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NWSL Power Rankings - Week 3

All teams are now 2+ games in, and changes abound.

By Kreg Asay

The 3rd week of NWSL has passed, and all teams have now played at least 2 games. With so few teams the Power Rankings somewhat resemble the points table.

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 without further mindless banter, here’s the power rankings for week 2. (#) indicates last week’s ranking.

  1. North Carolina Courage (4) - Went to Houston and dominated. Beginning to look like they’re still on last year’s streak.
  2. Utah Royals (2) - Two games, two wins. The only team in NWSL with a perfect record, the only reason they’re not first is they’ve only scored 2 goals.
  3. Portland Thorns (1) - Another tie on the road; normally it would be good enough to stay on top, but not when two teams just below win away games.
  4. Washington Spirit (3) - Bye week. Move down only because the Courage moved up.
  5. Chicago Red Stars (7) - Knocked 3 past Seattle at home, but they’ve got a big test this week heading to undefeated Utah.
  6. Seattle Reign (6) - Shut out in Chicago and conceded 3 goals. The Reign are slipping down the table.
  7. Houston Dash (5) - Gave up 4 goals at home. At least the consolation goal saved the shutout.
  8. Sky Blue FC (9) - Pulled ahead of Portland, but let the lead slip away. At least they’re not in last place anymore!
  9. Orlando Pride (8) - 1 point from 4 games, including 2 home losses. The Pride need some help.

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