Mar
24

WVH Power Rankings: Week One

By: Drew Epperley Chicago Fire, Chivas USA, Colorado Rapids, Columbus Crew, DC United, FC Dallas, Houston Dynamo, LA Galaxy, MLS, New England Revolution, New York Red Bulls, Power Rankings, Real Salt Lake, San Jose Earthquakes, Seattle Sounders FC, Sporting KC, Toronto FC

Week one is in the books but now it is time to figure out where we all really stand. I am trying to do a few things different this season, one being with the look of the Power Rankings. I had to spend a little more time than usual on it by finding all the logos and then cropping them down to size here, hopefully it will make things easier for me in the future.

Anyways, not much to explain about this week’s rankings. Its all based on how the clubs played over the weekend. I didn’t carry over the preseason rankings(*) here either as I wanted a fresh start to the year, plus the preseason rankings were more for a projection of the season as a whole.

As always feel free to post any comments below.

Team	Rank (Last Week*)	Record (W-L-T)	Comments
	1	0-0-1 1pt.	The champs are still the top dog. Guillermo Barros Schelotto still shows he is the toughest player to figure out on the pitch and the Crew are still the toughest team to beat.
	2	1-0-1 3 pts.	Not a whole lot seperating one and two for me here. The Fire showed that they are championship material in 2009.
	3	0-0-1 1pt.	The west will still run through Houston in 2009.
	4	1-0-0 3 pts.	Winning on the road wasn’t apart of the last two years in Toronto. The win in KC just showed how much better this club is going to be in 2009. Already loving the DeRo-Guevara combo.
	5	1-0-0 3 pts.	This may be a little high early on for the Revs but based on how their defense played this past weekend I think it is safe to say that the Revs will be in the thick of things if everyone stays healthy. Steve Nicol continues to find rookies that work.
	6	1-0-0 3 pts.	Love the crowd, love the jerseys, love the scarves. Just how long will the love fest continue? Well if Fredy Montero has anything to say about it, it should go on for a while (or until someone buys his contract this summer!)
	7	1-0-0 3 pts.	Not a bad start for the AmeriGoats. Paulo Nagamura’s big night made up for the blunder in front of the net that Zach Thornton gave Colorado. If this club gets fully healthy look out.
	8	0-0-0 0 pts.	No game this past week due to the unbalanced schedule. Their first game is against the new darlings of the league in Seattle. Shouldn’t take much to out-do what New York did against the Sounders.
	9	0-1-0 0 pts.	The Wizards may have had the best showing of any losing club this week. I even put their loss above the DC-LA draw. Give the credit to Davy Arnaud though for that.
	10	0-0-1 1 pt.	Landon Donovan can’t continue to bail this club out. But I must say he looks might comfortable back in a LA kit here. Repeating as scoring champion shouldn’t take much if he continues his pace.
	11	0-1-0 0 pts.	Their losing effort was mostly due to, you guessed it, their poor attack. New year and almost the same story. No one will take them serious until they start scoring consistently here.
	12	0-0-1 1 pt.	Some will rate their road draw better than this but honestly to give up two goals late like that doesn’t fly for me. It’s gonna be a long season in our nation’s capital.
	13	0-1-0 0 pts.	Offensively this club doesn’t look terrible. I still believe they need a true playmaker to control the pace of the game for them and to set up Conor Casey. Defensively this club seemed to take a step backward from last year.
	14	0-1-0 0 pts.	Not surprisingly did the Red Bulls start off this bad. Luckily for them they weren’t the worst club in week one. Still they weren’t very far off from being in last place too.
	15	0-1-0 0 pts.	New year, same old sloppy defense. Poor Kenny Cooper, can the guy get a “Get out of jail free” card this year and finally leave Dallas? I’d hate to see him go but I hate that he continues to play on a second rate club.

2009 Week 1, MLS Power Rankings Short URL

22 Comments

About Drew Epperley

Drew Epperley is the founder and editor of WVHooligan.com. Feel free to contact him at drew.epperley@gmail.com. Drew's Google Profile

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Ginge

Kenny Cooper is a nightmare catch-22 for FC Dallas, if you don't sell him and get value you will lose him on a free transfer…but if you transfer him, you really upset the portion of the remaining fan base that doesn't grasp why the team is between a rock and hard place when it comes to Coop.
brant parsons

Love the logos – might have to copy that idea. 
 
Nice to see the Crew still at the top – thought I was being too much a homer to keep them up there, especially after watching Chicago look so strong on the road to start the season. They really are 1 and 1a right now. Should be a great race for the East and Supporters Shield.
TCompton

I'm not sure how you can rank LA above DC. Sure, DC game up two goals late in the game, but LA was at home and they only got a draw. 
 
Also, when you look at two goals DC game up, you have to take the first goal they gave up with a grain of salt. LA was awarded a penalty kick for a handball in the box that (1) never occurred, and (2) happened while DC was playing down two players because of a freak accident. The penalty should never have been awarded and therefore, momentum may not have shifted so heavily in LA's favor at the end of the game. 
 
You're right about Donovan though. He was clearly the best player on the field.
http://gingesoccer.blogspot.com Ginge

Kenny Cooper is a nightmare catch-22 for FC Dallas, if you don’t sell him and get value you will lose him on a free transfer…but if you transfer him, you really upset the portion of the remaining fan base that doesn’t grasp why the team is between a rock and hard place when it comes to Coop.
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/sports_soccerblog/ brant parsons

Love the logos – might have to copy that idea.

Nice to see the Crew still at the top – thought I was being too much a homer to keep them up there, especially after watching Chicago look so strong on the road to start the season. They really are 1 and 1a right now. Should be a great race for the East and Supporters Shield.
TCompton

I’m not sure how you can rank LA above DC. Sure, DC game up two goals late in the game, but LA was at home and they only got a draw.

Also, when you look at two goals DC game up, you have to take the first goal they gave up with a grain of salt. LA was awarded a penalty kick for a handball in the box that (1) never occurred, and (2) happened while DC was playing down two players because of a freak accident. The penalty should never have been awarded and therefore, momentum may not have shifted so heavily in LA’s favor at the end of the game.

You’re right about Donovan though. He was clearly the best player on the field.
Tony Rosen

Chicago really didn't look that strong on the road, fyi. I went to the FC Dallas – Chicago game, and FC Dallas owned most of the second half – they just couldn't get the ball in the goal. And, that wasn't due to the defense. Many opportunities wasted from within the box. 
 
Though, I'd like to wait it out a few games to see how strong they really are.
WVHooligan

Fair point Tony…I was at the game as well and saw some things differently. But true we gotta wait with most clubs to see how good/bad they are here this year.
Tony Rosen

Chicago really didn’t look that strong on the road, fyi. I went to the FC Dallas – Chicago game, and FC Dallas owned most of the second half – they just couldn’t get the ball in the goal. And, that wasn’t due to the defense. Many opportunities wasted from within the box.

Though, I’d like to wait it out a few games to see how strong they really are.

http://www.wvhooligan.com WVHooligan

Fair point Tony…I was at the game as well and saw some things differently. But true we gotta wait with most clubs to see how good/bad they are here this year.

Kaiser

@Tcompton 
 
The penalty given to LA on the handball was a crap call, however, the DC penalty was also crap…Gomez was holding on to Kovalenko's jersey and then just fell down…it was a well disguised flop, but never should have been a penalty. 
 
Other than the beautiful strike by Pontius, LA was the better team throughout the whole game.
joel es latest socce

Chivas USA impressed considering many predicted that they would struggle this year. kljestan did not play extremely welll.
Kevin

Kaiser: 
 
LA was better for a combined 20 minutes- 10 at the beginning of the match, 10 at the end. If you watch the replay of LA's second goal, it was clearly offside by at LEAST 5 feet. So, if you want to take away Gomez's pk, by all means, go ahead. It's still 1-0 DCU. 
 
Absolute BS.
Kaiser

@Tcompton

The penalty given to LA on the handball was a crap call, however, the DC penalty was also crap…Gomez was holding on to Kovalenko’s jersey and then just fell down…it was a well disguised flop, but never should have been a penalty.

Other than the beautiful strike by Pontius, LA was the better team throughout the whole game.
http://socceraddictnews.com joel es latest soccer news

Chivas USA impressed considering many predicted that they would struggle this year. kljestan did not play extremely welll.
Kevin

Kaiser:

LA was better for a combined 20 minutes- 10 at the beginning of the match, 10 at the end. If you watch the replay of LA’s second goal, it was clearly offside by at LEAST 5 feet. So, if you want to take away Gomez’s pk, by all means, go ahead. It’s still 1-0 DCU.

Absolute BS.
Kaiser

@Kevin, 
 
I was at the game, and have seen the replay at least 4 or 5 times…Donovan was not offside! It was a well timed run on a defense that looked lost at the end of the game. LA was the better team the whole first half. DC improved in the second half, but in no way was impressive (It looked like Emilio wasn't even on the field at times). However this is not to say LA was all that impressive either, as both teams looked lost for stretches of the game. But if I had to choose which team was the overall better side on Sunday, I would say it was LA. This could be a long season for both teams, though.
Kaiser

@Kevin,

I was at the game, and have seen the replay at least 4 or 5 times…Donovan was not offside! It was a well timed run on a defense that looked lost at the end of the game. LA was the better team the whole first half. DC improved in the second half, but in no way was impressive (It looked like Emilio wasn’t even on the field at times). However this is not to say LA was all that impressive either, as both teams looked lost for stretches of the game. But if I had to choose which team was the overall better side on Sunday, I would say it was LA. This could be a long season for both teams, though.
TCompton

@Kaiser 
 
I think you're right about Donovan's 2nd goal. There was no clear replay of the play to confirm that he was offside. As a believer of the "what goes around, comes around" concept, I feel comfortable saying that if there's no firm replay Donovan was onside. Just like I believe that Ernie Stewart was onside when he scored a goal at Giant's Stadium against the MetroStars on United's run to MLS Cup in 2004, even though it seems impossible from the television camera angle. 
 
However, I disagree with the opinion that Gomez's PK was undeserved. That said, let's assume that both PK calls were crap, LA still failed to claim all three points at home. Any team that earns a point on the road comes out ahead when compared to the home team. And that alone is the reason to put United ahead of LA in the week's power rating. Still, both teams played pretty awful soccer and deserved to be near the bottom of the league's ranking, so who really cares which team is better or worse than the other at this point. 
 
Week 2 is days away!
TCompton

@Kaiser

I think you’re right about Donovan’s 2nd goal. There was no clear replay of the play to confirm that he was offside. As a believer of the “what goes around, comes around” concept, I feel comfortable saying that if there’s no firm replay Donovan was onside. Just like I believe that Ernie Stewart was onside when he scored a goal at Giant’s Stadium against the MetroStars on United’s run to MLS Cup in 2004, even though it seems impossible from the television camera angle.

However, I disagree with the opinion that Gomez’s PK was undeserved. That said, let’s assume that both PK calls were crap, LA still failed to claim all three points at home. Any team that earns a point on the road comes out ahead when compared to the home team. And that alone is the reason to put United ahead of LA in the week’s power rating. Still, both teams played pretty awful soccer and deserved to be near the bottom of the league’s ranking, so who really cares which team is better or worse than the other at this point.

Week 2 is days away!
Kaiser

@TCompton, 
 
I can see your argument about the road point for DC…if you are looking at results, a tie should always be an advantage for the road team. I was thinking more about tempo and control on the field. 
 
The only real bright spot for either team was the play of a few rookies…Pontius, Gonzalez, Patterson, etc.
Kaiser

@TCompton,

I can see your argument about the road point for DC…if you are looking at results, a tie should always be an advantage for the road team. I was thinking more about tempo and control on the field.

The only real bright spot for either team was the play of a few rookies…Pontius, Gonzalez, Patterson, etc.

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