After tonight's slate of matches, I believe it is safe to eliminate Dallas from the power rankings and concentrate on the teams still in contention. Besides, I've run out of witty remarks. 1) Chicago--Slump? What slump? Win at Victoria Street seems to be evidence of a recharged Fire squad primed for the playoffs. I believe the League knows where to send the Rookie of the Year award, and may be able to save on shipping costs by sending the Supporters' Shield with it. 2) San Jose--Loss at DC may have cost them the Supporter's Shield. The Quakes cannot afford any more such hiccups as the next team is in hot pursuit. 3) Colorado--If the Rapids were .500 the first six games of the season, they would have been Shield contenders along with the Quakes and Fire. Still not too late to overtake San Jose. The Mile High City seems to be rare air for the Rapids. 4) DC United--Toppling the Quakes is a positive sign, but can Hudson's Men in Black become a dark horse in the playoffs? 5) MetroStars--Divisional loss to New England may have erased any chance of catching up to Chicago. Mathis and Co. need to solve their execution problems before DC takes away the choice of field in the playoffs. 6) Columbus--The Crew seem to have revived and not a moment too soon. Beating Dallas was good, but it should not have been as close as it was. 7) Los Angeles--Loss at home to Chicago is a black eye the Galaxy could ill afford to suffer. The trade for Serna looks less and less worth the cost. Prospects for getting a higher seed looks more remote. 8) Kansas City--The Wizards are skidding out of control but won't crash out of the playoff race. Coach Gansler needs to check with the pit crew immediately before they wind up retiring from the playoffs early. 9) New England--Beating the MetroStars on the road was vital as their playoff hopes are on life support and Columbus' hands are on the plug.
They are just not perceived as a sexy team to have on TV. They would rather show Chicago, NY, LA, DC. Kinda like the same reason Kansas basketball is always on TV but Kansas State isn't (nationally that it).
Code: [size=2] [u]Team GP W L T Pts GF GA +/- [/u] Chicago 24 12 5 7 43 42 31 11 San Jose 24 12 5 7 43 35 26 9 Colorado 24 11 9 4 37 31 32 -1 MetroStars 23 9 7 7 34 33 30 3 D.C. United 23 9 8 6 33 31 28 3 Kansas City 24 7 9 8 29 37 35 2 Los Angeles 24 7 9 8 29 28 28 0 Columbus 24 8 9 7 31 32 33 -1 New England 24 7 9 8 29 40 41 -1 Dallas 24 4 16 4 16 26 51 -25 [/size]
Just wanted to point out that the league doesn't have the Supporters' Shield (SUPPORTERS SHIELD, not LEAGUE SHIELD), and it doesn't need to be shipped anywhere. The Shield is already in LA, ready for presentation at the Supporters Summit, by virtue of the fact that LA won it last year.
As I understand the power rankings, they are supposed to rank the teams as they are right now. If that's the case, I don't see how you can rank Colorado below San Jose. Since Colorado got their first win on May 31st they have 1 more point than San Jose, and have beaten San Jose twoice, in San Jose. I'd say the teams are about even, with the edge going to the Rapids by virute of the two wins onver the E-Quakes on the road.
You might as well put DC in the top two of the power rankings, since every year that they have been in the playoffs, they have made it to the finals (4 times), and they usually win it (3 times). Now they just have to hope they can keep they recent good form alive til then.
Well, they're 8-1-1 in their last 10, so I think we've already seen what they're made of. If they slip up tomorrow, especially to a desperate NE at home clawing for a playoff spot, I'm not sure it proves anything either way (as far as the Rapids are concerned).
You are right. Perhaps I should have said that it is giong to be an interesting matchup in today's game and I would like to see how they handle the pressure. I must admit that I have not seen Colorado play in a while (and certainly not while they have been on that run, well perhaps when they beat LA in the Toolbox, but I don't recall whether that was part of the current run).