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Week 12 MLS Power Ranking Averages from 16 sites

One new site added making a total of 18 now being used; 16 of them published for week 12. Seattle runs away with first (again), and a new team takes over last.

By Kreg Asay
Anne-Marie Sorvin-USA TODAY Sports


MLS Power Ranking Averages - Week 12

One new site by request - the Jeff Sagarin's pure ELO rankings have been added, and the averages have been adjusted for Wk 11 which resolved all of the previous ties.  Earlier weeks are not accessible.   Out of the 18 current sites, 16 are included below.

As always, if you come across any that I have not included please send me a link and I'll add it to the list.

Here's a reminder of the Power Ranking "Guidelines":

"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 match-up. 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:

  • Major League Soccer (www.mlssoccer.com/news/power-rankings)
  • Soccer by Ives (www.sbisoccer.com/sbi-mls-power-rankings)
  • Soccer America (www.socceramerica.com)
  • ESPN (espnfc.us/major-league-soccer)
  • Seattle Times Blog (seattletimes.com/author/matt-pentz)
  • MLS GB (mlsbg.com/tag/power-rankings)
  • Black & Red United (www.blackandredunited.com)
  • Sports Illustrated (www.soccer.si.com)
  • The Mane Land (themaneland.com)
  • Who Scored 'team rating' (whoscored.com/Regions/233/Tournaments/85/USA-Major-League-Soccer)
  • Reddit MLS subreddit (reddit/r/mls)
  • The Sports Network (sportsnetwork.com) *No ranking for Wk 12
  • Soccer Information Network (soccerinformationnetwork.com)
  • Soccer In America (soccer-in-america.com)
  • MLS Fantasy Boss (mlsfantasyboss.com)
  • NBC Sports Pro Soccer Talk (prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com) *No ranking for Wk 12
  • Bleacher Report (bleacherreport.com/mls)
  • Jeff Sagarin's MLS Rankings (sagarin.com/sports/soccer.htm)

Dead Lists:

  • Playing for 90 (playingfor90.com) - Published once
  • Examiner (examiner.com/topic/power-rankings) - Published 3 times

You may notice several 'team specific' sites used; yes they will at times be a bit more biased for/against certain teams, as such the averages use the Olympic Method of dropping the highest and lowest scores, and averaging the rest to compensate for possible bias.  Each week I'll also be listing the sites closest and furthest from average to show which are more biased than others.


Weekly Power Ranking Averages
Using the "Olympic" method of dropping the highest / lowest scores, and averaging the rest.

Wk 12 Wk 11 Wk 10 Wk 9 Wk 8
 Team
 		W12 Avg W11 Avg W10 Avg W9 Avg W8 Avg Worst
 		Best
 		Range
1
 1
 5
 1
 2
 Seattle 1.36
 1.53
 4.00
 1.50
 3.00
 5
 1
 4
2
 4
 1
 2
 3
 D.C. 2.57
 4.07
 2.86
 2.21
 3.54
 6
 1
 5
3
 3
 3
 5
 7
 Dallas 3.64
 3.40
 3.36
 5.21
 7.15
 5
 2
 3
4
 2
 2
 4
 1
 New York RB 4.79
 2.53
 3.21
 4.64
 1.69
 9
 1
 8
5
 5
 4
 3
 6
 New England 4.86
 4.27
 3.93
 3.21
 5.38
 10
 2
 8
6
 9
 9
 8
 9
 Kansas City 5.93
 8.47
 9.29
 8.71
 10.00
 10
 3
 7
7
 6
 6
 6
 4
 Vancouver 7.64
 6.07
 4.43
 5.64
 4.38
 12
 4
 8
8
 7
 11
 12
 12
 San Jose 8.21
 7.87
 11.00
 11.93
 12.46
 12
 4
 8
9
 8
 7
 8
 7
 Columbus 9.14
 8.13
 7.14
 8.71
 7.15
 12
 5
 7
10
 11
 8
 7
 5
 Los Angeles 9.43
 10.93
 8.29
 6.14
 4.54
 14
 2
 12
11
 12
 14
 11
 15
 Toronto 10.71 12.60
 13.79
 11.36
 14.15
 16
 7
 9
12
 13
 10
 10
 10
 Salt Lake 11.57
 13.07
 10.14
 11.21
 10.62
 16
 6
 10
13
 10
 13
 15
 13
 Houston 12.79
 10.87
 13.21
 15.29
 12.85
 18
 9
 9
14
 14
 16
 16
 16
 Orlando 14.50
 13.80
 16.00
 15.67
 15.77
 19
 12
 7
15
 17
 17
 17
 17
 Colorado 15.29
 16.60
 16.07
 15.71
 17.00
 18
 9
 9
16
 18
 19
 19
 20
 Montreal 16.43
 17.40
 19.07
 19.29
 19.54
 19
 12
 7
17
 15
 12
 13
 147
 Portland 16.57
 14.07
 11.79
 12.86
 13.00
 19
 10
 9
18
 16
 15
 14
 11
 Chicago 16.71
 15.73
 14.93
 13.14
 11.77
 19
 12
 7
19
 20
 20
 19
 19
 Philadelphia 18.36
 19.40
 19.50
 19.29
 19.15
 20
 15
 5
20
 19
 18
 18
 18
 New York FC 20.00
 19.13
 18.29
 18.21
 17.54
 20
 17
 3

Site Evaluations
Each site's ranking is compared to the weekly averages above.  The best and worst # of matches is indicated.  Team bias column shows what team the site shows the highest average for/against.

Site
 		# Exact
 		1 off
 		2 off
 3 off 4 off Furthest off
 		Team bias vs
 		Team bias for
Major League Soccer 5
 11
 1
 3
 0
 DCU +3, LAG/SKC -3
 SJE +2.35
 CLB -1.82
Soccer by Ives 5
 8
 5
 2
 0
 LAG +3, SJE -3
 SJE +3.66
 NER -3.30
Soccer America 11
 4
 2
 2
 1
 SJE -4
 CLB +2.48
 HOU -2.15
ESPN 3
 9
 4
 3
 1
 LAG +4
 NYC +2.11
 NER -2.07
Seattle Times 4
 10
 4
 2
 0
 COL +3, NER -3
 NYRB +3.38
 TFC -3.09
MLS GB 6
 6
 3
 3
 2
 TFC +5
 TFC +2.45
 COL -1.58
Black & Red United 4
 6
 4
 3
 3
 CHI -6
 CLB +1.91
 SJE -2.29
Sports Illustrated 3
 9
 2
 5
 1
 RSL -6
 SKC +3.23
 ORL -2.48
The Mane Land 6
 5
 2
 4
 3
 VAN +5
 SKC +2.23
 LAG -2.81
Who Scored 1
 2
 1
 7
 9
 COL -6
 ORL +5.60
 COL -5.89
Reddit /r/MLS
 15
 3
 1
 1
 0
 CHI -3
 COL +1.28
 CLB -1.84
The Sports Network
 NR NR NR NR NR NR TFC +3.44
 SJE -3.46
Soccer Information Network 6
 5
 5
 3
 1
 POR -4
 DCU +2.05
 POR -4.35
Soccer In America 11
 3
 3
 3
 0
 CLB/SJE +3, RSL -3
 TFC +1.96
 NYRB -2.09
MLS Fantasy Boss 3
 3
 8
 2
 4
 LAG -8
 SJE +4.29
 POR -5.52
NBC Sports Pro Soccer Talk NR NR NR NR NR NR SKC +5.48
 VAN -3.52
Bleacher Report
 5
 7
 5
 3
 0
 LAG/NER+3, SKC -3
 LAG +4.44
 NER -4.55
Jeff Sagarin
 6
 4
 2
 4
 4
 NER/RSL+4, COL/TFC -4
 LAG +7.44
 COL -5.89
  • Most Accurate Site: (best Exact, with +1 as tiebreaker) Reddit /r/MLS
  • Least Accurate Site: (most 4+ with +3 as tiebreaker) Who Scored
  • Furthest Off: MLS Fantasy Boss with LAG eight places higher than average.
  • Site with Worst Bias: Jeff Sagarin's Rankings for placing the L.A. Galaxy an average of 7.44 places better than their average.  This is based on only 2 weeks, thus it should be reduced as more ratings are made.
  • Site with Least Bias: Reddit /r/MLS which has both for/against less than 2 places from average.


Season Average Power Ranking

Team
2015
(run. avg)
 W12 Avg W11 Avg W10 Avg W9 Avg W8 Avg 2014 Avg 2013 Avg
 		2012 Avg
FC Dallas 3.44
 3.85
 3.87
 3.91
 3.98
 3.82
 4.04
 9.36
 4.39
Seattle Sounders 3.59
 3.57
 3.73
 3.93
 3.94
 4.25
 4.04
 9.36
 4.39
LA Galaxy 3.60
 5.56
 5.19
 4.60
 4.21
 3.97
 6.77
 5.14
 2.46
D.C. United
 5.60
 4.70
 4.88
 4.97
 5.19
 5.56
 12.15
 17.29
 9.33
New York Red Bulls 6.48
 4.39
 4.36
 4.54
 4.69
 4.69
 11.07 6.38 7.23
Vancouver Whitecaps 7.89
 5.85
 5.68
 5.66
 5.78
 5.79
 7.40
 10.41
 7.87
Real Salt Lake 8.70
 9.29
 9.03
 8.63
 8.46
 8.12
 2.94 4.52 8.40
Columbus Crew SC 9.00
 8.67
 8.60
 8.66
 8.81
 5.56
 8.97
 12.89
 9.46
Toronto FC 9.53
 11.94
 12.04
 11.99
 11.78
 11.84
 7.47
 16.85
 10.96
Sporting Kansas City 10.28
 9.52
 9.81
 9.95
 10.02
 10.19
 4.45
 4.45
 3.09
New York City FC 11.35
 14.20
 13.72
 13.18
 12.61
 11.91
 N/A N/A N/A
Orlando City
 11.53
 12.98
 12.90
 12.81
 12.46
 12.06
 N/A N/A N/A
Portland Timbers
 11.93
 12.77
 12.38
 12.19
 12.25
 12.18
 11.34 5.73 13.89
New England Revolution 12.01
 9.22
 9.53
 10.05 10.74 11.68 11.50 12.35 14.84
San Jose Earthquakes 12.44
 10.96
 11.27
 11.64
 11.68
 11.65
 14.44
 12.34
 4.86
Houston Dynamo
 12.69
 13.30
 13.39
 13.66
 13.70
 13.50
 9.48
 7.74
 6.29
Philadelphia Union
 17.03
 18.14
 18.17
 18.04
 17.88
 17.71
 11.33
 10.53
 15.70
Colorado Rapids
 17.11
 16.89
 17.08
 17.14
 17.25
 17.44
 9.66
 9.79
 10.06
Chicago Fire 17.54
 16.02
 15.95
 15.95
 16.09 16.45 15.61 14.27 13.07
Montreal Impact
 18.28
 18.40
 18.59
 18.71
 18.67
 18.59
 17.67 5.32
 15.74


Team High / Low
Best and worst placement for each team in weekly, avg rank total.

Team
 		Weekly
Best 		Weekly
Worst 		Best
Wk. Avg.
 		Worst
Wk. Avg.
Chicago Fire
 11
 20
 11.77 19.93
Colorado Rapids
 15
 19
 15.29
 19.17
Columbus Crew SC
 5
 12
 6.38
 11.38
D.C. United
 1
 10
 2.21
 10.40
FC Dallas
 1
 7
 1.13
 7.15
Houston Dynamo
 7
 17
 8.38
 16.67
LA Galaxy
 1
 11
 1.69
 10.79
Montreal Impact
 16
 20
 16.43
 19.92
New England Revolution
 3
 17
 3.21
 15.69
New York City FC
 4
 20
 6.69
 20.00
New York Red Bulls
 1
 11
 1.38
 11.15
Orlando City
 7
 16
 7.31
 16.00
Philadelphia Union
 16
 20
 14.62
 19.69
Portland Timbers
 10
 17
 10.83
 16.57
Real Salt Lake
 5
 13
 4.69
 13.07
San Jose Earthquakes
 7
 19
 7.33
 18.23
Seattle Sounders
 1
 6
 1.23
 6.31
Sporting Kansas City
 6
 15
 5.93
 14.53
Toronto FC
 3
 17
 3.31
 17.27
Vancouver Whitecaps
 1
 15
 1.33
 13.85

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