MLS Power Rankings, Week 17: Earthquakes Hold Onto Top Spot

That the Earthquakes remain atop our MLS Power Rankings seems to be more a product of our voters' uncomfortable-ness with coalescing around an obvious replacement. This week's results included a loss to the lowly Timbers and a scoreless tie against the even lowlier FC Dallasers. We should have a much better picture of who the best team in the league is after this week, as they'll host RSL.

This week's rankings are done to the theme of Poison, whose catalogue was expertly culled by Zach Woosley:

Nothin' But A Good Time

1. San Jose Earthquakes (Average ranking: 1.36; Last week's average: 1.00): Not a great week, which reflects in them being dropped from the top spot by a few voters. Still, no one is exactly grabbing the throne.

2. D.C. United (2.57; 2.75): Consistent, steady improvement on their ranking has them poised to take over the top spot if the Earthquakes really falter.

3. Real Salt Lake (2.79; 3.00): Worked out some of their frustrations by absolutely beating the snot out of the Timbers, getting John Spencer fired in the process.

4. Sporting Kansas City (3.86; 5.92): Just can't seem to find the footing that made them an instant MLS Cup favorite, but have avoided a serious slump.

Something To Believe In

5. New York Red Bulls (5.79; 3.50): Suffered their first shutout of the season, which is not a good sign. Turns out, Thierry Henry might be pretty important to their attack.

6. Seattle Sounders (6.00; 6.92): Finally got a win and looked mighty fine doing it. Will be interesting to see if they can keep up the good feelings.

7. Vancouver Whitecaps (6.57; 6.92): Hadn't played in seemingly forever and returned with a road win over the Rapids and a lackluster tie with Chivas USA.

I Won't Forget You

8. Chicago Fire (8.57; 6.50): Crashed back to earth with a 2-0 loss to the Galaxy. Can they bounce back?

9. Houston Dynamo (9.57; 9.92): Tying Kansas City just isn't what it used to be, but it's another sign that this team is perfectly capable of grinding out results.

10. LA Galaxy (9.64; 10.25): Omar Gonzalez has returned. Will their title as MLS Cup contenders come along with it?

Every Rose Has Its Thorn

11. New England Revolution (11.00; 13.50): Don't sleep on these guys as they've quietly put together the longest active unbeaten streak in MLS at five games and counting.

12. Colorado Rapids (12.07; 11.00): Give Oscar Pareja credit, he is committed to playing a certain brand of soccer, results be damned.

12. Columbus Crew (12.07; 11.08): Are they the most boring team in MLS? Yes.

14. Montreal Impact (14.07; 14.75): They've been among the most active teams in the transfer market, seemingly in an effort to get their fans to just pay attention. Now they need some results.

15. Chivas USA (14.86; 14.08): It's easy to forget this team exists some times. Scoreless draws certainly don't help.

16. Philadelphia Union (15.71; 17.42): It turns out that all this team needed was to get rid of their mad-man coach and replace him with someone whose ego is not the size of the Eastern seaboard.

Unskinny Bop

17. Portland Timbers (17.07; 15.92): About a week after beating the best team in MLS their coach got fired. Yep, it's a bit of a madhouse.

18. FC Dallas (18.21; 17.58): Remember the last time they won? Nope, neither do we.

18. Toronto FC (18.21; 18.42): Were on a nice little run until this weekend's implosion.

How the poll works: Each voter ranks the teams from 1-19. The teams are then ordered by average, with the lowest average going first and so on. The editor then splits the rankings into five tiers, looking for natural breaks in the averages. We then pick some kind of group of songs to theme them to.

Who participated: Jeremiah Oshan (SB Nation, soccer); Aaron Campeau (SB Nation, soccer); Ryan Rosenblatt (SB Nation, soccer); Drew Epperley (SB Nation, soccer); Jason Anderson (SB Nation, soccer); Phillip Quin (SB Nation, soccer); Martin Shatzer (Black and Red United); Scott Kessler (Brotherly Game); Denzel Eslinger (RSL Soapbox); Robert Jonas (Quake, Rattle and Goal); Daniel Robertson (Big D Soccer); Dave Clark and Josh Yockey (Sounder at Heart); Duncan Fletcher (Waking the Red), Steve Stoehr (The Bent Musket); Ben Schneider (Once a Metro); Alicia Ratterree (The Goat Parade); Brenton Walters (The Vancouver Whitecaps Offside); Geoff Gibson (Stumptown Footy); Sofiane Benzaza (Mount Royal Soccer); Alex Englen (The Daily Wiz); Tweed Thornton and Ryan Sealock (Hot Time In Old Town).