Sounders Centric Power Rankings - The Sky Is Falling

SB Nation's MLS Power Rankings tend to lag results. There are enough of us in the ranking panel that tend to ignore a bad result, or two, that quick movements are rare. But in a "week" which actually stretches across three weeks of light matches around the league one team did indeed take a fall. Seattle Sounders FC is now at an average ranking of 5.72 and ordinal ranking of 5th. Our broad community of rankers (18 in total) are not excited about the Sounders. One goes so far to rank them 10th. Their highest value is at 3rd, with the four Seattle based authors putting their local side at 4, 5, 6 and even 8th.

At the top a few things are clear. Real Salt Lake is number nearly perfectly with Sporting Kansas City also getting some first place votes. The San Jose Earthquakes get more second place recognition than Wednesday's opponent. Rounding out the top tier is D.C. United who has charged up 4th overall.

The next tier includes a Cascadia team. Martin Rennie's plan to have a team of 4 defenders, 3 keepers, 2 midfielders and 20 forwards is working. Depending on results they could pass the Sounders. Still there are people who see them outside of the playoff picture. Not as far out as Seattle's other two rivals. Down the coast in Portland and LA things are plain bad.

Star studded LA Galaxy have stabilized down at 14 overall and only .17 average over their HDC neighbors. Sunday's ESPN opponent the supposed "pride" and "kings" of the region are at 16th and also stable. The Portland Timbers have been one of the worst teams in MLS since week five. LA's highest rank is 11th and the Timbers highest is 14. If only I'd been smart enough to track hidden rival San Jose from week zero, because the historical rivals aren't performing.

Playoffs by Power Rankings

Dave's vote - it isn't pretty

1. Sporks
2. RSL
3. Quakes
4. United
5. Red Bull
6. Dynamo
7. Whitecaps
8. Sounders
9. Rapids
10. Fire
11. Revs
12. Impact
13. Crew
14. Galaxy
15. Goats
16. Toros
17. Spencer'd
18. Nowaked No Longer
19. Winter Has Passed

My rankings are based primarily on which teams I think would win on neutral ground in a match this week with some projection forward.