MLS power rankings: Phil Neville is finding his groove with Portland
Prepare your anger. Is it prepared? Okay, great.
Welcome back to the Guardian’s MLS Power Rankings, where I argue with your specific team and your specific team alone. As a reminder, these are not your standard, run-of-the-mill wealth rankings. We still rank teams from worst to first. But along with the rankings, we’re taking a deep dive into a handful of teams from around the league that are doing particularly interesting things.
The (predictable) worst-case scenario
29. San Jose earthquakes
28.Austin F.C
27. New England Revolution
26. Chicago Fire
25. Colorado Rapids
24. FCDallas
Asier Illarramendi scored FC Dallas’ first goal of the season, scoring a giant cowboy hat during the postgame celebrations feels like a distant memory. In reality, it was less than a month ago that Illarramendi and Dallas started their campaign with three points.
But a lot has changed since then. And things haven’t changed for the better as the club is on a three-match losing streak.
The 34-year-old Spanish midfielder has played just 135 of a possible 360 minutes this year while struggling with injury. Paxton Pomykal, Illarramendi’s preferred partner in the middle, has only played seven minutes this season due to injury. Fitness concerns were always on the table for Nico Estévez’s favorite midfield player in 2024. According to Transfermarkt, Illarramendi missed 94 games during his last five years in Spain. Pomykal has not played more than 20 games in one season of his career with FC Dallas.
So the predictable worst-case scenario in midfield has arrived in Dallas.
Without a reliable double pivot to propel the team’s new 3-4-3, FC Dallas has struggled on both sides of the ball. It’s still early, but they have the fourth-worst expected goal difference per 90 minutes in MLS at -0.51, according to FBref.
Rotation players being called up for starting central midfield roles have put additional pressure on the backline. Center back was a concern for Dallas before this year started. Nkosi Tafari is the only player you feel good about starting in that position group. But where, I ask, is the help from midfielders Sebastian Lletget and Patrickson Delgado in this Vancouver Whitecaps goal on Saturday?
It’s a real shame to have to defend against a team that has way too many moving parts.
Are you trying to adapt to a new formation (which Estévez temporarily gave up against Vancouver)? Bill. Looking for capable central defenders? Bill. Wait until chemistry develops in the attack between new striker Petar Musa and Jesús Ferreira? Bill. And hope for health for the starters or greatly improved performance from the depth players in midfield? Double check.
There’s a lot of work to do in Dallas.
At home in the half-space
23. Charlotte FC
22. Orlando City
21. New York City FC
20. Houston Dynamo
19. Seattle Sirens
18. DC United
Think of Arjen Robben’s lightning-fast cut to his left foot from the right flank. Or from Johan Cruijff’s classic twist. Or Manuel Neuer’s tendency to push forward outside his own penalty area to win the ball. Big players often have that their thing.
Coco Carrasquilla won’t go down in history as an all-time great, but at this rate? The midfielder could go down in history as a great Houston Dynamo.
The 25-year-old Panama international picked up where he left off last season, making difficult plays look easy in the final third. Once a more traditional central midfielder, Dynamo manager Ben Olsen moved Carrasquilla to the right channel when the team had the ball last season and played a 3-2-5. He will be deployed in the same role this season, albeit with even greater responsibility in the final third thanks to Héctor Herrera’s injury. According to American Soccer Analysis, Carrasquilla’s share of his team’s touches in the attacking third of the pitch has increased from 14.4% last year to 15.6% in 2024.
Carrasquilla is alert on the ball and smart with his movements off the ball. He has plenty of ways to create danger. But he has developed a go-to move in the final third: switching the play from the right half space to the other side of the box.
Here’s that pass that breaks Sporting Kansas City’s defensive shape and leads to a goal in Houston’s season opener:
Few players in MLS provide better service than Carrasquilla, who has kept Houston afloat while three midfielders or attacking starters are injured. It’s so easy to fall in love with its ease and pinpoint accuracy. Now if only the Dynamo would give him a little help in the final third.
Summer can’t come soon enough
17.Nashville SC
16. Toronto FC
15. Philadelphia Union
14. Sporty Kansas City
13.Los Angeles FC
12. St. Louis City
after newsletter promotion
LAFC’s front office came up with an incomplete roster for the first half of the season.
Reigning golden boot winner Denis Bouanga is the only Designated Player in the team. The other two DP spots are open. Of reported With interest in Milan and France striker Olivier Giroud and other European stars, the club clearly believes there is more to be gained in the summer transfer window than in the next month before MLS’s main transfer window closes.
Giroud would be an entertaining and effective addition to LAFC’s front line. As he tormented the opposition’s centre-backs with his large frame, Bouanga could create even more space for himself and his teammates on the left.
While the prospect of Giroud or another high-performing transfer later this year is exciting, Steve Cherundolo has been dealt an imperfect hand to start 2024.
We all know that LAFC will look very different in July than it did in March, so it’s almost impossible to evaluate this team in the meantime. With MLS now on a different calendar from Europe’s top leagues, LAFC is feeling the full brunt of that inconvenience. To grab the high-profile players they want, they’ll have to wait until the middle of the MLS campaign. It’s certainly an inefficient system, but not one with an obvious solution for the more ambitious clubs in the league.
Before the big guns arrive this summer, LAFC will still be among the better teams in the West. Even with Cherundolo’s strange aversion to drilling consistent possession patterns into his players and to setting a forward line in his 4-3-3 with three real strikers, this team is not easy to stop. However, with only four points from four games, this group clearly still has a long way to go.
Progress in Portland
11. Portland wood
10. Real salt lake
9. Vancouver Whitecaps
8. CF Montreal
7. New York Red Bulls
6. Minnesota United
The Portland Timbers scored exactly two goals from their two DPs not named Evander last year. Yes.
Yimmi Chará scored one, while Jaroslaw Niezgoda was friendly with the other. Both players left the club in the offseason after Portland missed the 2023 playoffs. That departure opened up two DP spots for the front office and created the potential for the Timbers to have one of the bigger turnarounds in MLS from last year. to this one.
Even without new DPs besides Evander, Portland has had success with seven points in their first four games. Now I have some concerns about the sustainability of Phil Neville’s attack. According to FBref, they have scored seven goals at just 3.7 xG so far this year and should not rely on long-range game winners at the death to add points to their tally.
While the pessimistic view of Portland is that they are temporarily in trouble, the optimistic view is this:
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Under Marcel they have clear tactical ideas, with an emphasis on mid-block defense and transitional attacks
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Goaltending has been a plus rather than a minus, as in 2023
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The front office just added a DP in Jonathan “Cabecita” Rodríguez
The 30-year-old Uruguayan is not the historic, record-breaking signing he was rumors during the low season. But Cabecita put up strong numbers for several Liga MX clubs, scoring 18 goals in his 3,100 minutes for Club América. He will add a real threat to the Timbers’ offense and clearly take this team a step forward toward their goal of returning to the top of the Western Conference.
The bar for DP production was in Portland’s basement last year. There’s no chance Cabecita does anything other than jump over it this year.
The Five Stripes are back
5. LA system
4. FC Cincinnati
3. Atlanta United
2. InterMiami
1. Columbus crew
Atlanta United look legitimate. With two wins and one loss (which came in Columbus against the reigning MLS Cup champions to start the year), the Five Stripes are flying high. Atlanta United have scored six goals in their last two games, doing well in the final 45 minutes of a 4-1 win over the New England Revolution to beat southeastern rival Orlando City 2-0 last weekend.
While Thiago Almada deservedly demanded a lot of attention in Atlanta in 2023, in 2024 it was the Giorgos Giakoumakis Show. The 29-year-old striker has scored four goals in his last two games and scored a number of absurd finishes. This one with the outside of his right foot from a narrow angle is my favorite of the bunch:
It’s not just his ability to hold serve and put the ball in the back of the net that propels Giakoumakis. Of course, that’s the bulk of it. On one hand, I can count the attackers in MLS who are better than Giakoumakis at creating separation between center backs and finding holes in the penalty area. But his goal threat is not the only weapon in the Greek number 9’s bag. He can also act as a facilitator at times, although distribution will never be the main part of Giakoumakis’ game.
With Giakoumakis leading the charge, vertical threats on both wings, an elite string-puller in Almada and a much more capable foursome keeping things contained, all the pieces fit neatly in Atlanta. This team is going to score goals upon goals upon goals over the next eight months.