Power's back on!

Alllllright! Great to be back in action with MLS, not to mention we still have all sorts of Euro action going on, and more Open Cup games right around the corner. I really should have asked for Direct Kick for Father's Day...

But anyway, I was a bit proactive this week and actually got everything setup ahead of time. I thought I was in good plug and chug shape until I noticed an error in the spreadsheet and apparently totally whiffed on a week of rankings. I've doubled checked everything and it seems like it's back in working order. Or at least it seemed to track right... Of course it's all subjective anyway, so who really cares? Well, I care. So that's 1. And 1 in 7 billion isn't awful...

Let's look at the tables, shall we?

Weeks 13, 14 and 15
Team	Rank	Weekly Δ	Rating	Weekly Δ
Salt Lake City	1	NC	5.643	0.357
Kansas City	2	3	7.071	0.236
New York	3	-1	7.143	-0.451
San Jose	4	-1	7.286	-0.593
DC	5	+1	7.571	0.429
Seattle	6	-2	8.214	-0.984
Vancouver	7	NC	8.929	0.456
Colorado	8	NC	10.071	-0.302
Houston	9	+1	10.214	0.324
Chicago	10	-1	10.429	0.110
Columbus	11	NC	10.857	0.220
Chivas	12	NC	13.286	-0.286
New England	13	+1	13.357	0.181
Portland	14	-1	13.571	-0.187
LA	15	+1	13.643	0.280
Montreal	16	+1	13.643	0.511
Dallas	17	-2	14.286	-0.440
Philadelphia	18	NC	14.571	-0.341
Toronto	19	NC	19.000	0.077

A few things jumped out to me as weird until I looked at it a bit more. The big one was Chicago winning but still dropping a rank. The win seemingly didn't do that much to their relative standings, but I imagine it will add up next week as a loss drops off and is replaced by the win. The other strange thing is how Toronto actually gained some ranking points despite losing. They actually aren't having the worst run of form in the league right now. That honor belongs to Seattle, who drop two slots and almost a full rating point. Except them to be even lower in a week or two unless they really win big.

Some teams are still a bit high and some probably a bit low, but I expect there to be some real movement next week among teams ranked 2-5 and 12-16. There's some real tightness in the league right now among teams competing for the shield and teams trying to get back into the playoff hunt, which should make for an exciting second half of the season.

Congrats to RSL, who, at this point, are pretty clearly the class of MLS. Here's to hoping SKC can catch and mug them though...