Yes indeed there is a new number one this week. I decided that you just can’t be the top team in the land and lose to New York. You just can’t, so the Columbus Crew had to get bump down. So did the Chicago Fire and the Houston Dynamo, who both lost this past week. The club who got the nod at the top is kind of shocking based on how things started out this season.

Yes the LA Galaxy are my new number one club. Their recent form is rather impressive and I will continue to say what I’ve been saying about them for the last month or so, I can easily see them winning the Supporter’s Shield crown here this season.

The middle of the pack continues to get more jumbled up by the week. New England is starting to look like they may crash the automatic bid party in the east, probably taking over Chicago for that spot as I still believe Columbus will get one of the two auto spots from that conference.

The bottom remains the same from last week. Even though Real Salt Lake won twice last week I just need to see more than a win at home and a road win in KC (who can’t score these days). They do have two slumping teams ahead (at home with Chicago and on the road in Houston). Those two games would certainly prove to me that they are playoff worthy if they win them. Big if though.

Feel free to post your thoughts below on this week’s rankings.

Team	Rank (Last Week)	Record (W-L-T)	Comments
	1 (4)	9-4-11 38 pts.	Amazing that the Galaxy are 7-1-2 since June. Before that they were tying every game they played and looked nothing like a Supporter’s Shield contending club.
	2 (1)	10-4-9 39 pts.	Rough week but then again no American clubs win in Mexico and apparently no Crew teams win in Giant’s Stadium. Still they should have at least gotten a point in New York.
	3 (2)	11-7-7 40 pts.	Colorado is never an easy place to win but Houston just looked gassed in the 1-0 loss to the Rapids.
	4 (3)	10-6-8 38 pts.	Just when you think this club is going to start getting on a roll they forget to show up yet again. Why can’t the Fire score at home too? In 12 games they’ve only gotten 11 goals, that has to change in a hurry.
	5 (5)	8-6-10 34 pts.	Yes a point is a point but this club cannot drop points at home. They need wins at this point at Qwest, not draws.
	6 (7)	9-7-6 33 pts.	So the way things are going the next game will be a loss? This win, then lose, then win pattern that this club gets themselves in has to stop sooner rather than later.
	7 (8)	9-6-6 33 pts.	I think Steve Nicol’s club has the best chance to crash the automatic bid race in the east.
	8 (6)	10-9-3 33 pts.	Nine losses now after such a promising start. If they hit double-digit losses on the year I just don’t see them reaching the playoffs.
	9 (10)	7-5-11 32 pts.	Too bad DC can’t play in Toyota Park for all their games here out.
	10 (9)	8-8-7 31 pts.	It really should have been three points in Seattle but when you are unlucky like Dwayne DeRosario was on that open-goal miss of his, that just explains a lot on how things are going for a club.
	11 (11)	9-9-6 33 pts.	Great week for this club and I know I will get hammered for not moving them up at all. But this club still has a long, long way to go here to reach the playoffs.
	12 (12)	6-11-5 23 pts.	No game this past week and now they get DC coming into town this weekend.
	13 (13)	5-12-5 20 pts.	You know decent play just isn’t good enough.
	14 (14)	5-10-6 21 pts.	Now this club isn’t scoring under Peter Vermes. I guess they are just waiting things out before they begin an actual coaching search?
	15 (15)	4-16-4 16 pts.	Well congrats, they got over the 15 point mark with another solid win at home. Sad to say I just don’t see this club being smart enough to remove the interim lable from Richie Williams’ job title.

Not too many goals to pick from this week with all the 1-0 games we saw. So this week all the goals are included in the list.

My favorites were Beckham’s and Richards. What did you all like?

Order of goals: Dane Richards, Julien Baudet, David Beckham, Pablo Campos, Bryan Namoff, Steve Ralston, Wells Thompson, Ramon Sanchez, Pablo Campos (Chivas game), Fabian Espindola, and Robbie Findley (1 and 2).

It’s just what we expected, a very tight playoff race this year is happening. Out of the 15 clubs in the league, 11 are in playoff contention. Sorry San Jose, Dallas and KC fans…we’re pretty much writing you all off for the playoff race this year along with the Red Bulls who have been out of contention for months now despite the two straight wins.

Just how tight is the race? Let’s have a look. For our purposes in tiebreakers we will use the teams with the most remaining games as the higher team.

—SUPPORTER’S SHIELD RACE—-
Houston 11-7-7, 40 points
Columbus 10-4-9, 39 points
Chicago 10-6-8, 38
Los Angeles 9-4-11, 38
—AT LARGE BIRTHS—-
Seattle 8-6-10, 34 points
New England 9-6-6, 33
Colorado 9-7-6, 33
Chivas USA 10-9-3, 33
——-NEXT IN LINE——–
Real Salt Lake 9-9-6, 33
D.C. United 7-5-11, 32
Toronto 8-8-7, 31
—–ALL BUT ELIMINATED—–
Dallas 6-11-5, 23
Kansas City 5-10-6, 21
San Jose 5-12-5, 20
New York 4-16-4, 16

Right now it is a true dead heat for the Supporter’s Shield crown as LA inches closer to the top with a win over their rivals Chivas USA. Houston, Columbus and Chicago all dropped games this weekend. I still feel that LA has the best shot out of the four to win the Supporter’s Shield crown this season. Chicago doesn’t look like they have the right mix of things to do it and Columbus’ and Houston’s schedules are too packed in the final months of the season. LA has plenty of win-able games left and it makes sense to see them continue on their current form. Continue Reading…

Landon Donovan and Paulo Nagamura battle in the third and last SuperClasico of the year. (Getty Images)

We have another loaded week of soccer ahead of us. Week 24 got off to a bang earlier in the week in Salt Lake as Real Salt Lake got their playoff chances back on track with a resounding 4-0 blowout of expansion mates Chivas USA. One has to wonder if this is more to come for RSL and if Chivas can bounce back.

Other games this week with MLS clubs didn’t go as well as three teams played in CONCACAF Champions League play. Only the Houston Dynamo made it out of this week with a point, though it came at a price with a few red cards. Both the Columbus Crew and DC United were pounded in their respective games. No need to go into how each of them lost, its a simple math problem facing MLS sides against teams from Mexico and other countries with money. These smaller rosters and low budgets will continue to kill MLS clubs in these competitions.

Anyways, we have too many games to discuss and not enough time to go into why the league needs higher salary caps and what not today. Nearly every club is in action this week with games on both Saturday and Sunday for your viewing pleasure. Continue Reading…