WVHooligan - Soccer Blog

I think as we all know by now, the MLS table is very eastern-top heavy here. The fifth and sixth best team in the east would be the top team in the west right now. The tough part, if the playoff were to start today one eastern side would be totally out of luck due to the new playoff system.

No matter what, it looks like one eastern side is going to be on the short end on the stick this year.

This week’s rankings pretty much mirror the eastern standings. But there is one shake up at the top of my rankings. One club has a dominate defense, while the other has the best record in the league.

1. Chicago Fire (16 pts., up 1) – I bump the Fire to the top mostly out of total respect to their defense. I love what the Crew have been doing this year and to a degree its really a 1-A and a 1-B with these two clubs right now for me. Three goals against this season…just three. As someone who played in defense, I have to appreciate whatever it is that Denis Hamlet is doing with this club.

1. Columbus Crew (18 pts., same) – Slightly down but not really in my books. The Crew stay on top because of their never-say-die attitude right now. They are the only team in the league that has come from behind to win this season. The only one. I said before, its an edge that they have over everyone right now. Also, how about that Robbie Rogers?

3. New England Revolution (13 pts., up 2) – Think the Revs liked getting Steve Raltson and Taylor Twellman back in the line-up? All it took was a few minutes for Twellman to get back into the swing of things. A good time for that to happen too. I think this club will now be able to make a serious run at the top two clubs here.

4. Toronto FC (10 pts., same) – A week off, so no need to move them based on what else happened around them. Think John Carver was able to work on that offense in the week off? We should hope so.

5. New York Red Bulls (11 pts., up 3) – I have problems with ranking this club this high but I felt like it was  justifiable due to their road win against LA. They were able to take down the best offense in the league and for once I actually liked what I saw out of their defense. But at the same time I really felt like it was a off night for David Beckham and Landon Donovan. I don’t look for this ranking to stay too high much longer though.

6. Kansas City Wizards (10 pts., same) – Week off and not moving either. I think one more week and we will really know if this club is ready to be near the top of the table or near the bottom. Its not just the offense that needed work in the week off but getting the young players to realize that they needed to step up was big on Curt Onalfo’s to-do list.

7. FC Dallas (9 pts., down 4) – Two defensive mistakes cost Dallas a road win against RSL. The offense looked decent but had trouble cracking the back of the net. Some may blame the turf at Ricce-Eccles, and others will say that RSL’s defense actually played well. Whatever take you have on it is your own. I think it was a bit of both. Still, the two mistakes on defense were the reason for this loss. If they can get over that before this weekend’s home clash with the Galaxy than they will be fine.

8. Colorado Rapids (9 pts., down 1) – An unlucky road loss to Houston. Though I really think the Rapids were really never into this game. They had brief moments but that was about it.

9. Real Salt Lake (8 pts., up 3) – A nice home win for RSL moves them one point behind of the leaders in the west. Kyle Beckerman is enjoying an all-star caliber season early on, if not a MVP-type of season, and I keep wondering what Colorado was thinking when it traded him last year. As he goes, so does this team.

10. Houston Dynamo (7 pts., up 3) – Did this club finally wake up this season? I think finding that element of luck was a big reason in the win. But more importantly getting Dwayne De Rosario and Brian Ching on the board for the season was huge for this club. Now let’s see if they can continue here with this momentum.

11. LA Galaxy (8 pts., down 2) – As mentioned above, Beckham and Donovan had an off night. That doesn’t mean good things for this club either. When they play well, so does this club. When they don’t, this club looks pitiful on offense and the defense is still shaky beyond belief.

12. DC United (6 pts., down 2) – Time for a remodel here I think. They look terrible on the road and haven’t looked all that great at home so far this year. Furthermore, they’ve gotten five losses on the year. Last year they didn’t lose their fifth game until July. Things aren’t clicking here and it’s leaving me to wonder what really is going on from top to bottom with this club.

13. Chivas USA (5 pts., down 2) – Speaking of a club not clicking, Chivas is just that. The defense needs plenty of work here and the offense hasn’t found a way to get on the board in a consistent manner. Maybe a visit from DC this weekend will help them out. What sucks even more was the attendance on Sunday. Mother’s Day or not this club needs more of an identity.

14. San Jose Earthquakes (4 pts., same) – The two goal effort was nice but not nice enough. The wholes in defense gave up the three goals in a span of 10 minutes to Columbus. We praised this club for the kind of defense that Frank Yallop put together here but after watching them against Columbus I realized things weren’t as good as advertised.

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