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NWSL Power Rankings - Week 21

Red Stars rise to 2nd after two wins.

By Kreg Asay
NWSL Power Rankings

There were 6 games during week 21, which resulted in a bit of movement on my power rankings.

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. North Carolina Courage (1) - In a two game week, they stomped Portland, then ran roughshod over Orlando scoring 12 goals in the process!
  2. Chicago Red Stars (4) - Two wins this week, but against two teams on the bottom of the table. Shouldn’t be much of a surprise.
  3. Utah Royals (2) - The best defense in the league couldn’t lock it down vs the Dash counterattack.
  4. Reign FC (5) - Netted 2 goals and got a point in Washington.
  5. Portland Thorns (3) - Call the EMT’s, the Thorns got mugged by North Carolina in their own home!
  6. Houston Dash (7) - Two breakaway goals vs the Royals gave the Dash their 3rd home win.
  7. Washington Spirit (6) - Could only manage a draw at home vs the Reign.
  8. Orlando Pride (8) - Two games, and two losses. At least the first one was close, but getting stomped 6-1 by North Carolina is bad.
  9. Sky Blue FC (9) - Another home loss to make it 7 on the season. The Red Stars overwhelmed them.

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