As always: The Power Rankings are voted on by, give or take, 15 people associated with MLSsoccer.com. The author does not decide the rankings, but he does get a little rush out of moving your team in particular down a few spots when he can.
In a matchup between the league’s top teams, San Jose got on the board almost immediately thanks to Preston Judd’s eighth goal of the year. They were second-best the rest of the way, though they still took a point and stayed on top of the Supporters’ Shield standings.
It took a while, but Sebastian Berhalter eventually found the breakthrough goal that powered Vancouver to a 1-1 draw with San Jose (which could easily have turned into a comeback win). Per FotMob, Vancouver had a 2.23 to 0.65 expected goals advantage after the opening goal.
The underlying numbers still tilt heavily toward Vancouver in their battle with San Jose for the league’s best team.
Despite multiple key injuries, Nashville put up a valiant effort against Tigres in the Concacaf Champions Cup semifinals. But they came up short, 2-0 on aggregate, in their quest for a CCC final berth.
They followed that up with an (oddly?) impressive comeback draw with D.C. United over the weekend. Nashville went down 2-0 before scrapping back late via a Warren Madrigal brace.
Outside of the results, Nashville received some rough injury news. Midfielder Patrick Yazbek picked up a quad injury in warm-ups before the Tigres match. He’ll be out for a while. Nashville were already dealing with injuries to DP striker Sam Surridge and midfielder Eddi Tagseth.
Back-to-back 1-1 draws against Sporting KC (15th place in the West) and San Diego (13th place in the West) aren’t what you’d expect from this side. It’s hard to worry about Seattle too much, though. They’ve still racked up 21 points over 10 games. That’s the fourth-best points-per-game mark (2.1) in the league.
All that is largely thanks to a league-best defense that’s only allowed six goals. But it’s also fair to be a little concerned about an attack that’s only scored 14 goals. Who will they turn to when they need a match-winning moment?
The underlying numbers still aren’t great, and their schedule hasn’t been the toughest, but when you have Matt Turner and Carles Gil as match-winners, you can find ways to stuff some nerds into lockers.
With a 2-1 win over the Union, the Revs extended their unbeaten streak to seven games and stayed in second place in the East. They’re off to the club’s best-ever start at home, too.
We’ll see if a regression to the mean comes for them. In the meantime, let’s sit back and appreciate that winning without great underlying numbers means you get moments like this:
Maybe they just needed a vacation?
After last week’s rough loss against Orlando City, Inter Miami regrouped for their trip to Toronto and delivered a 4-2 win where Lionel Messi became the league’s fastest player to 100 goal contributions. They were up 4-0 before Toronto snagged a couple of late goals.
They’ll stay on the road for a midweek matchup with Cincy, but will have to come home eventually. If they can’t earn their first home win against either Portland on Sunday or Philly the week after, Nu Stadium may really be cursed.
FC Dallas only held 32.2% possession against RSL, but they still created the best chances. They looked very comfortable letting RSL stay on the ball and waiting for opportunities to hit in transition at speed.
The result? A huge 3-1 win that featured Santiago Moreno’s first goal since arriving in early April, and an epic insurance goal celebration from Sam Sarver.
If Moreno gets going and Petar Musa continues to be a menace up top, this team will keep doing damage.
D.C. looked primed to win at Nashville after taking a 2-0 lead.
But Silvan Hefti got a red card, they allowed two goals after the 75th minute and they had to settle for a 2-2 draw.
Despite that setback, this is all going much better than anyone expected. And club-record signing Louis Munteanu is starting to find his footing. After a handful of substitute appearances, he’s scored four goals in his first three MLS starts.
Michael Bradley seemed to take a less aggressive approach against Chicago, and it paid off in a 3-1 road win. Robert Voloder and Tim Parker started in a more traditional center-back pairing, and the Red Bulls were a little more measured.
They came into the match with 27 goals allowed on the year and a very relevant five-match winless streak. Now, they may have found some answers in a big win.
We’ll find out soon enough. RBNY welcome Columbus midweek before hosting a Hudson River Derby meeting with NYCFC on Saturday.
