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NWSL Power Rankings - Week 17

Chicago Red Stars return to the top.

By Kreg Asay
NWSL Power Rankings

It’s topsy turvy week! Teams that were expected to win lost, and underdogs earned points. Portland Thorns even managed to win without scoring a single goal! Now with the naming of the USWNT General manager, we all wait in anticipation of the decision for head coach - will it be one of the NWSL’s own, or will they hire from outside?

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 this week. (#) indicates last week’s ranking.

  1. Chicago Red Stars (2) - Overran the Spirit while on the road.
  2. Portland Thorns (3) - Beat the Courage without one of their players scoring a single goal. Points for the win, but not the credit.
  3. North Carolina Courage (1) - Traveled to Oregon to face the Thorns, and scored on themselves.
  4. Utah Royals (6) - Routed Sky Blue at home by 3 goals, then went on the road and notched another 3 goals to beat the Reign.
  5. Reign FC (4) - Beat the Thorns at home by one goal, then faced the Royals at home and conceded 3.
  6. Washington Spirit (5) - Were outmatched by the Red Stars.
  7. Houston Dash (9) - It took two red cards and a late PK to beat the Pride on the road.
  8. Sky Blue FC (8) - No shame losing a midweek game to the Royals when others haven’t done well there either.
  9. Orlando Pride (7) - Went down a player in the first half, but held the line... until a second player was sent off and a PK sealed the loss.

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