Where is your coach on the list?

In my weekly MLS Monday wrap-up piece on SI.com, I sometimes zig rather than zag on the Power Rankings. Instead of ranking the teams each week, I might rank the league’s top rookies, or top goalkeepers, etc.  This week, we point the poison pen on the coaches.

The piece should be posted soon. (Update: Here's the link.) For now, here are the top 5 coaches as a quick teaser. The list itself will provide further explanation for each one.

Remember, this list is based on performance in 2010. So keep that in mind when you spank me in the comments for not having Sigi Schmid or Steve Nicol, both high accomplished coaches, higher on the list. (Yes, I’m speaking to you, members of the SB Nation Seattle mafia!)

1. Hans Backe

2. Schellas Hyndman

3. Jason Kreis

4. Bruce Arena

5. Gary Smith

A couple of people you won’t see on the list when it’s posted (it’s a Top 10): Dominic Kinnear and Preki. Read on for more on this ... and other explainers regarding the list ...

Earlier this year I was talking up Preki, whom I always believed was squeezing a lot of juice from a lemon at Chivas USA. His teams, I thought, were always more than the sum of their parts, mostly because they worked so hard and didn’t beat themselves with silly mistakes.

I thought he would bring the same to Toronto and said so in pre-season previews. DuNord’s Bruce McGuire took me behind the woodshed and gave me a right-proper pummeling for this. (Not really … he just sent me a nice note of disagreement.) First it looked like he was right, then for about three months it looked like I was right, as TFC got it together and put itself in dandy playoff positioning.

Now … Well, I’m about ready to make a concession speech on this one. TFC has faded, and I see them struggling to make the playoffs. You’ll read more about that in my SI.com piece, too.

Kinnear didn’t stop being a good coach this year. He just doesn’t have the horses at Robertson Stadium. I could go position-by-position and show you why the Dynamo is faring so poorly this year. At pretty much every spot, the team just isn’t as strong as it was two years ago, or even one year ago. Kinnear couldn’t keep Stuart Holden or Ricardo Clark from going to Europe, of course, so it’s not all his fault. Nor could he keep Geoff Cameron from being injured. So, again, Kinnear isn’t suddenly a bad coach.  

Still, at some point, the coach is responsible for planning for these events. My guess, Kinnear and his Orange will be fine; they just aren’t going to pop up on many Top 10 lists for now.

As for Schmid and his appearance at No. 9 on the list: He’s doing OK this year, and the choice to finally cut bait with Freddie Ljungberg speaks well of him. On the other hand, it’s hard to gloss over a couple of choices made around Qwest, like the decision to leave Sebastien Le Toux unprotected 10 months ago. That man is a freakin’ machine for Philadelphia this year. You can read more about Le Toux’s special season in today’s piece at SI.com as well.