{"id":5432,"date":"2011-07-15T18:25:32","date_gmt":"2011-07-15T22:25:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=5432"},"modified":"2011-07-15T18:31:39","modified_gmt":"2011-07-15T22:31:39","slug":"mls-rankings-week-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=5432","title":{"rendered":"MLS Rankings: Week 17"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every week 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> (+1) Los Angeles Galaxy <\/strong>(10-2-9, 39 points)
\nTake a 2-1 win over Chicago and extend unbeaten streak to 12. OK, so maybe it’s time to give credit where credit is due. My vote for the top spot in the rankings. (Brian – 1) \u2026 Hardly dominating, but the Galaxy keep finding ways to win and stay atop the table. (Sean \u2013 1)<\/p>\n

T2.<\/strong> (-1) FC Dallas<\/strong> (10-5-4, 34 points)
\nLoss to Salt Lake cools FCD after a three-game winning streak. But, a favorable matchup against D.C. should put Dallas back in the driver’s seat. (Brian \u2013 2) \u2026 Hit a bump versus Salt Lake and could be overtaken by Real if they don\u2019t have a quick recovery this weekend. (Sean \u2013 3)<\/p>\n

T2.<\/strong> (+1) Seattle Sounders<\/strong> (9-4-8, 35 points)
\nFredy Montero scores a brace in Seattle’s 3-2 comeback victory and climb their way into second place in the west. (Brian \u2013 3) \u2026 Impressive win over Portland and Seattle haven\u2019t lost since May in any competition. (Sean \u2013 2)<\/p>\n

4. Real Salt Lake<\/strong> (8-3-6, 30 points)
\nImpressive 2-0 win over Dallas may signal that Salt Lake’s ready to resume its early season run. Solid performance all around against a quality club like Dallas. (Brian \u2013 4) \u2026 Over a month since their last loss in league play and Salt Lake seem to be finally returning to form. (Sean \u2013 4)<\/p>\n

5.<\/strong> (+2) Philadelphia Union<\/strong> (7-4-7, 28 points)
\n0-0 draw to San Jose is another wasted opportunity gone by as Philly concedes a share of the top spot in the east. (Brian \u2013 6) Back-to-back road draws for the Union as they set the pace at the top of the Eastern Conference. (Sean \u2013 5)<\/p>\n

6.<\/strong> (-1) Sporting Kansas City<\/strong> (5-6-7, 22 points)
\nMake it undefeated in their last 10 with draws to Colorado and Chivas USA. Draws are nice, but they can’t keep settling for single points. (Brian \u2013 5) \u2026 Suddenly Kansas City doesn\u2019t seem so formidable at home. (Sean \u2013 7)<\/p>\n

7.<\/strong> (+1) Columbus Crew<\/strong> (7-5-6, 27 points)
\nWin over Vancouver puts the Crew only a single point back of the Union and Red Bulls for first place. (Brian \u2013 7) \u2026 Road win at Vancouver has the Crew back on their way towards the top of the Eastern Conference standings. (Sean \u2013 6)<\/p>\n

8.<\/strong> (-2) New York Red Bulls<\/strong> (6-4-10, 28 points)
\nScore an epic 5-0 win over Toronto, then follow it up with a 1-0 fail whale to D.C. Any takers for first place in the east? Anybody? (Brian \u2013 8 ) \u2026 Hard to give them too much credit for beating up on an awful Toronto side, especially when followed with a home loss to D.C. Solving their goalkeeper problems with Frank Rost should help a bit. (Sean \u2013 8 )<\/p>\n

9.<\/strong> (+1) D.C. United<\/strong> (5-5-7, 22 points)
\nUpset the Red Bulls with a dagger from former Red Bull Dwayne DeRosario. Don’t look now, but they’re on a four-game unbeaten streak. (Brian \u2013 9) \u2026 Huge road win at New York shows D.C. can compete with anyone in the weak East. (Sean \u2013 9)<\/p>\n

T10.<\/strong> (+1) Colorado Rapids<\/strong> (6-5-9, 27 points)
\nGet their first victory in nearly a month against Vancouver thanks to a suddenly-hot Conor Casey. If they could only string a few more of these victories together\u2026 (Brian \u2013 12) \u2026 Rapids pick up a much needed victory to stop their slide, but will it lead to more? (Sean 10)<\/p>\n

T10.<\/strong> (+2) Houston Dynamo<\/strong> (5-6-8, 23 points)
\nHand Toronto its second shutout of the week with a 2-0 win on Saturday. OK, so maybe it was easy pickings, but every win matters in the mediocre Eastern Conference. (Brian – 11) \u2026 Won\u2019t get any credit from me for a home win over Toronto. (Sean \u2013 11)<\/p>\n

T10.<\/strong> (-2) San Jose Earthquakes<\/strong> (5-6-7, 22 points)
\nShut out in back to back matches, the Quakes need to figure out a way to get more production up top if they want to hang with the big boys in the west. (Brian \u2013 10) \u2026 Need to do better at home. The slide continues for the \u2018Quakes. (Sean \u2013 12)<\/p>\n

13. Chivas USA<\/strong> (5-7-7, 22 points)
\nOffense awakens against San Jose in 2-0 win; yet, they’re attacking problems are far from over. Perhaps the transfer window will bring an attacking player? (Brian \u2013 13) \u2026 Three games unbeaten deserves some credit from the struggling Los Angeles-based club.<\/p>\n

14.<\/strong> (-1) Chicago Fire<\/strong> (2-5-12, 18 points)
\nFall to the Galaxy, but have a favorable matchup against Portland this week. Other than that, it looks like it\u2019s going to be a long summer in Chi-town. (Brian \u2013 14) \u2026 Again, it\u2019s the struggles of the teams below them that keep Chicago off the bottom of the rankings. (Sean \u2013 14)<\/p>\n

15. Portland Timbers<\/strong> (5-9-3, 18 points)
\nCome close to beating rival Seattle, but ends in another disappointing loss.\u00a0 On the plus side, Darlington Nagbe was profiled on SportCenter for his golazo, so it\u2019s not all bad in Rose City. (Brian -15)<\/p>\n

T16. New England Revolution<\/strong> (3-8-7, 16 points)
\nIdle this week, and will need the rest with first-place Philly in town. That being said, there\u2019s no question the Revs will need to use the transfer window to get some attacking players before it\u2019s too late. (Brian \u2013 17) \u2026 A week off brings more bad news as the team releases veteran left back Didier Domi (Sean \u2013 16)<\/p>\n

T16. Vancouver Whitecaps<\/strong> (2-10-8, 14 points)
\nLosses to Columbus and Colorado and the Whitecaps fall to the basement, with little hope of climbing out before the season’s over. (Brian \u2013 16) \u2026 Fourth loss in a row for Vancouver and things aren\u2019t looking good north of the border. (Sean \u2013 17)<\/p>\n

18. Toronto FC<\/strong> (3-9-9, 18 points)
\nLose by a combined score of 7-0 this week. Sorry guys, that negative-19 goal differential just ain’t cutting it. (Brian \u2013 18) \u2026 Those new signings can\u2019t come soon enough\u2026 (Sean \u2013 18)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles returns to the top of our rankings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"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&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5432"}],"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\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5432"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5434,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5432\/revisions\/5434"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}