Power Rankings, 1-30 | Matchday 10

Things are impossibly good for Vancouver, and impossibly bad for Atlanta

This incredible artwork is from last week’s Power Rankings, courtesy of Armchair Analyst’s Ottoman – a sentient piece of living room furniture.

Onward the 2025 season rolls, and take a moment here to point out the obvious: the Concacaf Champions Cup is massively overshadowing what’s happening in the regular-season right now. Which is as it should be, right? Playing for a continental title is more dramatic than the weekly grind.

Anyway, here’s my Sunday column:

• Diego Luna levels up, Sebastian Berhalter is legit & more from Matchday 10

And now, here’s my vote for this week’s MLSsoccer.com Power Rankings:

1. Vancouver Whitecaps: I just couldn’t possibly be more impressed with this team. They were better than Miami midweek — they thoroughly deserved that 2-0 — and then fucking steamrolled a good Minnesota team in the second half, in Minnesota.¹

2. Columbus Crew: Still playing excellent ball, but need to put more of those chances away.

3. Inter Miami: A very bad, no-good week. Do they have a miracle in ‘em on Wednesday?²

4. Philadelphia Union: Back-to-back 3-0s… pretty emphatic.

5. FC Charlotte: Honestly thought the played pretty well. Starting to worry a little bit about Big Pat, though.

6. FC Cincinnati: You go out and get players like Kévin Denkey to go out and win you games like the one this weekend.

7. LAFC: Thought they played well! Though Hugo Lloris might be cooked.

8. Minnesota United: Loons fans have been… what’s the opposite of unhinged? Hinged, I guess? Anyway, Loons fans have been, uh, hinged all year long when I’ve hit every good result of theirs with the “yeah, but…” about their inability to do anything in possession, and this weekend showed why. So I just want you to give yourselves a round of applause for probably being the sanest, least victim-y fans in the league, I think?

9. Orlando City: Meanwhile, the only time I’ve ever gotten a death threat is from an Orlando City fan. That was a long time ago, though! Good, convincing win over a convincingly bad Atlanta team.³

10. Seattle Sounders: First half was really good; second half was pretty bad. Jordan Morris injury was a bummer.

11. Portland Timbers: If you let them counter they will crush you.

12. Nashville SC: It was one of those rare “anything that could go right, did” performances. But what I love about this Nashville team is that they do so many things right.

13. San Diego FC: Feels like they’ve been solved a little bit. Definitely not as compact as they were a month back.

14. Colorado Rapids: I don’t think the 4-4-2 is best for them long-term, but it’s stopped the bleeding in the short-term, which is a win.

15. FC Dallas: First really impressive moment from Eric Quill with that formation change and tactical shift on the hour mark. It won Dallas the game.

16. Austin FC: When you can’t score, the margin for error elsewhere is very thin.

17. New England Revolution: Caleb Porter deserves credit for the shift to the 3-5-2. Getting another center back in there has made the Revs tougher to beat in the box, where they were getting eviscerated earlier in the season.

18. Chicago Fire: A five-goal loss on top of a five-game winless skid means you six-spot drop in the power rankings. Just how it goes.

19. St. Louis City: A credible road point and finally some attacking punch. But some very, very worrying defensive signs.

20. RBNY: They’ve become completely nondescript. No press, limited youth development, their newfound emphasis on possession not really taking, their old, Euro DPs not anywhere near Best XI caliber. No real hook here.

21. NYCFC: They really hit it out of the park on Alonso Martinez, and on not much else.

22. Real Salt Lake: That was a hell of a statement from Diego Luna after he’d been unjustly sent off last week. Can’t wait to see him and Willy Agada together.

23. San Jose Earthquakes: It’s basically all silver linings at this point – young players playing fun soccer and creating tons of chances. I’m sure Bruce Arena would trade that for a few wins.

24. Sporting KC: Played their best game of the year. And I hope they continue to play – and develop – their young guys through mistakes instead of giving all the minutes to mid veterans.⁴

25. Houston Dynamo: Showing signs of life.⁵

26. Toronto FC: Not as bad as I’d feared they’d be heading into the season.

27. Atlanta United: Much, much worse than I’d ever imagined they’d be heading into the season.

28. LA Galaxy: And even worse than that.

29. D.C. United: Expecting some changes soon.

30. Montreal Impact: On track for the worst season in MLS history.

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Got on This is MLS again for a little post-CCC segment:

We didn’t get to it on the show, so I’ll put it here: I’m picking Vancouver to go through. I think they’ll be holding on for dear life at the end, but they’ve got enough juice to do it.

1. I don’t want the Seb Berhalter hype train (which he has fully earned) to overshadow the Pedro Vite hype train. Vite’s finally developed into the game-changing attacker his talent always said he could be.

2. If not, does somebody pay with their job? They’ve put A LOT into winning this tournament.

3. Eduard Atuesta comes back and those 0-0s turns into a 3-0. Not a coincidence.

4. Failing to do that is the trap Peter Vermes fell into over the final 5-6 years of his tenure. If you can’t (or won’t) develop young players, you’d better hit on every veteran signing. And wow did Sporting not do that.

5. Just gonna lay a marker here: Pay attention to Femi Awodesu and Brooklyn Raines.