Time for another edition of the ever-popular USA10Kit power rankings. If you’re just joining us, our extra fun gimmick is that we rank 10 teams because that’s the number that’s in the name of the blog.
We have a new leader this week, though it shouldn’t come as too much of a shock if you’ve been watching closely.
1- Seattle Sounders – Five straight wins mean the Sounders are our new leaders. Fredy Montero seems to be fully back, they’ve only allowed three goals all season and even an injury to regular goalkeeper Michael Gspurning can’t seem to slow the club.
2- San Jose Earthquakes – The Quakes suffered their first loss in weeks on Saturday, but Wondolowski and crew stay in the number two slot. Why? They’ve earned it with their consistent play and really should’ve pulled out a draw before some stoppage time heroics did them in on the road.
3- Sporting Kansas City – It’s not panic time yet for Sporting Kansas City, but a loss to the expansion Montreal Impact is certainly enough to knock them from their perch.
4- Vancouver Whitecaps – The Whitecaps picked up a big win over the weekend and have a golden opportunity to vault themselves to the top of the heap with a victory against New England this weekend and a defeat of current leaders Seattle next weekend.
5- Real Salt Lake – What to make of Real Salt Lake? Who knows? They’ve been trudging along lately, barely beating two bottom feeders and drawing a Chicago Fire side who they probably should’ve beat. Still, they’ve managed to stay near the top of the conference.
6-New York Red Bulls – No Henry, no problem for the Red Bulls who were able to put together a strong enough attack to vex the LA Galaxy defense. It’s their third win in a row, and, with Kansas City’s struggles, they’re in striking distance of the Eastern Conference lead.
7- DC United – Nothing cures a loss like a league match with Toronto FC. Coach Ben Olsen was forced to play a strange lineup in the Great White North because of injuries to key players, but the patchwork back line had no problems and the midfield, which is looking increasingly deep, had a strong showing as usual. Beat some better teams and they’ll be on the way up again.
8- Colorado Rapids– The Rapids had a little help from both their opposition and the official as they drubbed a FC Dallas squad that was reduced to nine men for the majority of the 2-0 result. Their offense was firing on all cylinders and playing in a way that’s sure to put a smile on Oscar Pareja’s face if it continues. The defense? It wasn’t exactly tested.
9-LA Galaxy – One step forward, two steps back. Maybe it’s just stubbornness on my part, but I keep expecting the Galaxy to go on a huge winning streak and be the team they were projected to be. But they just don’t seem to be able to stop other teams from scoring more goals than them, and that’s kind of a major problem.
10- Chicago Fire– A win and a draw is good enough to qualify as a hot streak for the Fire who could make some moves in the Eastern Conference.
by Jon Arnold