Major League Soccer Club Update

As the finals stages of the CONCACAF Champions League 2008-2009 approach (the quarterfinal round begins on Feb 24 with the final sometime in the April), it is pretty clear which club is the best in Major League Soccer for period between March 2007 (which is when the 2007 MLS Regular season started) and now (the middle of the Champions League Season). It is Houston Dynamo! I say this because in my honest opinion, the best MLS club cannot be measured fairly when simply based on the regular season or even the playoffs, but mostly on how far the club can make it in the Champions League since they play more clubs from other countries from within the rest of North America (the most difficult being the powerhouse clubs of the premier Mexican league), the Caribbean, and Central America). Despite being eliminated by my club--the New York Red Bulls, the Houston Dynamo have proven several times that they are the best club in Major League Soccer and can play well against anyone. After defeating Luis Angel Firpo of El Salvador in the group stage, Houston Dynamo became the only club based in the USA to make it to the quarterfinals of the Champions League where they will play Mexican powerhouse Atlante. At this point, anything can happen and the Dynamo have proven that. Houston Dynamo qualified for the 2008-2009 Champions League after being crowned champion of MLS in 2007 (which should basically be considered part of the 2008-2009 Champions League since most clubs qualify for the tournament in 2007 through their own leagues and national domestic cups) for the second time in a row. Whether or not the Dynamo progress further in CONCACAF this year, it doesn't matter, they are still the best MLS club of 2007-2009. However, after the final stages of the 2008-2008 CONCACAF Champions League, Dynamo's chance of being #1 may seem to fade (although they have qualified for the 2009-2010 CONCACAF Champions League) as Major League Soccer grows and new players from outside of the United States start playing here, which brings me to the topic of this blog post: my current Major League Soccer rankings when looking at how the league would look while playing in the 2009-2010 Champions League which is set to start this summer. These rankings basically come from the quality of play during the regular season/playoffs of the 2008 MLS season and how they qualified for the 2009-2010 Champions League. These rankings can change as the 2009-2010 Champions League begin and as MLS clubs get eliminated:

The top 2 clubs qualified for the group stage of the 2009-2010 CONCACAF Champions League:

1. Columbus Crew: The Crew had a great MLS season in 2008 from start to finish. They are a club that I would have never believe to have even made the playoffs if you asked in 2007, but with a great head coach and great players, they pulled it off. However, as I admit that they had a great season after winning both the 2008 MLS Cup and the 2008 Supporters Shield (best overall regular season record), they will only stay at #1 in my MLS rankings if they can win against tougher clubs from Mexico and Central America. This is the Crew's first time playing on the confederation level, so we will see if they play among the best of CONCACAF. The Crew were already assured qualification into the Champions league group stage after winning the Supporters Shield so winning the MLS Cup was not really important in terms of qualifying for the international stage, but it was an awesome end to an awesome season.

2. Houston Dynamo: The Dynamo are somewhat lucky that they were able to bypass the preliminary round in order to qualify directly into the group stage in the 2009-2010 season, which is partly why I think that they are going fade as the #1 club in the USA soccer. The reason why I think they were lucky is because only 4 clubs can represent the United States (2 clubs qualify directly to the group stage--the winners of the MLS Cup and the winner of the supporters shield--and the other 2 have to prove they are worthy to play in the group stage by playing a two legged playoff, these clubs are the MLS Cup runner up and the US Open Cup champion. Houston Dynamo's greatest to qualify directly into the group stage would have been to win their third straight MLS Cup, but that was not meant to be as the New York Red Bulls defeated them causing the biggest upset in MLS history. Houston's only other chance to keep skip the preliminary round--which they were expected to do was to hope that the Columbus Crew would win the MLS Cup so that Houston Dynamo can claim group stage qualification as Supporters Shield runner up since the Columbus Crew had qualified through both methods. Luckily, this is exactly what happened. If this did not happen, Dynamo would have had to play in the Superliga, which has recently become a reject or consolation competition for MLS clubs that were unable to qualify for the Champions League, somewhat like a UEFA Cup for CONCACAF. However, at this point, the Superliga is only open to American and Mexican premier clubs and was started to strengthen the rivalry between Mexico and the United States.

The clubs I have ranked as third and fourth are the ones that qualified for the preliminary round of the 2009-2010 Champions League. These clubs have to play a two legged playoff in order to prove worthy for the group stage:

3. New York Red Bulls: As a fan of this club, it is really exciting to see the Red Bulls finally play against some other CONCACAF clubs in a high level tournament. I don't expect them to make it far, but I expect them pass the preliminary stage and at least show some good effort in the group stage--making it to the final 8 would be great! The Red Bulls qualified simply by making it to the MLS Cup final. If they had beaten the Columbus Crew, they would have joined the Crew in the group stage automatically which would have forced the Houston Dynamo to play in the preliminary instead. However, I am still critical of the Red Bulls for their rather disappointing regular season, but eliminated Houston in the Western Conference semifinals and finishing as runner up was better than nothing. Hopefully they will do well in the the Champions League.

4. DC United: ONCE upon a time, the United was the most successful club in Major League Soccer, but NOW, they are extremely overrated. I'm not just saying this because I am a fan of their biggest rival, but because it is a FACT. The DC club is extremely lucky to have qualified for the Champions League through the easiest tournament for an MLS club--the US Open Cup--the one cup competition in which all divisions can take a part in as long as they are based in the United States--this included ameatur clubs. DC United is also extremely lucky that the USL Division 1 has seriously embarrassed the single premier soccer league in the United States--lucky because that forced them to play their USL1 rival--the Charleston Battery and therefore, was able to salvage at least some respect for Major League among American soccer fans. DC United was hot only for a small amount of time during the 2008 regular season and it just so happened that the 2008 US Open Cup final was around that time. DC United was able to qualify for this season's Champions League as well by winning the 2007 Supporters Shield but were easily eliminated from the group stage.

Clubs ranked 5 through 8 are the clubs that qualified for the Superliga. Clubs qualify for the Superliga through their overall place in the MLS Regular Season. The top 4 clubs that have not qualified for the Champions League, join 4 of the best clubs in the Mexican Premier League in this competition.

5. Chicago Fire: Lately, the Chicago Fire has become of the better clubs in the Eastern Conference--finishing 2nd in the conference in 2008 behind Columbus Crew. THey are expected to perform well in the Superliga, which the MLS somehow dominated since it started in 2006.

6. New England Revolution: They say the curse of the bambino has left the Red Sox and have now haunted the Revolution or maybe it is also affecting the Patriots as well. If so, the curse must be living in Gillette Stadium because both the Patriots and Revolution play there. The New England Revolution had two chances to win an MLS Cup in 2006 and 2007 against Houston, but Houston won it both times. In 2008, they didn't even make it to the Eastern Conference Championship game. However, they did take the Superliga title in 2008 against Houston. We'll see how they do in 2009 in the Superliga--no Houston to stop them and they are my second favorite club after the Red Bulls.

7. Chivas USA: Nothing much to say about Chivas. They are a good club and they are also expected to do fairly well in the Superliga.

8. Kansas City Wizards: same as Chivas USA. Nothing much to say about them.

Ranked 9th is the club that made it to the MLS Cup playoffs, but did not qualify for the international stage in 2009-2010:

9. Real Salt Lake: Even though they made it to the Western Conference Championship game--on match away from the MLS Cup--only to lose to the Red Bulls 1-0, they failed to make it to the at least the Superliga. This is mostly due to DC United winning the US Open Cup causing Real Salt to take a lover spot in my rankings. Only clubs that manage to qualify for the Champions League/Superliga (international competitions) make it to the top of these rankings.

The clubs ranked 10th to 14th are the ones that did not make it to the postseason in the 2008 MLS season. These clubs are ranked according to their final places in the regular season standings:

10. Colorado Rapids

11. FC Dallas

12. Toronto FC: This club managed to not end the season in last place. However, they still have not really improved that much since their first season on Major League Soccer. This club can still move up in these rankings though as they still have a chance to qualify for the 2009-2010 Champions League. This is because since they are a Canadian based club, they are not allowed to qualify for the Champions League through MLS, but instead through the Canadian Championship-- Canada's version of the US Open Cup. However, this tournament only includes 3 professional clubs: Toronto FC and two USL club--Montreal Impact and the Vancouver Whitecaps. The Canadian Soccer League clubs are not yet allowed to join until they Canadian Soccer Federation decides to expand the competition. This competition will take place during the earlier part of the 2009 MLS season since the 2009-2010 season of the Champions League does not begin until July or August.

13. Los Angeles Galaxy: One of the best players in the world and one of my most favorite players despite being a member of the national team I most despise (England), plays for this club and that is David Beckham. However, ever since Beckham started playing for the Galaxy, they have not advanced to a Conference Championship once, yet Landon Donovan still managed to win the Golden Boot in the 2008 season--the award given the player that scored the most goals in the regular season. The Galaxy is my favorite Western Conference club and I would love to see them make a return to the postseason.

14. San Jose Earthquakes