Less than two months to go in Season 19 of MLS. I know who the favorite is, and you do too – we'll get to them in a minute.

But let's start our MatchDay 26 recap in Foxborough:

1. The Jermaine Jones Experience

Jermaine Jones was great. Jermaine Jones was appalling. Jermaine Jones was everything we should have expected him to be, given everything we've seen from him with the USMNT and with Schalke. The least surprising thing Jermaine Jones ever does is surprise you.

Let's start with the best part of Jones' brief time with the Revs so far: this game-deciding assist in a 2-1 win over the Fire that highlighted every aspect of what makes him a special talent:

There's the tightness of his turn away from the first challenge, the way he simply accelerates through the second challenge before it can even be properly called a challenge, and then how he releases Charlie Davies into space – outside of his left boot, by the way – as the third defender closes in.

Goal.

It's a play maybe four other guys in MLS can make, and they're all of the "Best XI" sort.

As we all know by now, that is not all there is to Jones. He's (usually) relentless defensively, and dangerous on set pieces, and all over the ball in attack:

He's also much more central than Wenger:

If Wenger's a battering ram, then Le Toux is a ghost. He operates in the spaces that defenders vacate, and nobody has quite figured out how to stop him.

A few more things to ponder...

7. LA's been so great lately that it's taken a bit of the spotlight away from Seattle's season. The first half of their 4-2 win over Chivas TBD on Wednesday was probably the best half of soccer any team has had this year. The next two weeks, though, are killer: Home to RSL, at Philly for the USOC final, at New York, and then at Dallas.

6. Face of the Week goes to Alvaro Saborio, who returned from a four-month absence to do THIS with his first touch in RSL's (gigantic) 2-1 win over FCD:

That's how you celebrate a game-winner in the middle of a playoff race.

And with Sabo back, and Sebastian Jaime in the fold, and Robbie Findley scoring, and Joao Plata playing Best XI-caliber ball... let's not write RSL out of the Western Conference picture just yet.

5. I thought Justin Meram was hot garbage in the first 45 minutes against Chivas on Sunday. Then he came out and turned into Messi for 25 minutes in leading the Crew to a 3-0 win.

Columbus struggled, without Wil Trapp and Tony Tchani, to move the ball as well as they wanted to. But they're coming up with answers that were nowhere to be found a couple of months ago, which is why they're above the red line.

4. Our Pass of the Week comes from Andres Romero in the Montreal Impact's 3-2 loss at Houston:

Yes, there were other, prettier passes this week (Jones' assist to Davies is way up there, and Diego Valeri had a pretty chip we'll get to in a sec). I chose this one from Romero, though, because it illustrates what to me is a bit of a dying art: The early cross.

Romero hits this before the pressure can get to him and forces the defense to play it while running at their own goal. Defenders justifiably hate that.

Far too often, however, we see wingers in Romero's spot decide to take their defender on directly, giving everybody else a chance to catch up and then turn to face the threat. More often than not, these situations end with a hopeful cross that defenders are able to attack while facing away from their own goal – the very definition of a low-percentage play.

I love the early cross. I want to see more of them.

3. Chivas' 596-minute long scoreless streak ended in that loss to Seattle, but a new challenger has appeared. Vancouver's streak is now up to 411 minutes after a 0-0 draw at home vs. D.C. United on Saturday night.

This sums it up:

The 'Caps are still in the playoff race and still pretty much control their own destiny, because...

2. ...Portland somehow managed to drop two points in Sunday's 3-3 draw vs. San Jose.

They took 32 shots. They, in the words of Caleb Porter, "could have scored 10 goals." Diego Valeri created 12 chances all by his lonesome, including THIS beauty on Alvas Powell's opener.

It's taking a toll on the fans:

My tombstone: "The Timbers killed me." — Eric (@ptownEric) September 8, 2014

1. No idea how Thierry Henry got so much power on THIS ball in New York's 2-1 win over Sporting. Also have no idea how he had so much time to pick his spot – there was no reason for the KC defense to be so narrow.

Also, at this point there's no reason to think that KC are one of the league's elite teams. Since transferring Uri Rosell and losing Chance Myers to injury in May they are 7-7-4, and the whole is no longer greater than the sum of the various parts.

Losing two guys who are that good, two guys who knew how to cover for teammates and protect against the gappiness that's plagued this team, is starting to feel like a death sentence.