The Semi-Detached Pundit Collective (SDPC) lost a couple this week; I never saw ranking for The Other Football or Soccer by Ives - the latter is really slipping (though he said, through a spokesman*, that the Gold Cup and the Copa are keeping him too busy) (* I have never corresponded in any way with Mr. Galarcep - unless commenting on his site counts - and don’t believe he even has a spokesman; so, yeah, I made that up.)
Here are the sources for this week’s SPDC rankings:
It’s a Simple Game
Sideline Views (Luis Bueno)
Sideline Views (Andrea Canales)
WVHooligan
My Soccer Blog
MLS Underground
ESPN
SI - Ryan Hunt
Fox Soccer Channel
And, once again, The DCenters Freezer (kinda like reverse rankings) merits honorable mention, as do the conference-based rankings provided by Who Ate All the Cupcakes. Dan Loney’s weekly rankings make the list today (though they weren’t plugged into the numbers below) courtesy of my admiration for his use of educational attainment as the means of ranking. Finally, I lifted the scariness rating for each team from On Soccer and entered that number after their collective ranking...I keep forgetting to check that out as a predictor...maybe he’ll do it one day.
Now, on to the numbers:
1. New England Revolution, 2.3 (4th - 4.3; SR: 2)
2/3. Houston Dynamo, 2.4 (7th - 6.5; SR: 1)
2/3. Red Bull New York, 2.4 (2nd - 2.6; SR: 8)
4. Kansas City Wizards, 4.4 (last week: 1st - 1.1; SR: 5)
5. FC Dallas, 4.9 (6th - 6.4; SR: 6)
6. DC United, 5.1 (3rd - 2.7; SR: 3)
7. Chivas USA, 7.4 (5th - 5.5; SR: 9)
8. Columbus Crew, 8.0 (12th - 11.5; SR: 4)
9. Toronto FC, 8.4 (8th - 7.3; SR: 7)
10. Colorado Rapids, 10.0 (9th - 9.1; SR: 13)
11. Chicago Fire, 11.7 (10th - 10.3; SR: 12)
12. Real Salt Lake, 12.0 (13th - 12.9; SR: 5)
13. Los Angeles Galaxy, 12.3 (11th - 10.8; SR: 11)
Some observations:
- We have a new consensus pick for worst team in MLS. Puke and cry, Alexi Lalas! Puke and cry!!
- The Colorado Rapids are your unanimous #10 pick...that’s not a good thing.
- Things look good for the Crew, on the other hand, whom the SDPC has officially judged to be a playoff team. Obviously, the Crew are also this week’s major climbers; they gained 3.5, which might be the biggest-ever jump in these rankings.
- Whoops. I take it back. The Dynamo rose 4.1. Yikes.
- Going the other way, pundits punished DC severely for the slip against RSL.
- As the season staggers (hey, it’s summer) to its midway point, the league’s teams seem be breaking into three groups: the top 6, the bubble teams of 7-9, and the apparent no-hopers from 11-13. You may have noticed that Colorado doesn’t fit into this scheme - yes, they are special.
- With regard to that top six, their inclusion in that group was universal (only Andrea Canales of Sideline Views plugged a top six team outside that range in their rankings - and it was DC United in Canales list). But look at what’s happening with the top three in the collective rankings: they’re essentially neck-and-neck, which says a lot about what this league knows from dominance as a concept. For the record, the Dynamo’s numbers were most tightly clustered, but New England gathered more #1 rankings than the other two; Red Bull snuck in by balancing their two 4’s against two 1’s. It’ll be interesting to see which team in this group breaks out.
- The Revolution’s climb is interesting. Their homestand kinda sucked, but they still climbed quite a bit (2.0). I’d put that down to them gaining the top spot and the stumbles of their competitors, as opposed to meaningful signs of life from New England. But competition is competition: you don’t always have to win to gain ground in a league set up.
All right. All for this week. There are some interesting times ahead.
(###########)
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