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MLS Power Ranking Averages - Week 16
"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 14-16)
- Dallas News Soccer Blog (www.soccerblog.dallasnews.com) - (No ranking Week 14-16)
- Deseret News (www.deseretnews.com) - (No ranking Week 13-16)
- 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 9-16)
- Oregon Live (www.oregonlive.com/timbers)
- ProSoccerTalk (prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com) - (No ranking Week 13-16)
- Reddit/MLS (www.reddit.com/r/MLS) - (No ranking Weeks 10-16)
- Seattle Times Blog (blogs.seattletimes.com/soundersfc) - (No ranking Week 16)
- Soccer America (www.socceramerica.com)
- Soccer by Ives (www.soccerbyives.net) - (No ranking Weeks 10-16)
- Sports Illustrated (www.soccer.si.com) - (No ranking Week 14-16)
- UTN Sports (www.utnsports.com/category/soccer) - (No ranking Weeks 6-16)
I apologize for the lateness of getting this week's averages sent, there was a recent death in my family. That also prevented me from doing the evaluation articles I had wanted to do. I'll start including some of the evaluations at the end of each weekly ratings.
Due to the World Cup starting, a LOT of sites didn't publish Power Rankings again this week.
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 16 | Week 14 | Week 13 | Week 12 |
Team |
W16 Avg | W14 Avg | W13 Avg | W12 Avg |
Low |
High |
Var |
1 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
Seattle | 1.00 |
1.00 |
1.00 |
2.56 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
6 |
7 |
9 |
Toronto | 4.50 |
5.80 |
7.00 |
9.56 |
8 |
2 |
6 |
3 |
7 |
9 |
5 |
Kansas City | 4.75 |
6.40 |
8.38 |
5.56 |
13 |
2 |
11 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
4 |
Vancouver | 5.00 |
2.60 |
2.88 |
4.67 |
10 |
3 |
7 |
5 |
3 |
6 |
8 |
D.C. | 6.25 |
4.80 | 5.75 | 8.00 | 11 |
2 |
9 |
5 |
8 |
5 |
5 |
Colorado | 6.25 |
8.80 |
5.63 |
7.44 |
9 |
2 |
7 |
7 |
4 |
3 |
1 |
New England | 7.25 |
5.00 |
3.50 |
1.56 |
9 |
4 |
5 |
8 |
9 |
8 |
6 |
Los Angeles | 7.75 |
9.40 |
7.88 |
6.44 |
15 |
3 |
12 |
9 |
5 |
4 |
2 |
Salt Lake | 8.75 |
5.40 |
3.63 |
2.00 |
18 |
3 |
15 |
10 |
12 |
14 |
11 |
Dallas | 10.50 |
11.40 |
13.75 |
11.44 |
18 |
3 |
15 |
11 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
New York | 11.25 |
9.80 | 12.25 | 12.33 | 14 |
6 |
8 |
12 |
11 |
12 |
15 |
Portland | 11.75 |
11.00 | 12.50 | 14.67 | 15 |
6 |
9 |
13 |
13 |
13 |
10 |
Columbus | 12.75 |
12.60 |
12.63 |
11.11 |
16 |
12 |
4 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
18 |
Philadelphia | 13.25 |
15.60 |
16.13 |
17.89 |
15 |
2 |
13 |
15 |
13 |
10 |
13 | San Jose | 14.00 |
12.60 |
10.00 | 12.44 | 17 |
11 |
6 |
16 |
18 |
18 |
19 |
Montreal | 15.75 |
17.40 |
17.38 |
18.78 |
17 |
7 |
10 |
17 |
17 |
16 |
16 |
Chicago | 16.25 |
16.20 |
16.13 |
15.44 |
19 |
4 |
15 |
18 |
19 |
19 |
17 |
Chivas | 17.25 |
18.60 |
18.88 |
15.78 |
19 |
15 |
4 |
19 |
16 |
15 |
13 |
Houston | 18.75 |
16.00 |
14.13 |
12.44 |
19 |
17 |
2 |
Biggest Changes |
Point Gaps |
High / Low Variance |
Rise Toronto : +4 Kansas City : +4 Colorado: +3 Fall Salt Lake: -4 New England : -3 Houston: -3 |
Largest Seattle - 3.50 - Toronto Salt Lake - 1.75 - Dallas San Jose- 1.75 - Montreal Smallest D.C. - 0.00 - Colorado Toronto - 0.25 - Kansas City Kansas City - 0.25 - Vancouver |
0 positions: Seattle 2 position: Houston 4 positions: Columbus, Chivas 5 positions: New England 6 positions: Toronto, San Jose 7 positions: Vancouver, Colorado 8 positions: New York 9 positions: D.C., Portland 10 positions: Montreal 11 positions: Kansas City 12 positions: L.A. 13 positions: Philadelphia 15 positions: Salt Lake, Dallas, Chicago |
Season Average Power Ranking
Pos |
Team |
W16 Avg | W14 Avg | W13 Avg | W12 Avg | W11 Avg | W10 Avg | W9 Avg | W8 Avg | W7 Avg | W6 Avg |
1 |
Salt Lake |
2.90 |
2.29 |
2.05 |
1.92 |
1.92 |
1.97 |
2.05 |
2.05 | 2.03 |
2.14 |
2 |
Seattle | 3.82 |
3.88 |
4.10 |
4.36 | 4.52 | 4.71 | 4.84 | 5.32 | 5.95 | 6.39 |
3 |
Kansas City | 4.31 |
4.62 |
4.48 |
4.15 |
4.03 |
3.94 |
4.13 |
4.28 | 4.28 |
4.53 |
4 |
Vancouver | 6.97 |
6.62 |
6.92 |
7.26 | 7.50 | 7.77 | 8.08 | 8.20 | 8.28 | 8.07 |
5 |
Toronto | 7.44 |
7.59 |
7.73 |
7.79 |
7.63 |
7.51 |
7.01 |
6.43 |
6.14 |
5.88 |
6 |
Los Angeles | 7.45 |
7.65 |
7.52 |
7.49 |
7.58 |
7.28 |
7.20 |
6.97 |
6.94 |
7.17 |
7 |
Dallas | 7.95 |
7.38 |
7.07 |
6.52 |
6.07 |
5.69 |
5.33 |
5.25 | 5.29 |
5.66 |
8 |
Colorado | 8.68 |
8.62 |
8.61 |
8.86 |
8.99 |
8.84 |
8.81 |
9.11 |
9.00 |
9.50 |
9 |
New England | 9.23 |
9.37 |
9.70 |
10.22 |
11.01 |
11.92 |
12.88 |
13.76 |
14.30 |
14.81 |
10 |
Columbus | 9.36 |
8.78 |
8.49 |
8.14 |
7.87 |
7.30 |
6.70 |
6.42 | 6.54 | 6.55 |
11 |
Houston | 10.27 |
9.79 |
9.31 |
8.91 |
8.59 |
8.63 |
8.24 |
7.80 | 6.82 |
5.86 |
12 |
New York | 10.90 |
11.54 |
11.67 |
11.62 |
11.56 |
11.64 |
12.01 |
12.67 |
13.16 |
13.24 |
13 |
D.C. | 12.00 |
12.19 |
12.76 |
13.34 |
13.83 |
14.44 |
15.19 |
15.68 |
16.63 |
17.38 |
14 |
Portland | 12.52 |
13.45 |
13.64 |
13.74 |
13.65 |
13.34 |
13.09 |
12.92 |
12.19 |
11.39 |
15 |
Philadelphia | 12.75 |
12.90 |
12.69 |
12.41 |
11.91 |
11.42 |
10.75 |
10.14 | 9.53 |
9.16 |
16 | San Jose | 14.10 |
14.23 |
14.35 |
14.72 | 14.92 | 14.98 | 15.24 | 15.24 | 15.35 | 15.03 |
17 |
Chicago | 15.51 |
15.60 |
15.55 |
15.51 |
15.51 |
15.75 |
15.78 |
15.55 |
15.56 |
15.63 |
18 |
Chivas | 15.60 |
15.29 |
15.04 |
14.72 |
14.62 |
14.58 |
14.38 |
13.86 | 13.36 |
13.10 |
19 |
Montreal |
17.55 |
17.87 |
17.90 |
17.95 |
17.87 |
17.81 |
17.72 |
17.82 |
18.01 |
17.85 |
Largest gaps:
- 2.66 points between Kansas City and Vancouver
- 1.95 points between Chivas and Montreal
- 1.41 points between San Jose and Chicago
Smallest gaps:
- 0.01 points between Toronto and L.A.
- 0.13 points between New England and Columbus
- 0.23 points between Portland and Philadelphia
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 |
4 |
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)
- 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.
ESPN (espn.go.com/sports/soccer/mls)
Weeks in parenthesis are the site's numbering which is off from the actual due to starting their week 1 at pre-season.
Date | 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 | (2) 1 | 17 | 16 | 13 | 11 | 19 | 10 | 6 | 5 | 18 | 15 | 14 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 12 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 9 |
03/17/14 | (3) 2 | 16 | 10 | 14 | 11 | 19 | 6 | 1 | 7 | 18 | 17 | 15 | 3 | 8 | 2 | 13 | 5 | 9 | 4 | 12 |
03/24/14 | (4) 3 | 16 | 13 | 8 | 7 | 19 | 5 | 2 | 11 | 18 | 17 | 14 | 9 | 12 | 3 | 15 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 10 |
03/31/14 | (5) 4 | 16 | 12 | 9 | 1 | 19 | 3 | 7 | 11 | 17 | 14 | 13 | 10 | 15 | 2 | 18 | 8 | 4 | 6 | 5 |
04/07/14 | (6) 5 | 17 | 12 | 6 | 5 | 14 | 1 | 8 | 11 | 18 | 15 | 13 | 10 | 16 | 2 | 19 | 9 | 3 | 4 | 7 |
04/14/14 | (7) 6 | 17 | 14 | 1 | 6 | 10 | 4 | 13 | 8 | 18 | 11 | 15 | 12 | 16 | 2 | 19 | 7 | 3 | 5 | 9 |
04/21/14 | (8) 7 | 16 | 15 | 4 | 5 | 10 | 2 | 13 | 7 | 19 | 11 | 12 | 14 | 17 | 1 | 18 | 6 | 3 | 8 | 9 |
04/28/14 | (9) 8 | 16 | 18 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 17 | 7 | 14 | 9 | 10 | 15 | 19 | 2 | 13 | 1 | 4 | 11 | 12 |
05/05/14 | (10) 9 | 18 | 19 | 4 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 14 | 10 | 13 | 5 | 6 | 17 | 15 | 2 | 16 | 1 | 3 | 12 | 11 |
05/12/14 | (11) 10 | 16 | 18 | 9 | 14 | 5 | 10 | 12 | 8 | 17 | 1 | 7 | 19 | 15 | 2 | 13 | 4 | 3 | 11 | 6 |
05/19/14 | (12) 11 | 12 | 18 | 11 | 15 | 5 | 13 | 7 | 10 | 17 | 1 | 9 | 19 | 16 | 2 | 14 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 4 |
05/26/14 | (13) 12 | 12 | 17 | 9 | 14 | 5 | 16 | 10 | 6 | 18 | 1 | 11 | 19 | 15 | 2 | 13 | 3 | 7 | 8 | 4 |
06/02/14 | (14) 13 | 14 | 19 | 8 | 15 | 5 | 18 | 12 | 6 | 16 | 2 | 11 | 17 | 13 | 3 | 10 | 1 | 9 | 7 | 4 |
06/09/14 | (15) 14 | 15 | 19 | 9 | 13 | 6 | 17 | 14 | 7 | 16 | 3 | 10 | 18 | 12 | 5 | 11 | 1 | 8 | 4 | 2 |
Site Average |
15.67 | 15.93 | 8.33 | 9.80 | 10.93 | 8.53 | 9.73 | 7.80 | 17.00 | 8.60 | 10.93 | 13.20 | 13.00 | 2.47 | 14.33 | 4.00 | 4.80 | 7.00 | 7.93 |
|
W14 PR Ave |
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 |
|
+ / - |
+0.07 |
+0.64 |
-0.29 |
+1.02 |
-1.26 |
+1.15 |
-0.06 |
+0.15 |
-0.87 |
-0.77 |
-0.61 |
+0.3 |
-0.45 |
+0.18 |
+0.1 |
+0.12 |
+0.18 |
-0.59 |
+1.31 |
- Consistency: Perfect. No dates missed
- Bias: 4 teams a variance over 1; highest was +1.31 and closest to average was -0.06
- Fairness: There were a number of large jumps in the first few weeks, I exclude that due to both teams and raters getting settled. The largest jumps after Wk5 were Colorado (5 pos. Wk6), Houston (5 pos. Wk 6), Montreal (5 pos. Wk 8), San Jose (5 pos. Wk 8), Seattle (5 pos. Wk 8), Colorado (5 pos. Wk 10), Columbus (5 pos. Wk 10), Vancouver (5 pos. Wk 10), Houston (5 pos. Wk 11). That's nine 5 position jumps from week 6 to 11, there were also numerous 3 and 4 point jumps. Some may certainly be explained, others may not without more examination.
Major League Soccer (mlssoccer.com/news/power-rankings)
Weeks in parenthesis are the site's numbering which is off from the actual starting W4 due to unknown reasons.
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 | 16 | 14 | 17 | 8 | 19 | 12 | 5 | 7 | 18 | 13 | 9 | 10 | 4 | 1 | 11 | 3 | 2 | 15 | 6 |
03/18/14 | 2 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 8 | 19 | 13 | 1 | 7 | 18 | 17 | 9 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 12 | 6 | 3 | 11 | 10 |
03/25/14 | 3 | 15 | 16 | 11 | 5 | 19 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 18 | 17 | 9 | 8 | 14 | 4 | 13 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 12 |
04/01/14 | (5) 4 | 17 | 14 | 12 | 2 | 19 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 18 | 13 | 11 | 10 | 15 | 4 | 16 | 7 | 3 | 8 | 6 |
04/08/14 | (6) 5 | 14 | 15 | 9 | 4 | 18 | 1 | 8 | 6 | 19 | 16 | 12 | 11 | 13 | 2 | 17 | 7 | 3 | 5 | 10 |
04/15/14 | (7) 6 | 13 | 14 | 7 | 5 | 15 | 2 | 12 | 6 | 19 | 11 | 17 | 9 | 16 | 1 | 18 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 10 |
04/22/14 | (8) 7 | 13 | 16 | 7 | 6 | 15 | 2 | 11 | 5 | 19 | 12 | 14 | 10 | 17 | 1 | 18 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 9 |
04/29/14 | (9) 8 | 15 | 19 | 9 | 6 | 12 | 3 | 13 | 5 | 18 | 11 | 10 | 14 | 17 | 2 | 16 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 8 |
05/09/14 | (10) 9 | 16 | 19 | 8 | 10 | 13 | 6 | 11 | 9 | 18 | 4 | 5 | 15 | 14 | 2 | 17 | 1 | 3 | 12 | 7 |
05/13/14 | (11) 10 | 15 | 17 | 10 | 12 | 9 | 8 | 11 | 7 | 19 | 3 | 6 | 18 | 16 | 1 | 14 | 4 | 2 | 13 | 5 |
05/20/14 | (12) 11 | 14 | 15 | 12 | 11 | 7 | 10 | 8 | 13 | 19 | 2 | 6 | 17 | 18 | 1 | 16 | 3 | 4 | 9 | 5 |
05/28/14 | (13) 12 | 17 | 16 | 10 | 11 | 6 | 12 | 13 | 9 | 19 | 2 | 8 | 18 | 15 | 1 | 14 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 4 |
06/03/14 | (14) 13 | 16 | 19 | 8 | 12 | 5 | 13 | 15 | 9 | 17 | 4 | 10 | 18 | 14 | 2 | 11 | 1 | 7 | 6 | 3 |
06/10/14 | (15) 14 | 16 | 19 | 10 | 12 | 5 | 13 | 18 | 11 | 17 | 7 | 8 | 15 | 9 | 2 | 14 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 3 |
Average | 15.07 | 16.40 | 10.67 | 8.27 | 13.20 | 7.47 | 9.40 | 7.73 | 18.33 | 9.27 | 9.27 | 12.53 | 12.60 | 2.00 | 14.40 | 3.80 | 3.33 | 9.07 | 7.20 | |
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 |
|
+ / - |
-0.53 |
+1.11 |
+2.05 |
-0.51 |
+1.01 |
+0.09 |
-0.39 |
+0.08 |
+0.46 |
-0.1 |
-2.27 |
-0.37 |
-0.85 |
-0.29 |
+0.17 |
-0.08 |
-1.29 |
+1.48 |
+0.58 |
- Consistency: Perfect. No dates missed
- Bias: 2 teams with a variance above 2; the highest was -2.27, closest to average was +0.08.
- Fairness: As with ESPN, there were several large jumps in the early weeks which I exclude for the same reasons above. Jumps after week 5 include New England (7 pos. Wk 9), LA (6 pos. Wk 11), New York (5 pos. Wk 9), Toronto (5 pos. Wk 9). While there were less large jumps in position than ESPN, two of them were higher. New England's jump of 7 positions came after back to back wins, however other teams that shared that feat did receive the same treatment. LA's tumble of 6 places came after just one loss, and even factoring in their previous 4 (W-D-L-D) it's rather drastic.