Power Rankings never cease to spark outrage. But here at Backheeled? We’re not here to cause anger. No, we’re here to dissect the latest performances, trends, tactics, and news for each of MLS’s 30 clubs. Every week during the MLS season, Ben Wright will guide you through the Eastern Conference teams and Joe Lowery will do the same for the West.
Okay, fine. We’re also here to spark some outrage, because we’re ranking all 30 teams, too. Power Rankings are based on each club’s average position across Ben and Joe’s individual rankings. Onwards.
1. Vancouver Whitecaps
Trending: No change
It’s just like I’ve always said. There are three constants in life: death, taxes, and the Vancouver Whitecaps doing absurdly impressive stuff.
Just days after playing noticeably better ball than Inter Miami and winning 2-0 at home in the first leg of the Concacaf Champions Cup semis, Vancouver travelled to Minnesota United and won 3-1 with a heavily rotated team. They just don’t stop, people. Following his game-opening goal, I wrote about Sebastian Berhalter going supernova — and about how the rest of the league missed the boat on trading for him prior to this point — earlier this week.
But it’s not just Berhalter who’s made The Leap this season. It’s Pedro Vite, too.
The 23-year-old Ecuadorian midfielder is making a living off of this right-to-left diagonal runs in the final third, where he bounces the ball off a teammate and continues his run until he has the chance to do something magical. Here’s one of those runs that led to an assist against Miami in CCC:
Brian White heads it in for the opening goal! 💥 pic.twitter.com/RMFdeYRkXQ
— Concacaf Champions Cup (@TheChampions) April 25, 2025
And here’s one that led to his first goal against Minnesota:
'Caps are COOKING. 👨🍳
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) April 27, 2025
Pedro Vite finishes a beautiful team move to double the @WhitecapsFC advantage. pic.twitter.com/nOShhSm0Dq
Good luck finding a midfield trio more effective than Vite, Berhalter, and Andres Cubas. - Joe Lowery
