Welcome to another edition of “Discuss,” in which MLSsoccer.com editors debate the topics of the moment in MLS.
Our question this time: How exactly will the Western Conference shake out?
The West is a tangled mess of teams at the moment. Houston, Seattle and Sporting Kansas City are tied atop the conference with 37 points through 24 games. They’re only six points ahead of seventh place Vancouver, with FC Dallas (35 points), Portland (34 points) and San Jose (32 points) sitting in between. All seven of those clubs have at least a decent chance of making the MLS Cup Playoffs, as do RSL, who are three points behind San Jose but have played the most games in the conference.
Editor-in-Chief Simon Borg, Senior Editors Arielle Castillo, Nicholas Rosano and Andrew Wiebe and Contributors Alicia Rodriguez and Sam Stejskal picked how they thought all 11 teams in the West would finish the regular season. The average of their predictions mostly matches up with the current standings, with Seattle unanimously picked to head into the playoffs with the conference’s top seed.
Here’s how the group's full predictions averaged out:
# |
Club |
Average Rank |
Current Position |
|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Seattle Sounders |
1 |
T-1 |
2 |
Sporting KC |
2.83 |
T-1 |
3 |
FC Dallas |
2.83 |
4 |
4 |
Houston Dynamo |
3.33 |
T-1 |
5 |
Portland Timbers |
5.67 |
5 |
6 |
Vancouver Whitecaps |
5.67 |
7 |
7 |
San Jose Earthquakes |
7.17 |
6 |
8 |
Real Salt Lake |
7.67 |
8 |
9 |
LA Galaxy |
8.83 |
9 |
10 |
Colorado Rapids |
10.5 |
10 |
11 |
Minnesota United FC |
10.5 |
11 |
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