The Mane Land MLS Power Rankings: Week 13

The New York clubs made the headlines in Week 12 with convincing wins amid rumors that both coaches could make moves overseas in the coming months. Streaks like the Portland Timbers’ and Columbus Crew’s lived on through some scrappy play and close victories while Orlando City lost its second match in a row and fell out of the top 10 for the first time in weeks.

Check out how the rest of the power rankings shook out ahead of Week 13:

1. New York Red Bulls (Last Week: 2)

Rumors of Jesse Marsch joining a European version of the Red Bulls have swirled in recent days, but it didn’t distract New York on Sunday. Bradley Wright-Phillips went to town, scoring his seventh and eighth goals of the campaign. The Bulls have now won four straight in convincing fashion.

2. New York City FC (Last Week: 4)

David Villa Day was capped off with a brace from the Spaniard as the home side slaughtered the Colorado Rapids. NYCFC still looks untouchable at Yankee Stadium, but that could change as Patrick Vieira seems to inch closer to an exit for OGC Nice.

3. Sporting Kansas City (Last Week: 1)

Khiry Shelton got his first goal in an SKC shirt, rising up over Francisco Calvo, but Darwin Quintero found an equalizer just a few minutes later. Sporting did everything possible to get the go-ahead goal, firing 24 shots but was unable to beat Bobby Shuttleworth for a second time. While it wasn’t the ideal result, Kansas City continues to top the Western Conference.

4. Columbus Crew (Last Week: 6)

It wasn’t pretty, but Columbus found a way to unlock New England’s press in Gillette. The Crew found a late winner through Lalas Abubakar’s header and stretched their unbeaten run to six games with four clean sheets.

5. Atlanta United (Last Week: 3)

Atlanta’s players and staff took to slating Chris Penso after the 3-1 loss at home, but Penso wasn’t letting Bradley Wright-Phillips dominate in the six-yard box. Greg Garza was sent off for a studs-up challenge, Leandro Gonzalez Pirez should have been sent off for denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity, and United took a deserved loss on the evening.

6. Portland Timbers (Last Week: 10)

The Timbers have gone on a tear, winning their fifth in a row, this time against LAFC. It seemed as though Tyler Miller was going to pull miracle after miracle out to deny Portland all afternoon, but Samuel Armenteros found some magic of his own to find the late winner.

7. Los Angeles FC (Last Week: 5)

Carlos Vela is unstoppable at times, but some leaky defense once again was the Achilles heel for LAFC. No matter how many times the Mexican maestro bends a ball inside the far post, if Laurent Ciman and Walker Zimmerman can’t stay on the same page, Tyler Miller will still need to be Superman.

8. Houston Dynamo (Last Week: 9)

In a shocking turn of events, the Houston Dynamo have lost just once on the road in 2018. They continued that trend with a 3-2 win in Chicago, as Alberth Elis eased past three Fire defenders for the winner in the 74th minute. Houston has now won three of its last five.

9. FC Dallas (Last Week: 8)

Dallas dominated at home against the Vancouver Whitecaps, scoring three goals. The only problem was that the third was an own goal and in a panicked state eight minutes into stoppage time, keeper Jimmy Maurer took down Anthony Blondell, handing Vancouver a penalty and a draw.

10. Toronto FC (Last Week: 12)

The Reds got back on track thanks in a large part to young Canadian Ryan Telfer, who put on a show, spinning Will Johnson in circles before volleying home the game winner with minutes to spare. But can TFC keep it going?

11. Orlando City (Last Week: 7)

City was surprisingly without Dom Dwyer, which took the bite out of the Lions’ attack. While Cristian Higuita hit another class strike from outside the box, it wasn’t enough as Orlando’s defense allowed a late goal to let a road point slip away and lose two straight.

12. Seattle Sounders (Last Week: 13)

The Sounders took the week off.

13. New England Revolution (Last Week: 11)

Brad Friedel’s system was cracked open by Gregg Berhalter, who broke away from his normally systematic passing style for long balls on Saturday night in an attempt to beat the press. The Revs weren’t fully equipped to handle it and struggled offensively without many attempts to win the ball close to the Crew goal. If Columbus just provided the blueprint to beat New England, the Revs could be in trouble.

14. LA Galaxy (Last Week: 15)

Red cards don’t get much more obvious than Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s slap on Michael Petrasso. The Swede put his team into an early hole going down a man in the first half, but the Galaxy fought back and came out with a road victory anyway.

15. Chicago Fire (Last Week: 14)

The Fire’s struggles continued against Houston, where the pace of the Dynamo was too much to handle for Chicago’s makeshift defense. Nemanja Nikolic and Diego Campos got on the score sheet, but Houston’s offense was too much. The Men in Red have just one win from their last five.

16. Vancouver Whitecaps (Last Week: 18)

The Whitecaps somehow managed to find two late equalizers, including in Dallas where Vancouver scored two goals while recording just one shot on target. Young Peruvian Yordy Reyna was the hero against San Jose, while Kei Kamara buried a late pen to save a point on the road.

17. Philadelphia Union (Last Week: 20)

Philadelphia’s offense started clicking against struggling RSL as four different players scored, including young midfielder Marcus Epps. But we’ve seen this kind of scoring outburst before from the Union just to be held in check for the next few weeks.

18. Minnesota United (Last Week: 21)

After some shocking defending in recent weeks, Minnesota held on during an onslaught from SKC. Darwin Quintero managed to put home a rebound he bounced off Tim Melia, which happened to be both of the Loons’ shots on target. United was happy to walk away with a point.

19. Montreal Impact (Last Week: 16)

The Impact couldn’t beat the struggling Galaxy at home, up a man, with LA without Zlatan for most of the match. The hot-and-cold nature of Remi Garde’s side has been cold more often than not, leaving the Quebecois club with just nine points on the year and one spot out of the basement.

20. San Jose Earthquakes (Last Week: 19)

The Quakes had a double game week with a trip up to Vancouver and a home match with D.C. Nick Lima looked to have scored the winner midweek against the Caps, but Vancouver managed to find an equalizer 10 minutes later. San Jose seemingly didn’t make the trip back to the Bay, where they were dominated at the weekend.

21. D.C. United (Last Week: 23)

D.C. made the long road trip out to San Jose after two straight losses and managed to come away with a 3-1 win, with Zoltan Stieber, Darren Mattocks, and Yamil Asad all finding the back of the net.

22. Real Salt Lake (Last Week: 17)

Something is wrong in Salt Lake City. RSL has been taken to the woodshed in four out of the last six matches, with wins over lowly (10-man) D.C. United and Colorado to make things look respectable. The Union were the latest side to take the Utah club to task, dropping four on Salt Lake’s back line.

23. Colorado Rapids (Last Week: 22)

It’s not easy to get a result in Yankee Stadium, but you at least expect some fight. For a defensive side looking to crowd the middle of the park, it seemed as though the Rapids could have a formula for at least a draw in New York. But Colorado was barnstormed from kickoff and is now looking up at the rest of the West.