Saturday's match against the Chicago Fire wasn't exactly the best match of the season, and that definitely reflects in Week 31 Power Rankings.
On the bright side, New York can still claim a spot in the postseason with a win/draw against Kansas City on Oct. 20 and/or a Columbus Crew loss. Ideally, in an effort to avoid that play-in game, the perfect scenario would have Columbus defeating DC United and New York beating Sporting KC to leapfrog DC and claim third place in the East.
But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves right now. The team has a week off to get things back on track before SKC and reset the odometers for a run into the postseason. Until then, we'll have to settle for the following spots in the power rankings:
MLSsoccer.com demotes the Red Bulls from third place to eighth
:
The Power Rankings Politburo may have lost faith with the Red Bulls. With seven games left they had five at home and two winnable road games; they’ve gone 2-2-1 to start that stretch off, and never looked threatening against either Chicago or Sporting."
ESPN Soccernet also drops the Red Bulls down to eighth overall
after putting them as high as fifth last week:
"The Red Bulls didn't cough up any early goals this time, but their defense looked suspect enough in conceding two second-half tallies against the Fire. Now New York is worried about having a dreaded play-in game."
Sports Illustrated's Avi Creditor followed in suit,
placing the Red Bulls at No. 8
.
That wraps up this installment of power rankings. Nothing much to recap other than the fact that the Red Bulls will enter their Oct. 20 match against SKC ranked 8th overall in all three of these rankings. A win would undoubtedly help improve upon that number.
For tickets to the regular season finale at Red Bull Arena,
visit Red Bulls Ticket Central
or call 877.RB.SOCCER.
