MLS Power Rankings Week 17: Rivalry Weak

Rivalry Week.  Major League Soccer made a big deal of this week by hyping up the major rivalries in the league playing matches during its own special week.  It even had a nice cool sponsor for the promotion in Heineken.  However, MLS was missing just one important thing: rivalry matches.  Of the 16 matches played over the week (including 7 last Wednesday), only 5 of those matches were traditional rivalry matchups: TFC- Montreal (401 Derby), Dallas-Houston (Texas Derby), LA-San Jose (California Clásico), NYCFC-Red Bull (El Plástico, or Hudson River Derby if you prefer), and Portland-Seattle (Cascadia Cup).  While all of these matches were highly entertaining, this isn't enough.  You can't call something Rivalry Week when not even a third of your games are rivalry matchups.

Sure, there's the problem of teams having multiple rivals and not being able to play each other.  There's also the fact that most fans would prefer these rivalry matchups take place on the weekends to allow for away travel support and better atmosphere.  But, there was still a prime opportunity to place more rivalry matches over the weekend: RSL-Colorado, DCU-Philly or DCU-NE, Columbus-TFC, or SKC-Chicago.  Major League Soccer needs to really look at this in the schedule and if they want to create a Rivalry Week, cool.  But, make sure rivalries make up the bulk of the matches, which will help avoid the explanation of why RSL facing Columbus is considered a part of Rivalry Week.

As for the rankings, with a lot of matches last week there was a lot of movement within the table.  A few teams moved up several spots (San Jose, Red Bulls, Philadelphia) while a couple top teams had terrible weeks and had to drop (Seattle, New England).  The home team maintains the top spot this week, but this week it wasn't because others couldn't dethrone the leaders.  It was because the team went on the road and came come with 4 points in their suitcase, including a point they had to declare at customs on their way back from Canada.  At the bottom rests Chicago, who seem like they're going to stay there for a while unless they can catch...fire.

Now, have your say.  Hit the comments below and let us know where you see things!