2009 MLS Power Rankings: Week 21

[the noise factor]

Last Week’s Ranking in Parenthesis…

Houston (1): A shootout victory (4-3) over United likely has Kinnear’s boys dreaming about the 2009 Shield.

Chicago (2): A solid home win (again featuring great defense) has the Fire looking strong without McBride.

Columbus (6): The Crew went to the Dick and came away with a win, instead of an STD. Sorry, that was gross.

Chivas USA (4): The Goats did not play, so I will not move them. MLS handed them the strangest schedule.

L.A. (5): The Gals stay @ #5 because they didn’t play a league game either, but Becks did bend one v. Barca.

Seattle (3): A road loss wouldn’t have been a huge deal, but by four goals and to SJE? So, Sigi’s squad must fall.

New England (9): Nicol has his team playing ugly (but effective) soccer. I bet he gets them in the playoffs.

D.C. (7): United lost in a thriller @ HOU featuring 7 goals. They fall one, but I think this team will rise again.

Colorado (8): Colorado continued to confuse prognosticators by collapsing @ home against Columbus.

Toronto (10): They got 1 point @ NER, but the Reds will need to pick up the pace to make the postseason.

Salt Lake (11): RSL scored four goals last week but they couldn’t muster a single decent shot against the Fire.

Dallas (13): I didn’t think DAL would ever move past #13, but the Burn beat #12 by 6 goals and earned it.

Kansas City (12): Sure, the Wiz still have a better record than FCD, but they lost by 6 goals. Seriously.

San Jose (14): SJE won this week too, proving that MLS truly has parity. Any given Saturday and/or Sunday.

New York (15): NYRB didn’t play, but they wouldn’t be going anywhere even if they did. Unlike the Former Burn, there are no amount of goals the Red Bulls could score in one game to escape their fate of MLS “cellar dwellar”. They have a -21 goal differential and 15 losses in 21 games. The team from the Big Apple is plain rotten.