title":{"rendered":"MLS Rankings: Week 11"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every week (Well, that was the plan. Sorry for the three week absence), the New England Soccer Today crew will look beyond the standings to rank each of the 18 Major League Soccer (MLS) teams. This week Brian O\u2019Connell and Sean Donahue contributed rankings. Comments are followed by the ranker\u2019s name and the rank they gave that team.<\/em><\/p>\n

1 <\/strong>\u2013 Los Angeles Galaxy <\/strong>(8-2-5, 29 points) – Unbeaten in 10 of their last 11. Could this be the year the Galaxy finally win a championship with David Beckham on board? (Brian \u2013 1) \u2026 Winners of four in a row and the Galaxy are looking like the class of the league. (Sean \u2013 1)<\/p>\n

2<\/strong> \u2013 FC Dallas<\/strong> (6-3-4, 22 points) – Riding an eight game unbeaten streak thanks to Brek Shea and Martin Chavez, not to mention the ageless Kevin Hartman. The Mavs aren’t the only team putting it down for the Big D. (Brian \u2013 2) \u2026 People were ready to write Dallas off after a slow start, but they\u2019re now proving last year\u2019s championship appearance was certainly no fluke. (Sean \u2013 2)<\/p>\n

3<\/strong> \u2013 Seattle Sounders<\/strong> (5-4-5, 20 points) – A call to arms by Sigi Schmid awakened the Sounders in time to become the first MLS team to claim victory at the fortress known at Rio Tinto Stadium in over two years. Imagine if they had a healthy Steve Zakuani? (Brian \u2013 3) \u2026 Yet another team that was written off after a slow start, Seattle is now showing why they were the surprise team of 2010. (Sean \u2013 3)<\/p>\n

4 <\/strong>\u2013 Philadelphia Union<\/strong> (6-3-2, 20 points) – After getting by with minimal goalscoring, the Union exploded for six against Toronto. Maybe they do have the firepower to match wits with New York. (Brian \u2013 4) \u2026 If the Union can show even a fraction of the offensive strength they showed at Toronto and maintain their stalwart defense, a trip to the MLS Cup might be in the team\u2019s future. (Sean \u2013 4)<\/p>\n

5<\/strong> \u2013 Colorado Rapids<\/strong> (4-3-6, 18 points) – Eeeking by with another tie to road weary K.C. The Rapids need to start finding the win column before they start losing more ground in the west. (Brian \u2013 5) \u2026 The Rapids seem to have gotten down the tie on the road part of the formula for success, now they just need to make DSGP the fortress it should be. (Sean -6)<\/p>\n

T6<\/strong> \u2013 New York Red Bulls<\/strong> (4-2-6, 18 points) – Without Rafa Marquez and Thierry Henry, the Red Bulls draw even with the Whitecaps in Vancouver. But, really? Only one goal against Vancouver? (Brian \u2013 6) \u2026 After looking like a contender in April, a winless May shows the Red Bulls still have a lot of work to do. (Sean \u2013 7)<\/p>\n

T6 <\/strong>\u2013 Real Salt Lake<\/strong> (5-2-2, 17 points) – How the mighty have fallen. They have the talent and depth to do better, but their first loss in 30 games at the Rio may signal that things are starting to spiral out of control. (Brian \u2013 8 ) \u2026 Yes, Salt Lake is slumping, but they can afford to thanks to their fantastic start to the season. RSL still has the second most points per game in MLS, right behind the Galaxy.\u00a0 The team has a lot to recover from after the CCL disappointment and losing Javier Morales to injury and their early success has bought them time. (Sean \u2013 5)<\/p>\n

8<\/strong> \u2013 Portland Timbers<\/strong> (5-4-2, 17 points) – Dropped their first home loss to D.C., but that shouldn’t diminish the fact that the Timbers are quickly becoming a contender. (Brian \u2013 7) \u2026 The invincibility at home is gone and Portland is still winless on the road. Lots of Questions remain. (Sean \u2013 9)<\/p>\n

9 <\/strong>\u2013 D.C. United<\/strong> (4-4-3, 15 points) – Claim the first road victory at JELD-WEN against the Timbers and starting to show some much-needed consistency. Can they keep it going? (Brian \u2013 9) \u2026 Four games unbeaten and D.C. is finally displaying some of the promise they showed in their season opener. (Sean \u2013 8 )<\/p>\n

10 <\/strong>\u2013 Chivas USA<\/strong> (3-4-5, 14 points) – Impressive in 3-3 goalfest against Columbus. Looks like the Goats have turned a corner after a tough start to the season. (Brian \u2013 10) \u2026 Once again inconsistency seems to be the theme for Chivas, alternately showing promise and looking like a disaster. Is it 2010 all over again? (Sean – 11)<\/p>\n

11<\/strong> \u2013 San Jose Earthquakes<\/strong> (3-4-4, 13 points) – Seem to finally be finding some offensive rhythm and it showed against Chi-town in the 2-2 draw last Saturday. (Brian \u2013 12) \u2026 2-0-2 in their last four matches and the Quakes are demonstrating just how deep the West is again. (Sean \u2013 10)<\/p>\n

12 <\/strong>\u2013 Houston Dynamo<\/strong> (3-4-6, 15 points) – Although they’re tied for third in the East, the Dynamo need to start winning some games if they’re going to be a factor this summer. (Brian \u2013 11) \u2026 An unbeaten April is followed by a winless May. I tend to think May is more indicative of the real Dynamo. (Sean – 13)<\/p>\n

13 <\/strong>– Columbus Crew<\/strong> (3-3-5, 13 points) – A trio of goals against the Goats was encouraging, while giving three up against the Goats was discouraging. (Brian \u2013 13) \u2026 A fantastic April is followed by an equally unimpressive May, but the young Crew have enough upside to expect a brighter future. (Sean -12)<\/p>\n

T14<\/strong> \u2013 Toronto FC <\/strong>(2-5-6, 12 points) \u2013 Scorched for six goals against a typically-score starved Philly side. Looks like more of the same in Toronto. (Brian \u2013 14) \u2026 They\u2019d been looking a bit better lately, but Philadelphia showed just why TFC was at or near the bottom of most of our early rankings. (Sean \u2013 15)<\/p>\n

T14 <\/strong>\u2013 New England Revolution<\/strong> (3-5-4, 13 points) – Get blanked for the fifth time in their last eight games. Offense is currently on life support. (Brian \u2013 15) \u2026 There is little wrong with the defense, but some serious help is needed offensively and the news on Perovic is hardly what the Revs needed. (Sean -14)<\/p>\n

T16<\/strong> – Vancouver Whitecaps <\/strong>(1-5-7, 10 points) – Tough to see Teitur Thordarson get the ax less than halfway through his first year in top flight football. But, a series of draws won’t cut it in MLS. (Brian – 16) \u2026 Vancouver has some nice pieces, but is struggling to put it all together. Will a midseason coaching change make a difference? (Sean \u2013 17)<\/p>\n

T16 –\u00a0Chicago Fire<\/strong> (1-4-6, 9 points) – Carlos de los Cabos’ firing was proof positive that this club was sinking fast. Can Frank Klopas save the ship before it’s too late? (Brian \u2013 17) \u2026 The Fire are clearly missing their departed veterans. Can anyone step up to turn things around? (Sean \u2013 16)<\/p>\n

18<\/strong> – Sporting Kansas City<\/strong> (1-6-2, 5 points) – A draw against the defending champs represents a small silver lining on an extremely trying season so far. How many more days until June 9th? (Brian \u2013 18) \u2026 If the Open Cup is any indication, getting some home games will do Sporting a world of good. (Sean \u2013 18)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Galaxy are atop our latest rankings, while the Revs fall to 14. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/galaxylogofeature.jpg?fit=490%2C225","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4828"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4828"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4832,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4828\/revisions\/4832"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}