Don't count D.C. out. They figured it out the end of last season with Mullins. I think Columbus could be the casualty from your list if we're looking at a true linear progression from one season to the next.
I'm just waiting to see the implosion at Orlando when kreis fcks it up there considering their impatient owners.
I think after Orlando the Kreis apologists will finally shut the hell up. Unless of course he's managed to figure out how to sign players and scout talent in the intervening months. I've been basically convinced that Garth Lagerway was the brains behind that RSL team and that Kreis managed to not screw it up. He can play a team competently and occasionally design some tactics that work. But hes not good enough to manage a top tier MLS team in the current game.
He's much like Ned Grabavoy, not necessarily bad per se but hes getting passed by in a rapidly growing league. The 2015 Ned Grabavoy we complained about so mightily would still have been a good player in 2009 MLS, its just the growth of the league in every conceivable metric has passed him by.