The Seattle Sounders have certainly caught up to their lofty pre-season expectations, considering the start that they had to the season. Already well on their way to their third straight Open Cup - Seattle beat the Los Angeles Galaxy yesterday 3-1 to make it to the semifinals - the Sounders have picked up an eight game undefeated streak in MLS play, a great boost after a very slow start to the year, getting only two points in their first four games. Their great form has put them all the way up into 2nd place in the league with 35 points, a mere four away from the Supporters Shield leading LA Galaxy.

Of course, they're flying higher than ever before right now after defeating their arch-rivals the Portland Timbers 3-2 in Portland, well on their way to the Cascadia Cup as well with Vancouver looking down in the dumps this season and Portland now in a heck of a hole in the Cascadia standings.

Seattle's success this season is, as it has often been with Seattle, their powerful offense. 28 goals give them the second most in MLS this season, second only to the New York Red Bulls. Losing Steve Zakuani (let's not get into that) didn't phase them a bit with the deep offense they've put together, with guys like Freddy Montero - who also leads the league in shots! - Alvaro Fernandez and Brad Evans all scoring four or more goals for the side. A frightening team to play for any defense.

The Houston Dynamo are largely the same team as they were the last time they faced the Rapids, which is to say a talented group but one that doesn't win all that many games, specifically on the road where they are currently winless. In fact roster-wise the only real move that they've made is to lose forward Koke to a... less than stellar turn of events involving him basically taking his ball and going home after a gang of lackadaisical appearances for Houston.

The Houston attack continues to be their best asset, tied for the second most goals in the Eastern Conference with 22. Brad Davis has had MVP form - or at least team MVP form - with 9 assists along with a pair of goals for the team. Their goals are coming from all over, with Cam Weaver and rookie Will Bruin providing four a piece and former Rapids player Colin Clark snagging a couple himself, one of which came the last time that these two teams met.

That last game ended 2-1 in favor of Colorado at Robertson Stadium as young goalkeeper Tally Hall made a mistake on a 40 yard free kick from Jamie Smith and Scott Palguta scored a late winner to give the Rapids the somewhat lucky road win. Houston has yet to win on the road this season so the game at DSGP should be somewhat tough on the visitors.

The Columbus Crew just two years ago were the toast of the town and the top class of MLS. Between 2008 and 2009 they won three trophies, including their first ever MLS Cup against the New York Red Bulls as they 'did the double' as it were after also winning the Supporters Shield. Even last season they made the US Open Cup final and made some noise in CONCACAF's Champions League, but after a second straight year of collapsing to an underdog in the first round, they broke up the band as it were. Talent like Frankie Hedjuk and Guillermo Barros Schelotto were dropped while very little was brought in by the Crew over the offseason.

As expected, the now talent depleted Crew are not having a season up to par with their previous dominant campaigns from 2007-2010.

They do still have a lot of talent on the team, at least on the offensive side. Andres Mendoza is actually starting to catch up to his status as a DP while they have prolific MLS goalscorer Jeff Cunningham on the squad as well. William Hesmer is one of the better goalkeepers in the league, although the rest of the defensive corps around him aren't exactly doing their part. One thing to note about the Crew is their home record vs. their away record. Columbus have only won a single game on the road, while at home they've only lost once, their most recent game against the Fire.

Meanwhile yearly underachiever Robbie Rogers is on the team as well, still in denial that he lost to Denver on penalty kicks. (Couldn't resist, sorry.)

The Los Angeles Galaxy won the Supporters Shield last season after making the MLS Cup Finals the year previous, just nudging out Real Salt Lake for the award with an incredibly strong season from top to bottom. Edson Buddle came very close to winning the golden boot award, David Beckham rebounded from a couple of mediocre years to look surprisingly like his old self and Landon Donovan was... well, Landon Donovan. This season started off slightly slow for the defending Shield holders this year, with several draws and a 4-1 loss to Salt Lake on the record, but the team has bounced back and are now first in the West for the time being.

The team has looked a lot less potent without their current MVP candidate Donovan in the line-up this season, which spells good news for Colorado as Donovan is currently in the Gold Cup playing for the United States. Even without Landon though, LA has managed a long string of great results recently after that tepid start to the year. Another supporters shield wouldn't be out of the question for these guys if injury stays away and they manage to keep pace better than Salt Lake with Donovan around.

The Portland Timbers have shown themselves to be two different teams this season. When they're at home in front of the deafening Timbers Army, they have played cohesively and brilliantly at times on the way to an almost undefeated record at home with the only blemish coming against DC United in a highly disputed match in terms of the referees making some questionable decisions. On the road, on the other hand... well, we all remember the last meeting of the Rapids and Portland where the Timbers were completely manhandled to the tune of a 3-1 final.

Portland is led by captain Jack Jewsbury through the midfield with their goals coming from all over the place but most notably former US International and FC Dallas striker Kenny Cooper, who has three goals right now for them. Portland's bread and butter this season has been the set piece, so if you're fouling Portland often you can expect the goals to start flowing for them, especially at home. In fact, the only goal we saw from them - and their first MLS goal ever - against the Rapids came on, of all things, a free kick.

Oh yeah, and their coach John Spencer was pretty good when he played for the Rapids way back when as well, or something.

Portland are incredibly dangerous at home and anyone going to JELD-WEN Field should be intimidated. This isn't the same scared, timid team that we saw in March.

This scouting report looked a lot different before last week, let me tell you. Before the Philadelphia Union's 6-2 drubbing of Toronto FC, they were quite possibly the most boring team to watch in the history of MLS. The goals weren't flowing for them but they weren't much flowing for their opposition either, as every single week seemed to end with 1-0, 1-1 or 0-0 scores whenever the blue and gold were involved.

The story of this team has been defense, led by their new goalkeeper Faryd Mondragón. The Colombian has injected a new sense of fire and poise into the defense of the Union that we never came close to seeing last year. The offense might be woken up now, and looking at the people that they have around to score their goals it shouldn't be much of a surprise. Sebastien Le Toux and Danny Mwanga are still pretty good up top despite not having the goals on record this year to show it. All in all, this team has gone from a bottom-feeder last year to a top club this year with only a few minor tweaks and a new shut-down defensive mentality. If they are finally scoring goals as well, this club will be dangerous.

There are three things you really need to know about the re-named Kansas City Wizards, now known as Sporting Kansas City. First of all, their nickname is the Sporks. That's pretty awesome.

The second thing is that they have one of the best gangs of strikers in the league. Guys like Omar Bravo, Teal Bunbury, rookie CJ Sapong and Kei Kamara combine to make a ton of scoring chances for the club and produce goals every week of the fun to watch variety.

And the third thing is that they're currently on the tail end of a never-ending road trip as they wait for their new soccer specific stadium to be built in Kansas City. This road trip is taking its toll on Sporting's game, as they have only a single win in the season so far, won in the first week of the season. This team has enough talent to get by, but LiveStrong Park can't open fast enough for these poor guys.

Oh yeah, and insert Ochocinco joke here.

If there is a club in MLS that is more desperate to get some silverware this year than any other, that team is the New York Red Bulls. With Colorado taking the MLS Cup last season, the once named Metrostars remain the only original MLS Franchise who still exist that do not have a single trophy to their name. The solution, as always in football it seems, is money.

New York currently leads the league in designated players, with such big names as former Arsenal star and French international Thierry Henry and Mexican captain Rafael Marquez leading the way for this squad. Not to be made into the Yankees of footy, they have a fine internal youth movement as well with guys like US national team member Juan Agudelo and last season's rookie of the year Tim Ream filling out the squad. Faced with a problem with their playmaking in the midfield - their starter in the midfield for that purpose was Mehdi Ballouchy, if you remember him (ugh) - they took advantage of a weakened Toronto FC to get rid of some of their young depth for Dwayne De Rosario.

With 16 points right now, New York's powerful squad has them second in the table. They've had some maddening results - typical New York, one could say - such as the 3-2 loss at home to the weak Chivas USA, but they still remain possibly the most powerful team in MLS. No silverware this year for this team would have to go down as the most disappointing in the history of the Red Bulls.