Welcome back to the Guardian’s MLS Power Rankings, where I have a beef with your specific team and your specific team alone. Please address your complaints to the desk of Garth Lagerwey, who really has nothing else on his plate. He’ll have time to address each complaint, I’m sure, because he definitely doesn’t have a roster to retool, a manager to hire, and a brand-new front office vacancy to fill.
Now, as a reminder, these aren’t your standard, run-of-the-mill power rankings. We’re still ranking teams from worst to first. But along with the rankings, we’re diving deep into a handful of teams from around the league who are doing particularly interesting things.
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What to do when you have nothing to play for
29. San Jose Earthquakes
28. CF Montreal
27. New England Revolution
26. Sporting Kansas City
25. Chicago Fire
24. Nashville SC
Forgive me for being blunt, San Jose, but you have nothing to play for. You’re sitting dead last in points across both conferences. One public postseason probability model gives you less than a 1% chance of making the playoffs, which is about as close to flashing a big neon sign that says “ELIMINATED” as you can get with one number and one percent sign. When hopelessness sets in, where do you turn? In MLS, a league without any real consequences for being bad enough that you start to feel hopeless, you turn to next year.
In their final seven matches, San Jose have to sort out how club-record signing Hernán López is being used before the wheels turn towards 2025.
The Quakes splashed a reported $6m fee for the Argentine No 10 earlier this season. The issue? He doesn’t create many chances. He progresses the ball through midfield at a high level, but the guy isn’t producing in the final third. One way to tweak Lopez’s usage is to feed him more often. He takes 15.1% of his team’s touches in the final third, according to American Soccer Analysis, well below the league’s best attacking midfielders. Lucho Acosta averages 23.7%. Carles Gil averages 21.7%. Evander averages 18.7%.
Encouraging López to stay higher – and encouraging the players around him to find the Argentine more often – could be the first step towards a brighter future for the Quakes.
The West’s best bubble team
23. Toronto FC
22. DC United
21. Austin FC
20. FC Dallas
19. St….