Power Rankings, 1-30 | Matchday 2
Miami's better than last year, Philly sure seems for real and Bruce has got San Jose climbing
Matchday 2 gave us a good chunk of stuff to talk about, and as usual I did my level best to cover most of it in my big Sunday night column:
I was ready, by the way, to cook with a “Concacaf Champions League teams are STRUGGLING in regular-season play!” take on Saturday night, but am glad I held off on writing it until after the ‘Caps and Inter Miami games, respectively. That was some convincing stuff.
Ok, onto my Power Rankings vote for this week. You can find last week’s HERE.
Inter Miami: This team is deeper and better – more compact defensively, and thus harder to play through – this year1. And Telasco Segovia is LEGIT.
Columbus Crew: Reports of their death were greatly exaggerated. They do need to add attacking reinforcements soon, though.
LAFC: Reports of their death were greatly exaggerated. This team’s tough and knows how to grind out results.
Seattle Sounders: I think it’d be wrong to over-index their loss in Utah, where they always lose. But their passivity late – they refused to attack the near post – was pretty striking.
Philadelphia Union: Holy shit. Granted, it was a new/short-handed Orlando defense on Matchday 1, and a tired/rotated Cincy squad on Matchday 2, but holy shit:
FC Cincinnati: Long-term I’m not worried, but you don’t get your brains beat in like that and not drop. They need a Pavel Bucha understudy bad, by the way.
Vancouver Whitecaps: Couldn’t have asked for a better start to the season, save for the Sam Adekugbe injury. Hope that one’s not long-term.
RBNY: Took care of business against a foundering Nashville side. Look like a slightly better version of who they were last year, that could become a much better version if Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting starts finding his range.
Charlotte FC: Honestly didn’t play that well, but they’ve got a high-level match-winner now in Zaha.
Minnesota United: Dominant defensive performance. Was nice to see Robin Lod back in the XI, and was nice to see Joaquin Pereyra actually creating a little bit.
Atlanta United: Can anybody in central midfield win the ball? What’s Jeff Larentowicz doing these days?
Colorado Rapids: Seemed juuuuuust about gassed, which isn’t surprising given their early schedule and all the injuries. A full week of rest should do them well.
San Jose Earthquakes: They’ve benefitted a ton from the CCL schedule – Bruce Arena said as much. But this team looks drastically improved2 over last year.
San Diego FC: Defensively they’ve been great. Attack has been… less so, and is now officially a worry with Chucky in dry dock for a bit. Would love to see them make a big move for a U22 attacker in the next couple of weeks.
Orlando City: Let’s give Pedro Gallese a little bit more time before we declare him fully cooked. In the meantime we can just appreciate the attack, which has been electric through two games.3
FC Dallas: Early returns on the Lucho move have been great – instant chemistry with Petar Musa, and the overall body language has been positive. He’s raised the ceiling, though the defensive floor for this team is still pretty low.
Austin FC: The defensive improvement looks real. The issue is, as expected, a lack of creativity out of central midfield4.
St. Louis City: Please attack.
NYCFC: A solid defensive performance undone by a a late lapse. I can live with that, but why was Mounsef Bakrar starting over Agustin Ojeda at left wing? I’m suddenly worried about the process here.
LA Galaxy: Ok yeah, too much year-over-year change, too many injuries, and too small a contribution5 from Marco Reus.
Chicago Fire: They’ve been a disaster defensively through two games. Part of that has been self-inflicted – they’ve tried playing through the press when they really shouldn’t have – but part of that was just… very bad defending.
Real Salt Lake: Got right, at least a little bit, with the win over Seattle. And it would be a fun story if Forster Ajago – two goals in two games! – turned into a legit MLS goalscorer.
D.C. United: Played with commitment and got a deserved6 late equalizer, but it feels like this kind of performances (energetic but not especially impressive) is about the ceiling for this group.
New England: The good news is that they seem to have hit on their center back signings. The bad news is that the attack is completely MIA through two games.
Montreal Impact: Couldn’t generate anything going forward against a not-great defensive side in Minnesota. Worrying.
Nashville SC: Two games, zero goals. And they didn’t generate anything to speak of until they entered the, um, Tactics Free Zone™ late against the Red Bulls.
Sporting KC: Up a man at home for 40 minutes vs. the Quakes and they never really came close to finding an equalizer. Two goals in four games.
Portland Timbers: Weren’t great, but were good enough defensively and got a bit of good fortune on the match-winner.
Houston Dynamo: Too many moving parts year-over-year, so they’re left with too many holes to fill. Need to get that Micael replacement in ASAP, and still need that DP No. 10.
Toronto FC: Haven’t been able to stop anything through two games:
As long as they keep Toto Aviles on the sideline, anyway.
In addition to the 3-5-2 giving enough defensive solidity to keep both Josef Martinez and Chicho Arango on the field, Daniel is back to something close to his 2023 best in net. Dude’s worth like half a goal a game when he’s playing like this.
I’ll have a MLSsoccer.com column coming on Wednesday on teams that need to make moves, and Orlando feature prominently. That open U22 slot they’ve got? Time for a high-upside young center back.
They have a decent amount of GAM, some cap room and two open U22 slots. So upgrades are entirely possible, and should happen before this window closes next month.
If you even want to call it that.
They deserved to equalize, but I’m not sure they deserved to equalize so spectacularly.
Montreal Impact lol
NGL, I thought the best part of Minnesota was that they were organized and compact in defense. I was a little surprised to see the comment that they aren't a good defense.