NWSL Power Rankings - Week 1

Welcome back to the first edition of the NWSL Power Rankings. I am not sure at present if there will be enough sites participating to allow the Averages I do for MLS, but in any case I shall break down my take on the league.

I do rankings for both NWSL and MLS a little differently; typically in soccer leagues within the USA, the home team wins more than 50% of the time. Thus I rank any team deviates from the ‘normal’ higher - basically an away team winning will move higher than a home team winning. The same applies for ties - a home team drawing will likely cause them to drop because it’s not what was expected of them.

So with that in mind, here’s the power rankings for week 1.

1. Portland Thorns - Beating Orlando on the road 2-0 is a sure way to top the table.
2. Washington Spirit - Got the job done at home. It was against the worst team in the league for last year, so the result may be taken with a grain of salt until we know if Sky Blue has improved.
3. Seattle Reign - Got a point in Houston, and would have been three if a last minute PK hadn’t been blocked.
4. Chicago Red Stars - They were out-shot by last year’s champions, but held on to the 1-1 draw through great defensive efforts.
5. Utah Royals - Bye week so they take the middle ground.
6. North Carolina Courage - Did their best to overwhelm the Red Stars at home, but could only breach their defense once.
7. Houston Dash - A 1-1 tie at home vs the Reign that almost turned into a loss by giving up a PK in stoppage time. Fortunately Jane Campbell saved the day from being a total loss.
8. Sky Blue FC - Losing on the road is expected, hopefully you can score or at least keep it to 1 goal though.
9. Orlando Pride - Got sucker-punched by the Thorns at home. Not a good start to the season.