{"id":11580,"date":"2012-05-02T16:40:50","date_gmt":"2012-05-02T20:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=11580"},"modified":"2012-05-03T20:55:51","modified_gmt":"2012-05-04T00:55:51","slug":"mls-rankings-week-8-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=11580","title":{"rendered":"MLS Rankings: Week 8"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every week the New England Soccer Today crew will look beyond the standings to rank each of the 19 Major League Soccer (MLS) teams. This week Sean Donahue and Ryan Lanigan contributed rankings. Comments are followed by the ranker\u2019s name and the rank they gave that team.<\/em><\/p>\n

1. SPORTING KANSAS CITY<\/strong> (7-1-0, 21 points)
\nSome rest should have done KC well after suffering their first loss before the break. (Sean \u2013 1) \u2026 Could there be an upset coming with Montreal coming to town? No, probably not. (Ryan \u2013 1)<\/p>\n

2. SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES<\/strong> (6-1-1, 19 points)
\nExpected win over Philly, but 3 points on the road is still impressive. (Sean \u2013 2) \u2026 Lenhart quickly becoming a bad guy to the opponents. (Ryan \u2013 2)<\/p>\n

T3. REAL SALT LAKE<\/strong> (6-3-1, 19 points)
\nRSL is back to winning, albeit with more difficulty than expected against Toronto, and should be able to continue it against a Revolution squad that has had no success in Utah in recent years. (Sean \u2013 4) \u2026 RSL has to be excited to have a tired Revolution squad coming to town on Saturday. (Ryan \u2013 3)<\/p>\n

T3. <\/strong>(+1) SEATTLE SOUNDERS<\/strong> (4-1-1, 13 points)
\nGrabbed a victory over Chicago and look set to make a move up the rankings in the West. (Sean \u2013 3) \u2026 Solid win over Chicago but now have to turn around quick to play the Galaxy midweek. (Ryan \u2013 4)<\/p>\n

5. DC UNITED<\/strong> (4-2-3, 15 points)
\nD.C. has truly erased their slow start and have now established themselves as the second best team in the East. (Sean \u2013 5) \u2026 A really big win for DC United over Houston. Both their offense and defense will have to be on point in the game against the red-hot Earthquakes. (Ryan \u2013 5)<\/p>\n

6.<\/strong> (-1) HOUSTON DYNAMO<\/strong> (2-2-2, 8 points)
\nTough loss in DC, but Houston is staying in good shape for when they finally return home. (Sean \u2013 6) \u2026 A tough loss to DC United proves they don\u2019t have a strangle hold on the East. Despite the loss, the news of the week will be focused on their new stadium. (Ryan \u2013 6)<\/p>\n

7. VANCOUVER WHITECAPS<\/strong> (4-2-2, 14 points)
\nBack-to-back wins and a road victory in Columbus shows the Whitecaps impressive early season from shouldn\u2019t be ignored just yet. (Sean \u2013 7) \u2026They are finding ways to win games and that\u2019s important. Now, rookie Darren Mattocks is back training with the team after six weeks off. (Ryan \u2013 7)<\/p>\n

8. NEW YORK RED BULLS<\/strong> (4-3-1, 13 points)
\nWhen is a win really a loss? When you lose your best player for a significant length of time. Red Bulls will truly be tested without Henry in the line-up. (Sean \u2013 8 ) \u2026 They might have won the game but the loss of Thierry Henry will really be telling of this teams will and skill. (Ryan \u2013 8 )<\/p>\n

9.<\/strong> (+2) FC DALLAS<\/strong> (3-3-3, 12 points)
\nBusy streak and Dallas grabs draws against two of the West\u2019s best squads. (Sean \u2013 9) \u2026 \u00a0Really solid week for this squad, taking on two talent teams and coming away with a point in both of them. (Ryan \u2013 9)<\/p>\n

10.<\/strong> (+2) COLORADO RAPIDS<\/strong> (4-4-0, 12 points)
\nIt might have been Chivas, but getting a good offensive outburst and a solid defensive effort is the key. (Ryan -10) \u2026 Put an end to their three game losing streak by thrashing Chivas USA. (Sean \u2013 11)<\/p>\n

11.<\/strong> (-2) LOS ANGELES GALAXY<\/strong> (3-3-1, 10 points)
\nAfter winning town in a row, a home draw against Dallas was a bit disappointing, but don\u2019t expect Keane to miss many PKs. (Sean \u2013 10) \u2026 Robbie Keane sure wishes he did better on his attempt but at least it didn\u2019t cost them all of the points. (Ryan \u2013 12)<\/p>\n

12.<\/strong> (-3) CHICAGO FIRE<\/strong> (2-2-2, 8 points)
\nSure, it was Seattle, but if the Fire are to contend in the East this year, they\u2019ve gotta get points at home. (Sean \u2013 12) \u2026 An own goal is never a good feeling. \u00a0(Ryan \u2013 11)<\/p>\n

13.<\/strong> (+1) COLUMBUS CREW<\/strong> (2-4-1, 7 points)
\nAfter a decent start to the season the Crew is quickly falling down the table. (Sean \u2013 13) \u2026 A rough call ended up really being the difference, which is never what you want to happen. (Ryan \u2013 14)<\/p>\n

14.<\/strong>\u00a0(+2)\u00a0PHILADELPHIA UNION<\/strong>\u00a0(2-4-1, 7 points)
\nTwo game winning streak comes to an end against one of the league\u2019s best. (Sean \u2013 15) \u2026 Not the result they were looking for but they played somewhat better than in previous games. (Ryan \u2013 13)<\/p>\n

15.<\/strong> (-2) NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION<\/strong>\u00a0 (2-5-0, 6 points)
\nWhen an already injury depleted Red Bulls squad losses it\u2019s best player early in the first half, that\u2019s a game you should win. The Revs didn\u2019t take advantage. (Sean \u2013 14) \u2026 Things aren\u2019t going really well for the Revs, again being shutout in a game they could have won. (Ryan \u2013 17)<\/p>\n

T16.<\/strong> (+1) CHIVAS USA<\/strong> (3-5-0, 9 points)
\nIf Chivas USA\u2019s road form deserts them, what do they have left? (Sean \u2013 17) \u2026 A rough loss but they have a chance to get a big win over Chicago. (Ryan \u2013 15)<\/p>\n

T16.<\/strong> (+2) MONTREAL IMPACT<\/strong> (2-5-2, 8 points)
\nBig win over the struggling Timbers. Is Montreal starting to turn the corner? (Sean \u2013 16) \u2026 A great win for Montreal over Portland, a win people never saw coming at the beginning of the season. (Ryan \u2013 16)<\/p>\n

18.<\/strong> (-3) PORTLAND TIMBERS<\/strong> (2-5-1, 7 points)
\nJust when you thought the Timbers might start to turn things around\u2026 they lose to Montreal. (Sean \u2013 18) \u2026 Portland should be thankful of the dreadful start Toronto is having because this season is going south fast. (Ryan \u2013 18)<\/p>\n

19. TORONTO FC<\/strong> (0-7-0, 0 points)
\nThey don\u2019t look awful, they just seem to have no clue how to win. (Sean \u2013 19) \u2026 Seeing how poorly some of the other teams have played should really inspire them to get a win. (Ryan \u2013 19)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KC retains the thrown as the bottom half shuffles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10871,"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\/2012\/04\/sportingkclogo.jpg?fit=490%2C240&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11580"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11580"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11583,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11580\/revisions\/11583"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}