Week 23 in Major League Soccer proved to be a big one for some clubs. New York finally got off the losing end of things, New England won two straight to move into playoff contention, San Jose finally turned the tide late in the games, and LA got four quality road points in the week.

Yes, week 23 changed a decent bit of things in the rankings. Chivas USA and New England continue to be the big movers here while Toronto and DC continue to find themselves falling down and out here.

The top remains nearly the same as last week while the bottom five seem to have no where to go right now (though San Jose did swap places with KC for a change).

Feel free to leave your thoughts below about this week’s rankings.

Team	Rank (Last Week)	Record (W-L-T)	Comments
	1 (1)	10-3-9 39 pts.	They won their opening game in the CCL this past week. Now for the fun, travel to Mexico on Wednesday followed by a trip to New York on Sunday.
	2 (2)	11-6-7 40 pts.	Also won their opening CCL group stage game this past week. This week they travel to Panama to play some club no one has ever heard of, CD Arabe Unido.
	3 (3)	10-4-8 38 pts.	Great come back against Colorado, maybe have given them new life going into the stretch run. Is a Supporter’s Shield run still in line without Bakary Soumare and Brian McBride? We will have to see.
	4 (5)	8-4-11 35 pts.	A four point week always looks good when they are all on the road.
	5 (3)	8-6-9 33 pts.	Very well should have had three points against New England and could have easily gotten three in Houston. This past week they ended up with just a single point. Too many blown chances by this club.
	6 (9)	10-7-3 33 pts.	And just like that, in two games Chivas has new life and very good hope for a playoff run. By the way, anyone notice Sacha Kljestan come back from the dead this week?
	7 (6)	8-7-6 30 pts.	Could have bumped them further down for blowing a 2-0 lead but didn’t due to those below them. Omar Cummings continues to prove to me that he is one of the most underrated players in the league today.
	8 (11)	8-6-6 30 pts.	Those games in hand are starting to come in very handy as the Revs move up the table here. They went from out of playoff contention to in with two big wins this past week.
	9 (7)	8-8-6 30 pts.	The playoffs just won’t happen for this club if they can’t find a way to win on the road.
	10 (8)	6-5-11 29 pts.	Should they have won against LA? Probably. Fact is this club is just dropping games left and right. It is too late in the season to be doing such a thing.
	11 (11)	7-9-6 27 pts.	Defensive struggles once again on the road as this club continues to prove to me they don’t have what it takes to be a playoff team this season.
	12 (12)	6-11-5 23 pts.	Just embarrassing for Dallas to lose to a team as pathetic as New York.
	13 (14)	5-11-5 20 pts.	Finally a result late in the game for this bunch.
	14 (13)	5-9-6 21 pts.	This club is gonna need a big overhaul this off season. Too bad there are still plenty of games left to go this season.
	15 (15)	3-16-4 13 pts.	With seven games to go, the question still remains…will they get to 20 points?

Plenty of good goals this past week in Major League Soccer. Some were better than others but that is for you all to decide. I’ve took out what I thought were some of the best from this past week including one hat trick.

Order of video: Geoff Cameron, Nate Jaqua, Kheli Dube (hat trick), Juan Pablo Angel, Dax McCarty, Dane Richards, Chris Wondonlowski, Sacha Kljestan, and Landon Donovan.

In a loaded week that was week 23, the MLS playoff race has heated up like never before. Before the weekend a couple team sat outside the playoffs, but once everything was said and done our playoff race looked a little different this morning.

EASTERN AUTOMATIC BERTHS
Columbus 10-3-9, 39 points
Chicago 10-5-8, 38
WESTERN AUTOMATIC BERTHS
Houston 11-6-7, 40 points
Los Angeles 8-4-11, 35
NEXT FOUR IN
Chivas USA 10-7-3, 33 points
Seattle 8-6-9, 33
New England 8-6-6, 30
Colorado 8-7-6, 30
BOTTOM SEVEN OUT
Toronto 8-8-6, 30 points
D.C. United 6-5-11, 29
Real Salt Lake 7-9-6, 27
Dallas 6-11-5, 23
Kansas City 5-9-6, 21
San Jose 5-11-5, 20
New York 3-16-4, 13

Note: tiebreakers here go to teams with the fewest games played

Furthermore this weekend say the bottom two clubs (San Jose and New York) win games. For New York it snapped a 13-game winless streak.

This year’s race continues to prove to be one of the tightest races in recent memories. The 40 point mark, which is usually the magic number for reaching the playoffs. This year it may go up to 42 or 43 with the way things are going. Continue Reading…

Landon Donovan leads LA against DC this weekend. (Getty Images)

So far the week has not been kind to my predictions. In two midweek games both road sides have gone out and upset some seemingly strong sides on their own turf. Both LA and New England played solid matches this past week and earned three big road points in the process.

This is a big weekend for most MLS sides. A handful of teams get double-dips in either league play or both league play and CONCACAF Champions League. This week will certainly shed a little more light on what looks to be an excellent playoff race now that New England looks to be joining in on.

As always feel free to leave your score predictions below. Continue Reading…

Blanco and Wilman Conde look to shutdown the Galaxy tonight. (Getty Images)

Week 23 in Major League Soccer gets started a little early. Tonight we get a primetime clash on ESPN2 as the Chicago Fire host the LA Galaxy. Now of course this game has lost a little appeal with David Beckahm (and Eddie Lewis) being suspended for a red card in last week’s game against Seattle. But it should still promise to be a good game between two of the league’s upper level clubs making a push for the Supporter’s Shield.

The Fire are on good form right now as they have only lost once in their last seven matches. LA on the other hand as we just mentioned stumbled a bit last week at home in the loss to Seattle, but even that was their first loss in a while.

Tonight’s game will be without David Beckham and Eddie Lewis but the Fire will also be missing Bakery Soumare.

I think tonight’s game will get bogged down a bit in the midfield but look for Chicago to control the pace there. LA will get a little lucky as the weather has been raining there today in the Windy City from what I’ve been told. If the rain can slow down things it could be to the visitor’s advantage.

Chicago will do well to slow down Landon Donovan and company. All the Fire need to do is get on the board and camp on the lead. They do well with the lead and holding teams to little offense. I look for them to do just that as Blanco and company look to inch their way up the standings. Chicago wins a nasty midfield battled game tonight thanks to Chris Rolfe and Blanco.

WVH Prediction: Chicago 2, LA 1