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Average power ranking culled from 6 sites, includes weekly high / low and overall season average. Few sites published due to World Cup coverage. Also an evaluation of 2 of the 16 sites used.
MLS Power Ranking Averages - Week 17
"If two teams played tomorrow, given their current injury concerns, form, and other considerations, who is likely to win on a neutral field? This list is designed to tell you who we feel is most likely to win that matchup. All things being equal, who is the best team going forward, based on what we know now?"
-Richard Farley, NBC Sports ProSoccerTalk. 3/11/14
Sites Used:
- Allvoices (www.allvoices.com/users/zacwassink)
- Black & Red United (www.blackandredunited.com) - (No ranking Week 14-17)
- Dallas News Soccer Blog (www.soccerblog.dallasnews.com) - (No ranking Week 14-17)
- Deseret News (www.deseretnews.com) - (No ranking Week 13-17)
- ESPN (espn.go.com/sports/soccer/mls)
- Fansided-MLS Multiplex (fansided.com/category/soccer/mls/mls-multiplex)
- Major League Soccer (www.mlssoccer.com)
- Northbank-RSL (www.northbankrsl.com) - (No ranking Weeks 9-17)
- Oregon Live (www.oregonlive.com/timbers)
- ProSoccerTalk (prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com) - (No ranking Week 13-17)
- Reddit/MLS (www.reddit.com/r/MLS) - (No ranking Weeks 10-17)
- Seattle Times Blog (blogs.seattletimes.com/soundersfc) - (No ranking Week 16-17 *writer resigned)
- Soccer America (www.socceramerica.com)
- Soccer by Ives (www.soccerbyives.net) - (No ranking Weeks 10-17)
- Sports Illustrated (www.soccer.si.com) - (No ranking Week 14-17)
- UTN Sports (www.utnsports.com/category/soccer) - (No ranking Weeks 6-17)
Once again due to the World Cup starting, a LOT of sites didn't publish Power Rankings for week 17.
If you know of a Power Ranking site that I have not included, please send it to me via this site or on reddit.com/r/MLS and I will consider using it.
Weekly Power Ranking Averages
Using the "Olympic" method of dropping the highest / lowest scores, and averaging the rest.
There were no Power Rankings for week 15 due to the World Cup break.
Week 17 | Week 16 | Week 14 | Week 13 |
Team |
W17 Avg | W16 Avg | W14 Avg | W13 Avg |
Low |
High |
Var |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Seattle | 1.00 |
1.00 |
1.00 |
1.00 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
Vancouver | 3.00 | 5.00 | 2.60 | 2.88 | 7 |
2 |
5 |
3 |
5 |
3 |
6 |
D.C. | 3.50 | 6.25 | 4.80 | 5.75 | 5 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
3 |
7 |
9 |
Kansas City | 5.00 | 4.75 | 6.40 | 8.38 | 15 |
2 |
13 |
5 |
9 |
5 |
4 |
Salt Lake | 6.25 | 8.75 | 5.40 | 3.63 | 8 |
3 |
5 |
6 |
2 |
6 |
7 |
Toronto | 6.50 |
4.50 |
5.80 |
7.00 |
14 |
4 |
10 |
7 |
5 |
8 |
5 |
Colorado | 7.50 | 6.25 | 8.80 | 5.63 | 13 |
3 |
10 |
8 |
10 |
12 |
14 |
Dallas | 8.75 | 10.50 | 11.40 | 13.75 | 13 |
1 |
12 |
9 |
7 |
4 |
3 |
New England | 9.25 |
7.25 |
5.00 |
3.50 |
10 |
7 |
3 |
9 |
8 |
9 |
8 |
Los Angeles | 9.25 |
7.75 |
9.40 |
7.88 |
12 |
3 |
9 |
11 |
12 |
11 |
12 |
Portland | 10.75 | 11.75 | 11.00 | 12.50 | 14 |
7 |
7 |
12 |
11 |
10 |
11 |
New York | 11.00 |
11.25 |
9.80 | 12.25 | 16 |
5 |
11 |
13 |
13 |
13 |
13 |
Columbus | 12.25 | 12.75 | 12.60 | 12.63 | 14 |
11 |
3 |
14 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
Philadelphia | 14.25 | 13.25 | 15.60 | 16.13 | 16 |
8 |
8 |
15 |
18 |
19 |
19 |
Chivas | 14.50 | 17.25 | 18.60 | 18.88 | 17 |
5 |
12 |
16 |
17 |
17 |
16 |
Chicago | 15.75 | 16.25 | 16.20 | 16.13 | 18 |
9 |
9 |
17 |
16 |
18 |
18 |
Montreal | 17.75 |
15.75 |
17.40 |
17.38 |
19 |
17 |
2 |
18 |
15 |
13 |
10 |
San Jose | 18.00 | 14.00 | 12.60 | 10.00 | 19 |
13 |
6 |
18 |
19 |
16 |
15 |
Houston | 18.00 |
18.75 |
16.00 |
14.13 |
19 |
15 |
4 |
Biggest Changes |
Point Gaps |
High / Low Variance |
Rise Salt Lake : +4 Chivas : +3 Fall Toronto: -4 San Jose: -3 |
Largest Seattle - 2.00 - Vancouver Columbus - 2.00 - Philadelphia Chicago - 2.00 - Montreal Smallest New England - 0.00 - Los Angeles San Jose - 0.00 - Houston Salt Lake - 0.25 - Toronto Portland - 0.25 - New York Philadelphia - 0.25 - Chivas Montreal - 0.25 - San Jose/Houston |
0 positions: Seattle 2 position: Montreal 3 positions: D.C., New England, Columbus 4 positions: Houston 5 positions: Vancouver, Salt Lake 6 positions: San Jose 7 positions: Portland 8 positions: Philadelphia 9 positions: Los Angeles, Chicago 10 positions: Toronto, Colorado 11 positions: New York 12 positions: Dallas, Chivas 13 positions: Kansas City |
Season Average Power Ranking
W17 |
W16 |
Team |
W17 Avg | W16 Avg | W14 Avg | W13 Avg | W12 Avg | W11 Avg | W10 Avg | W9 Avg | W8 Avg |
1 |
1 |
Salt Lake |
3.09 |
2.90 |
2.29 |
2.05 |
1.92 |
1.92 |
1.97 |
2.05 |
2.05 |
2 |
2 |
Seattle | 3.65 |
3.82 |
3.88 |
4.10 |
4.36 | 4.52 | 4.71 | 4.84 | 5.32 |
3 |
3 |
Kansas City | 4.35 |
4.31 |
4.62 |
4.48 |
4.15 |
4.03 |
3.94 |
4.13 |
4.28 |
4 |
4 |
Vancouver | 6.73 |
6.97 |
6.62 |
6.92 |
7.26 | 7.50 | 7.77 | 8.08 | 8.20 |
5 |
5 |
Toronto | 7.38 |
7.44 |
7.59 |
7.73 |
7.79 |
7.63 |
7.51 |
7.01 |
6.43 |
6 |
6 |
Los Angeles | 7.55 |
7.45 |
7.65 |
7.52 |
7.49 |
7.58 |
7.28 |
7.20 |
6.97 |
7 |
7 |
Dallas | 7.99 |
7.95 |
7.38 |
7.07 |
6.52 |
6.07 |
5.69 |
5.33 |
5.25 |
8 |
8 |
Colorado | 8.61 |
8.68 |
8.62 |
8.61 |
8.86 |
8.99 |
8.84 |
8.81 |
9.11 |
9 |
9 |
New England | 9.23 |
9.23 |
9.37 |
9.70 |
10.22 |
11.01 |
11.92 |
12.88 |
13.76 |
10 |
10 |
Columbus | 9.53 |
9.36 |
8.78 |
8.49 |
8.14 |
7.87 |
7.30 |
6.70 |
6.42 |
11 |
11 |
Houston | 10.72 |
10.27 |
9.79 |
9.31 |
8.91 |
8.59 |
8.63 |
8.24 |
7.80 |
12 |
12 |
New York | 10.91 |
10.90 |
11.54 |
11.67 |
11.62 |
11.56 |
11.64 |
12.01 |
12.67 |
13 |
13 |
D.C. | 11.50 |
12.00 |
12.19 |
12.76 |
13.34 |
13.83 |
14.44 |
15.19 |
15.68 |
14 |
14 |
Portland | 12.42 |
12.52 |
13.45 |
13.64 |
13.74 |
13.65 |
13.34 |
13.09 |
12.92 |
15 |
15 |
Philadelphia | 12.84 |
12.75 |
12.90 |
12.69 |
12.41 |
11.91 |
11.42 |
10.75 |
10.14 |
16 |
16 | San Jose | 14.33 |
14.10 |
14.23 |
14.35 |
14.72 | 14.92 | 14.98 | 15.24 | 15.24 |
17 |
17 |
Chicago | 15.52 |
15.51 |
15.60 |
15.55 |
15.51 |
15.51 |
15.75 |
15.78 |
15.55 |
18 |
18 |
Chivas | 15.54 |
15.60 |
15.29 |
15.04 |
14.72 |
14.62 |
14.58 |
14.38 |
13.86 |
19 |
19 |
Montreal |
17.56 |
17.55 |
17.87 |
17.90 |
17.95 |
17.87 |
17.81 |
17.72 |
17.82 |
Team High/Low
Best and worst placement for each team
Team |
Weekly High |
Weekly Low |
Season High |
Season Low |
Chicago Fire |
13 |
18 |
16 |
18 |
Chivas USA |
12 |
19 |
13 |
18 |
Colorado Rapids |
4 |
14 |
8 |
13 |
Columbus Crew |
2 |
14 |
5 |
11 |
D.C. United |
3 |
19 |
13 |
19 |
FC Dallas |
1 |
14 |
3 |
11 |
Houston Dynamo |
1 |
19 |
2 |
11 |
LA Galaxy |
5 |
11 |
5 |
9 |
Montreal Impact |
16 |
19 |
17 |
19 |
New England Revolution |
1 |
18 |
9 |
17 |
New York Red Bulls |
7 |
17 |
8 |
14 |
Philadelphia Union |
3 |
18 |
8 |
15 |
Portland Timbers |
3 |
18 |
4 |
15 |
Real Salt Lake |
1 |
9 |
1 |
1 |
San Jose Earthquakes |
10 |
18 |
14 |
17 |
Seattle Sounders |
1 |
9 |
2 |
6 |
Sporting Kansas City |
2 |
9 |
2 |
3 |
Toronto FC |
2 |
12 |
4 |
12 |
Vancouver Whitecaps |
2 |
11 |
4 |
9 |
- In the weekly averages 5 teams have been ranked 1st (Dallas, Houston, New England, Salt Lake, Seattle), and 3 teams have placed last (Chivas, D.C., Montreal).
- In the season averages only 1 team has been ranked 1st (Salt Lake), and 2 teams last (D.C., Montreal).
Site Evaluations
I've broken the sites into 4 groups of 4 for easier publishing.
- Group 1 - the "Big" sites (ESPN, SI, MLS, PST) *ESPN & MLS done last week.
- Group 2 - the "dead" sites (Northbank, Reddit, SBI, UTN)
- Group 3 - Newspapers (Dallas, Deseret, Oregon, SA)
- Group 4 - Fan blogs (Allvoices, B&R, Multiplex, Seattle)
To avoid making each article longer than necessary I'll split the groups of 4 into 2 separate pieces over the next 8 weeks (or less since some sites have stopped). Each site will be evaluated based on the Week 14 PR Averages above, I'll do a post-season evaluation for the latter half of the season.
Here's my evaluation criteria.
- Consistency - Publish regularly.
- Bias - Teams are rated equally, not on any obvious bias.
- Fairness - Teams dropping / rising significantly due to one result is not a fair representation of overall performance.
ProSoccerTalk (prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com)
Site | WEEK | C-Fire | CUSA | C-Rpd | Ccrw | DCU | FCD | H-Dyn | LAG | M-Ipt | NER | NYRB | Puni | Ptim | RSL | SJEq | Ssdr | SKC | TFC | Vwcp |
03/12/14 | 1 | 18 | 14 | 11 | 10 | 19 | 15 | 8 | 5 | 17 | 16 | 9 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 11 | 6 | 2 | 11 | 4 |
03/18/14 | 2 | 17 | 11 | 14 | 9 | 19 | 13 | 2 | 8 | 15 | 18 | 16 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 7 | 10 | 5 | 4 | 12 |
03/25/14 | 3 | 15 | 14 | 11 | 3 | 19 | 8 | 6 | 9 | 18 | 17 | 16 | 5 | 13 | 2 | 10 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 12 |
04/01/14 | 4 | 17 | 15 | 11 | 3 | 19 | 8 | 6 | 9 | 16 | 12 | 18 | 5 | 13 | 1 | 14 | 7 | 2 | 4 | 10 |
04/08/14 | 5 | 14 | 15 | 10 | 4 | 19 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 17 | 16 | 18 | 9 | 12 | 2 | 13 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 11 |
04/15/14 | 6 | 14 | 15 | 8 | 4 | 17 | 7 | 12 | 6 | 18 | 11 | 19 | 9 | 16 | 2 | 13 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 10 |
04/23/14 | 7 | 14 | 18 | 8 | 7 | 16 | 5 | 11 | 4 | 19 | 10 | 17 | 12 | 15 | 2 | 13 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 9 |
04/30/14 | 8 | 13 | 18 | 10 | 7 | 15 | 5 | 16 | 4 | 19 | 11 | 8 | 17 | 14 | 3 | 12 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 9 |
05/06/14 | 9 | 16 | 19 | 10 | 6 | 15 | 5 | 14 | 4 | 18 | 7 | 8 | 17 | 12 | 3 | 13 | 1 | 2 | 11 | 9 |
05/13/14 | 10 | 14 | 17 | 16 | 11 | 9 | 10 | 13 | 5 | 19 | 3 | 7 | 18 | 15 | 2 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 12 | 6 |
05/20/14 | 11 | 13 | 17 | 18 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 9 | 6 | 19 | 1 | 7 | 15 | 16 | 2 | 10 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 5 |
05/27/14 | 12 | 15 | 17 | 14 | 11 | 7 | 13 | 12 | 5 | 19 | 1 | 10 | 18 | 16 | 2 | 9 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 5 |
n/a | 13 | |||||||||||||||||||
n/a | 14 | |||||||||||||||||||
Average | 14.39 | 15.31 | 11.46 | 7.15 | 15.00 | 8.92 | 9.31 | 5.54 | 17.08 | 9.85 | 11.85 | 10.92 | 11.77 | 2.00 | 10.62 | 4.62 | 2.39 | 6.15 | 8.23 | |
All Site average | 15.60 |
15.29 |
8.62 |
8.78 |
12.19 |
7.38 |
9.79 |
7.65 |
17.87 |
9.37 |
11.54 |
12.90 |
13.45 |
2.29 |
14.23 |
3.88 |
4.62 |
7.59 |
6.62 |
|
+ / - |
-1.21 |
+0.02 |
+2.84 |
-1.63 |
+2.81 |
+1.54 |
-0.48 |
-2.11 |
-0.79 |
+0.48 |
+0.31 |
-1.98 |
-1.68 |
-0.29 |
-3.61 |
+0.74 |
-2.23 |
-1.44 |
+1.61 |
- Consistency: Missed twice since start of season (likely due to increased World Cup coverage).
- Bias: 4 teams with a variance above 2; highest was -3.61, closest to average was +0.02
- Fairness: Excluding the first 5 weeks the largest jumps were New York (9 pos. Wk 8), D.C. (6 pos. Wk 10), New England (5 pos. Wk 6), Houston (5 pos. Wk 8), Toronto (5 pos. Wk 9), Dallas (5 pos. Wk 10), San Jose (5 pos. Wk 10). As with the MLS ratings there were only 2 jumps higher than 5, the 9 position jump for New York is quite excessive coming after back to back wins over two struggling teams.
Sports Illustrated (www.si.com/soccer/planet-futbol)
Site | WEEK | C-Fire | CUSA | C-Rpd | Ccrw | DCU | FCD | H-Dyn | LAG | M-Ipt | NER | NYRB | Puni | Ptim | RSL | SJEq | Ssdr | SKC | TFC | Vwcp |
03/11/14 | 1 | 17 | 16 | 11 | 13 | 19 | 10 | 6 | 7 | 18 | 9 | 5 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 14 | 4 | 2 | 15 | 12 |
03/17/14 | 2 | 17 | 12 | 10 | 13 | 19 | 9 | 1 | 8 | 18 | 15 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 16 | 7 | 4 | 11 | 14 |
03/24/14 | 3 | 16 | 13 | 9 | 10 | 18 | 8 | 1 | 7 | 19 | 15 | 12 | 3 | 11 | 4 | 17 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 14 |
03/31/14 | 4 | 17 | 13 | 10 | 1 | 19 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 18 | 14 | 12 | 6 | 15 | 3 | 16 | 9 | 2 | 7 | 11 |
04/07/14 | 5 | 16 | 14 | 9 | 4 | 18 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 19 | 13 | 12 | 7 | 15 | 1 | 17 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 11 |
04/14/14 | 6 | 15 | 12 | 7 | 2 | 17 | 4 | 10 | 9 | 19 | 11 | 14 | 8 | 16 | 1 | 18 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 13 |
04/21/14 | 7 | 16 | 14 | 8 | 4 | 15 | 3 | 10 | 7 | 19 | 11 | 13 | 9 | 17 | 1 | 18 | 5 | 2 | 6 | 12 |
04/28/14 | 8 | 16 | 15 | 9 | 5 | 12 | 4 | 14 | 7 | 18 | 10 | 8 | 13 | 19 | 1 | 17 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 11 |
05/05/14 | 9 | 19 | 16 | 7 | 10 | 13 | 6 | 12 | 9 | 17 | 5 | 4 | 14 | 15 | 2 | 18 | 1 | 3 | 11 | 8 |
05/12/14 | 10 | 18 | 14 | 9 | 13 | 10 | 8 | 12 | 7 | 19 | 4 | 6 | 17 | 15 | 1 | 16 | 3 | 2 | 11 | 5 |
05/19/14 | 11 | 17 | 13 | 10 | 14 | 12 | 6 | 11 | 7 | 19 | 3 | 8 | 15 | 16 | 1 | 18 | 2 | 5 | 9 | 4 |
05/26/14 | 12 | 18 | 13 | 7 | 12 | 11 | 9 | 14 | 5 | 19 | 1 | 10 | 17 | 15 | 2 | 16 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 4 |
06/02/14 | 13 | 19 | 18 | 5 | 13 | 9 | 12 | 15 | 8 | 18 | 3 | 10 | 16 | 11 | 4 | 14 | 1 | 7 | 6 | 2 |
n/a | 14 | |||||||||||||||||||
Average | 16.64 | 14.43 | 8.57 | 9.36 | 15.00 | 6.86 | 8.93 | 7.43 | 18.29 | 8.57 | 8.86 | 10.36 | 12.57 | 1.93 | 16.29 | 4.57 | 3.36 | 8.36 | 9.71 | |
All Site average | 15.60 |
15.29 |
8.62 |
8.78 |
12.19 |
7.38 |
9.79 |
7.65 |
17.87 |
9.37 |
11.54 |
12.90 |
13.45 |
2.29 |
14.23 |
3.88 |
4.62 |
7.59 |
6.62 |
|
+ / - |
+1.04 |
-0.86 |
-0.05 |
+0.58 |
+2.81 |
-0.52 |
-0.86 |
-0.22 |
+0.42 |
-0.80 |
-2.68 |
-2.54 |
-0.88 |
-0.36 |
+2.06 |
+0.69 |
-1.26 |
+0.77 |
+3.09 |
- Consistency: Missed publishing once since start of season (likely due to increased World Cup coverage).
- Bias: 5 teams with a variance above 2; highest was +3.09, closest to average was -0.05
- Fairness: Excluding the first 5 weeks the largest jumps were New York (5 pos. Wk 8), Columbus (5 pos. Wk 9), New England (5 pos. Wk 9), Toronto (5 pos. Wk 9), Chivas (5 pos. Wk 13). With only 5 teams making jumps of 5 positions S.I. is easily the most fair of this group.