MLS Power Rankings, Week 8: Unanimity At The Top AND Bottom

Give it to our voters, they can now agree on TWO things. Just as they did last week, there was unanimity among them that Toronto FC is the league's worst team. Now they also universally agree that Sporting Kansas City is again the top team.

The other notable teams in our rankings were the Earthquakes and D.C. United, both of whom continued their recent ascension. San Jose moved all the way to No. 2, while United shot up six spots to No. 5.

This week's rankings are done to the theme of Bruce Springsteen. Enjoy.

Glory Days

1. Sporting Kansas City (Average ranking: 1.00; Last Week's ranking: 1): They didn't play this week, but apparently the less-than-resounding victories by some of the other top teams convinced a few fence-sitters.

2. San Jose Earthquakes (2.32; 4): Easily the surprise team of the year, they registered another hard-fought victory. Steven Lenhart may still be the most despised player in MLS, but now he's got a game that is at least warranting all his attention.

3. Real Salt Lake (3.21; 2): Need a very late goal to claim all three points at home against an awful TFC team. Also blew two one-goal leads. As good as they look at times, the results have been less-than-convincing.

4. Seattle Sounders (3.79; 3): Still not clicking on all cylinders, but give them credit for pulling out a win against a determined Fire team. They improved to 5-0-3 against a team they strangely consider a rival.

The Rising

5. D.C. United (5.58; 11): Finally won consecutive games for the first time since 2009 and have now gone seven-straight without a loss. The defense still has obvious issues, but that offense is scary.

6. LA Galaxy (7.11; 9): Slowly getting back to the team we're used to seeing as they ground out another result. Probably deserved better against Dallas than a single point, but they'll take it.

7. New York Red Bulls (8.00; 5): Got an early goal from Thierry Henry and rode that to a white-knuckle victory. Even worse than their meh performance was the loss of Henry, possibly until after the international break.

8. Vancouver Whitecaps (8.21; 10): Were largely outplayed by the Crew and have not looked nearly as dangerous as most of us expected, but they are grinding out results. Considering where this team was a year ago, their fans will surely take it.

9. Houston Dynamo (8.79; 6): The season-opening, seven-game road trip may be starting to wear as their defense was run a bit ragged in the 3-2 loss to United. Just one more game before breaking in BBVA Compass Stadium.

10. FC Dallas (9.47; 7): Opinions vary wildly on this team, with rankings as high as 6 and as low as 15. I don't get it. They've looked reasonably solid and nearly stole all three points from the Galaxy at Home Depot Center.

11. Colorado Rapids (9.58; 8): The scoreline was a bit deceptive, but a 4-0 win is +4 in the GD column no matter how you slice it. Good for them, but it just underscores how inconsistent they've been this year.

Reason to Believe

12. Chicago Fire (11.95; 12): They are all alone in this tier for good reason. They had their moments against the Sounders in their 2-1 loss, but still lacking something.

Better Days

13. Chivas USA (14.47; 13): Their 4-0 loss to the Rapids got out of hand at the end, but the glaring problem on this team remains their inability to finish. It feels like Robin Fraser is making progress, but the results suggest otherwise.

13. Columbus Crew (14.47; 14): As bad as they've been this year, they are still in the thick of the playoff race in the awful Eastern Conference. That's about the only bright spot.

15. Portland Timbers (14.89; 15): This year was supposed to be the year, as supporters and front office alike declared the playoffs a near foregone conclusion. Instead, they are playing more like an expansion team than they ever did during their actual expansion year.

16. Philadelphia Union (15.74; 17): Those offseason moves look worse and worse every week and they have to play another game without the man who made the mess, Peter Nowak.

17. New England Revolution (15.89; 16): You watch this team and think, "Yeah, they do look better." You see the results and go, "Hmmmmm."

18. Montreal Impact (16.42; 18): After an awful start, they've settled down.

This Hard Land

19. Toronto FC (19.00; 19): Actually looked downright competent in their loss to RSL. But that 0-7-0 start is just hard to escape.

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).