Week 20 SBNhanced MLS Power Rankings
by Martin Shatzer on Aug 18, 2025 11:40 PM EDT
in SBNhanced MLS Power Rankings
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| Team | Total vote count | First Tier votes | Last week's Tier |
| Tier 1 - Teams Contending For Cups | |||
| LA Galaxy | 24 | 7 | 1 |
| Real Salt Lake | 24 | 7 | 1 |
| Columbus Crew | 24 | 7 | 1 |
| FC Dallas | 22 | 6 | 2 |
| Tier 2 - Teams Likely in the Playoffs | |||
| NY Red Bulls | 16 | 2 | 2 |
| Seattle Sounders | 16 | 0 | 2 |
| Chicago Fire | 13 | 0 | 3 |
| Colorado Rapids | 12 | 0 | 3 |
| Tier 3 - Teams On the Outside Looking In | |||
| SJ Earthquakes | 11 | 0 | 3 |
| Toronto FC | 10 | 0 | 2 |
| NE Revolution | 6 | 0 | 4 |
| Tier 4 - Teams Competing for #3 Draft Pick | |||
| Houston Dynamo | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| Chivas USA | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| KC Wizards | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Philadelphia Union | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| DC United | 0 | 0 | 4 |
What happens when you add an eighth voter to a collection of writers who have become increasingly argumentative and stuck in their ways? The rankings start to look better, that's what. At least in my opinion.
With the new Houston Dynamo blog Dynamo Theory joining SB Nation last week, we've expanded the list of qualified voters to eight. And with that, we see that FC Dallas has finally cracked the top tier, making this the first time since week nine that a team other than the Los Angeles Galaxy, Real Salt Lake, and Columbus Crew has joined top.
Aside from that inevitability, there was plenty of debate among the voters this week, and most of it surrounded one team: the New York Red Bulls. As you can see, two voters feel that the Bulls deserve a place on the upper echelon despite having only one win in five matches since Thierry Henry joined the club.
Some believe that New York has added significant pieces that have them poised to make a championship run. My main argument against that is that you could say the same thing about the Seattle Sounders and Chicago Fire. The Fire in particular have also added two designated players, one of which already has proven that he can make an impact in MLS (Freddie Ljungberg) to a team that already had the best defender in the league (Wilman Conde), and the best offensive star that nobody talks about (Marco Pappa). Plus, the Chicago franchise has actually won before. The Red Bulls have a long history of signing marquee name players, and then doing nothing in the playoffs. I expect this year to be no different.
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So Eighty Six Forever doesn’t get to vote in the power rankings until Vancouver joins MLS?
A Capital Wasteland - art & hockey from Washington, D.C.
by Jake Shapiro on Aug 19, 2025 7:50 AM EDT reply actions
Deep 6ed
Seems fair to me that they wouldn’t get a vote yet.
I still wonder why the LA gals, Fire and Toronto don’t have SB blogs.
Also, is LA so good that they get to be in the top tier twice?
by Irrlicht on Aug 19, 2025 12:24 PM EDT up reply actions
DCU
Can we just call the third pick ours at this point?
by Irrlicht on Aug 19, 2025 9:15 AM EDT reply actions
Dreadful
I am both a Redskin and United season ticket holder. Through the years it has been commonplace for United fans to bash the Redskins and their more often than not failures on the field the last decade or so. However, the times they are a changing. Unless United drastically turns their season around I am ready to call this years United team worse than any Redskin team post Gibbs 1 era to include the ‘94 season. I haven’t missed one United game this season but it is getting harder and harder to watch them. Every week is basically the same formula. Play competitively for 40 minutes or so, waste every opportunity to finish during this time, give up a quick counter attacking goal, and then disintegrate the rest of the game. Ugh, Vamos United!
by Croftonpost on Aug 19, 2025 10:48 AM EDT up reply actions
Yeah...
I have become a rather dedicated United fan starting in 2007 when we won the supporters shield. I live down in Birmingham, AL, so chances to see the team are rare to say the least. Well my wife and I planned a vacation in Virginia in late April, with the highlight of the trip for me being able to go to my first game, the United vs. Fire game. Well, my first and probably last game I will be able to attend for a while and I get to see what is arguably the worst team in our club’s history. Great.
But, to be honest, I still had the time of my life stading in the supporter’s section and singing. Man, you guys don’t know how good you have it to have a team withing drving distance. I would kill to have a team in the “deep south”.
Roll Tide and Vamos United!
by martincr70 on Aug 19, 2025 11:32 AM EDT up reply actions
Atlanta
I see Atlanta getting a team eventually. Probably a number of years down the road though.
by Croftonpost on Aug 19, 2025 11:51 AM EDT up reply actions
Had a great experience today
Someone from DCU’s offices called me today, presumably to get me to buy season tickets, but we ended up talking for 20 solid minutes about the state of the team. He basically let me rant about how depressing it is to be a fan of such a shitty club, and I felt like he actually listened. He was very sincere, and told me DCU really is putting “Get a New Stadium and Don’t Move to Baltimore” #1 on their priority list.
I don’t know if it actually meant anything, but that phone call gave me renewed faith in D.C. United. They’re actually listening to us.
A Capital Wasteland - art & hockey from Washington, D.C.
by Jake Shapiro on Aug 19, 2025 3:55 PM EDT reply actions
For what its worth
Had the exact thing happen and said more or less the same thing… They were calling me since I had shown up at a DCU-World Cup event. I believe in supporting a team but I also believe in being vocal when things aren’t going well, hope they are listening!
by Irrlicht on Aug 19, 2025 8:21 PM EDT up reply actions
Tremendous
The sales staff at DC United are as good and as hardworking as any you will find anywhere.
I deal with them regularly as I am the DCU point of contact for a local soccer organization and I find them to be an absolute pleasure to be around. In fact this Sunday I am getting a field pass and a Director’s Box pass thanks to them. If only the rest of the organization was in as good a shape as the sales staff.
by Croftonpost on Aug 19, 2025 11:07 PM EDT up reply actions
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