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Original publish date: May 6, 2015

Week 9 Power Ranking Averages from 16 sites

Seattle returns as king of the hill, 4 teams tied. Now also includes Site Bias levels.

MLS Power Ranking Averages - Week 9

Out of the 17 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)
  • 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 9
  • Bleacher Report (bleacherreport.com/mls)

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 9

Wk 8

Wk 7

Wk 6

Wk 5

Team

W9 Avg

W8 Avg

W7 Avg

W6 Avg

W5 Avg

Worst

Best

Range

1

2

4

7

4

Seattle

1.50

3.00

4.67

6.50

4.67

4

1

3

2

3

6

3

5

D.C.

2.21

3.54

5.47

3.92

4.92

6

1

5

3

6

8

12

12

New England

3.21

5.38

8.00

11.50

11.17

7

2

5

4

1

1

1

2

New York RB

4.64

1.69

1.40

1.33

2.92

6

1

5

5

7

5

6

3

Dallas

5.21

7.15

5.00

6.25

3.08

7

4

3

6

4

2

2

1

Vancouver

5.64

4.38

2.20

2.50

1.33

11

2

9

7

5

3

4

7

Los Angeles

6.14

4.54

4.20

4.75

7.75

8

1

7

8

7

9

10

9

Columbus

8.71

7.15

8.20

10.25

10.17

11

6

5

8

9

10

8

8

Kansas City

8.71

10.00

9.80

7.25

7.92

11

3

8

10

10

7

5

6

Salt Lake

11.21

10.62

7.67

4.83

5.50

17

9

8

11

15

17

17

16

Toronto

11.36

14.15

17.27

16.42

15.25

17

8

9

12

12

12

9

13

San Jose

11.93

12.46

11.87

9.83

12.25

16

9

7

13

14

11

13

10

Portland

12.86

13.00

11.53

13.83

10.83

17

8

9

14

11

15

14

14

Chicago

13.14

11.77

14.53

14.42

14.17

15

11

4

15

13

14

15

17

Houston

15.29

12.85

13.72

14.50

16.67

17

13

4

16

16

13

11

15

Orlando

15.64

15.77

13.40

11.17

14.58

20

13

7

17

17

18

18

19

Colorado

15.71

17.00

17.67

17.42

19.17

18

13

5

18

18

16

16

10

New York FC

18.21

17.54

15.80

14.92

10.83

19

12

7

19

19

19

19

20

Philadelphia

19.29

19.15

18.27

18.50

19.50

20

18

2

19

20

20

20

18

Montreal

19.29

19.54

19.53

19.92

18.08

20

18

2


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

5+ off

Furthest off

Team bias vs

Team bias for

Major League Soccer

6

8

4

2

0

0

CHI -3, RSL +3

SJE +2.62

CLB -2.41

Soccer by Ives

3

11

1

4

0

1

RSL +7

SJE 3.62

NER -3.74

Soccer America

5

9

2

3

1

0

POR +4

CLB +2.99

HOU -2.80

ESPN

3

12

3

2

0

0

COL -3, POR +3

NYCFC +2.69

TFC -2.18

Seattle Times

6

7

3

3

1

0

SJE +4

NYRB +4.01

TFC -4.28

MLS GB

5

9

5

1

0

0

COL -3

TFC +2.02

COL -1.45

Black & Red United

8

8

2

2

0

0

SJE -3, TFC +3

RSL +2.87

SJE -2.68

Sports Illustrated

10

8

0

2

0

0

SJE-3, SKC +3

SKC +3.54

ORL -3.24

The Mane Land

6

9

2

1

1

1

LAG -6

SKC +1.89

LAG -2.99

Who Scored

4

3

2

3

4

4

NYCFC -6, RSL +6

ORL +5.98

COL -6.14

Reddit /r/MLS

11

7

2

0

0

0

FCD -2, RSL +2

ORL +1.54

CLB -2.25

The Sports Network

2

14

3

0

0

1

TFC +6

TFC +3.36

SJE -4.25

Soccer Information Network

6

9

3

1

1

0

VAN -4

DCU +2.25

POR -4.81

Soccer In America

6

9

2

3

0

0

CHI/LAG -3, SJE +3

TFC +2.79

CHI -2.52

MLS Fantasy Boss

3

8

5

2

0

2

LAG/POR -5

SJE +4.65

NER -5.74

NBC Sports Pro Soccer Talk

NR

NR

NR

NR

NR

NR

NR

SKC +5.48

SJE 5.18

Bleacher Report

4

9

6

1

0

0

POR +3

NYCFC +5.06

NER -8.07

  • Most Accurate Site: (best Exact, with +1 as tiebreaker) Reddit /r/MLS
  • Least Accurate Site: (most 5+ with +4 as tiebreaker) Who Scored
  • Furthest Off: Soccer By Ives with RSL seven places higher than average.
  • Site with Worst Bias: Bleacher Report for placing New England an average of 8.07 places better than their average - however as they have only published twice that should change.

Season Average Power Ranking

Team

2015

(run. avg)

W9 Avg

W8 Avg

W7 Avg

W6 Avg

W5 Avg

2014 Avg

2013 Avg

2012 Avg

LA Galaxy

3.09

4.21

3.97

3.85

3.84

3.72

6.77

5.14

2.46

FC Dallas

3.29

3.98

3.82

3.37

3.07

2.41

4.04

9.36

4.39

Seattle Sounders

3.54

3.94

4.25

4.41

4.38

4

4.04

9.36

4.39

D.C. United

5.86

5.19

5.56

5.85

5.91

6.28

12.15

17.29

9.33

New York Red Bulls

7.16

4.69

4.69

5.13

5.74

6.61

11.07

6.38

7.23

Vancouver Whitecaps

8.608

5.78

5.79

6.00

6.63

7.38

7.40

10.41

7.87

Real Salt Lake

8.611

8.46

8.12

7.74

4.38

8.39

2.94

4.52

8.40

Toronto FC

8.72

11.78

11.84

11.52

10.55

9.33

7.47

16.85

10.96

Columbus Crew SC

9.12

8.81

5.56

9.08

9.21

8.96

8.97

12.89

9.46

Sporting Kansas City

10.45

10.02

10.19

10.18

10.28

10.84

4.45

4.45

3.09

New York City FC

10.56

12.61

11.91

11.09

10.32

9.45

N/A

N/A

N/A

Orlando City

11.08

12.46

12.06

11.53

11.22

11.23

N/A

N/A

N/A

Portland Timbers

11.75

12.25

12.18

12.06

12.15

11.89

11.34

5.73

13.89

Houston Dynamo

12.44

13.70

13.50

13.62

13.57

13.39

9.48

7.74

6.29

New England Revolution

12.81

10.74

11.68

12.63

13.35

13.76

11.50

12.35

14.84

San Jose Earthquakes

12.82

11.68

11.65

11.55

11.48

11.76

14.44

12.34

4.86

Philadelphia Union

16.66

17.88

17.71

17.50

17.37

17.18

11.33

10.53

15.70

Colorado Rapids

17.13

17.25

17.44

17.49

17.47

17.49

9.66

9.79

10.06

Chicago Fire

18.06

16.09

16.45

17.12

17.56

18.13

15.61

14.27

13.07

Montreal Impact

18.19

18.67

18.59

18.45

18.28

17.95

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

17

19

15.71

19.17

Columbus Crew SC

5

12

6.38

11.38

D.C. United

2

10

2.21

10.40

FC Dallas

1

7

1.13

7.15

Houston Dynamo

7

17

8.38

16.67

LA Galaxy

1

7

1.69

7.75

Montreal Impact

18

20

17.60

19.92

New England Revolution

3

17

3.21

15.69

New York City FC

4

18

6.69

18.21

New York Red Bulls

1

11

1.38

11.15

Orlando City

7

16

7.31

15.77

Philadelphia Union

16

20

14.62

19.69

Portland Timbers

10

15

10.83

14.69

Real Salt Lake

5

11

4.69

11.21

San Jose Earthquakes

8

19

7.33

18.23

Seattle Sounders

1

6

1.23

6.31

Sporting Kansas City

6

15

7.46

14.53

Toronto FC

3

17

3.31

17.27

Vancouver Whitecaps

1

15

1.33

13.85