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Original publish date: June 18, 2015

Week 15 MLS Power Ranking Averages

15 of 19 sites published, the US Open Cup matches appear to have superseded Power Ranking coverage. Seattle repeats, Chicago fall to last.

MLS Power Ranking Averages - Week 15

Of the 19 sites, 15 are included below. US Open Cup matches appear to have superseded Power Ranking coverage.

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) *No ranking for Wk 15
  • Soccer America (www.socceramerica.com)
  • ESPN (espnfc.us/major-league-soccer)
  • Seattle Times Blog (seattletimes.com/author/matt-pentz) *No ranking for Wk 15
  • 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) *No ranking for Wk 15
  • 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 15
  • Bleacher Report (bleacherreport.com/mls)
  • Jeff Sagarin's MLS Rankings (sagarin.com/sports/soccer.htm)
  • American Soccer Analysis (americansocceranalysis.com/power-rankings)

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 15

Wk 14

Wk 13

Wk 12

Wk 11

Team

W15 Avg

W14 Avg

W13 Avg

W12 Avg

W11 Avg

Worst

Best

Range

1

1

1

1

1

Seattle

1.15

1.60

1.06

1.36

1.53

2

1

1

2

2

3

6

9

Kansas City

2.15

1.93

3.50

5.93

8.47

6

1

5

3

3

2

2

4

D.C.

4.54

3.87

3.00

2.57

4.07

20

2

18

4

4

5

7

6

Vancouver

4.92

5.00

6.00

7.64

6.07

9

2

7

5

5

9

11

12

Toronto

5.38

5.47

8.56

10.71

12.60

11

1

10

6

7

4

5

5

New England

6.00

7.20

5.56

4.86

4.27

12

4

8

7

8

12

17

15

Portland

6.92

7.67

11.63

16.57

14.07

15

4

11

8

6

6

3

3

Dallas

8.23

6.20

6.38

3.64

3.40

14

4

10

9

9

7

4

2

New York RB

9.08

8.73

6.56

4.79

2.53

13

3

10

10

10

8

10

11

Los Angeles

9.54

9.67

7.81

9.43

10.93

15

3

12

11

11

11

8

7

San Jose

10.77

10.73

10.06

8.21

7.87

14

5

9

12

13

16

14

14

Orlando

11.69

13.07

15.13

14.50

13.80

20

9

11

13

12

13

13

10

Houston

11.85

11.47

13.63

12.79

10.87

17

10

7

14

14

10

9

8

Columbus

13.31

13.27

9.44

9.14

8.13

18

8

10

15

16

14

12

13

Salt Lake

15.38

15.53

14.31

11.57

13.07

19

12

7

16

15

18

16

18

Montreal

17.08

15.40

18.13

16.43

17.40

20

14

6

17

20

20

20

19

New York FC

17.15

19.40

19.81

20.00

19.13

19

10

9

18

18

17

15

17

Colorado

17.69

17.93

17.00

15.29

16.60

20

11

9

18

19

19

19

20

Philadelphia

17.69

18.07

18.25

18.36

19.40

20

16

4

20

17

15

18

16

Chicago

18.23

16.93

14.63

16.71

15.73

20

13

7


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

Furthest off

most bias vs

most bias for

Major League Soccer

7

6

4

3

0

HOU/LAG -3, NYRB +3

SJE +2.17

TFC -1.63

Soccer by Ives

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

SJE +3.37

NER -2.75

Soccer America

3

5

5

2

5

POR +8

POR +3.21

SJE -2.40

ESPN

5

5

7

1

2

FCD +6

POR +1.90

TFC -2.07

Seattle Times

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

SJE +2.97

TFC -2.35

MLS GB

9

3

3

4

1

TFC +6

TFC +3.12

COL -1.33

Black & Red United

3

8

2

1

6

TFC +6

TFC +1.78

SJE -2.29

Sports Illustrated

4

7

4

4

1

CLB +4

NER +3.19

VAN -2.64

The Mane Land

5

10

1

3

1

MON +4

VAN +1.90

LAG -2.37

Who Scored

1

3

5

2

9

ORL +8

ORL +5.65

COL -5.55

Reddit /r/MLS

7

8

4

0

1

CHI -5

COL +1.32

CLB -1.43

The Sports Network

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

TFC +4.56

SJE -3.46

Soccer Info. Network

9

9

1

1

0

NER +3

DCU +1.55

POR -3.52

Soccer In America

6

6

7

1

0

CHI -3

NYCFC +1.60

NYRB -1.92

MLS Fantasy Boss

7

4

2

5

2

LAG -7

SJE +3.97

POR -4.72

Pro Soccer Talk

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

SKC +3.69

VAN -3.27

Bleacher Report

6

11

3

0

0

MON/NER +2, ORL -2

LAG +4.20

NER -2.48

Jeff Sagarin

5

4

3

4

4

COL -5

LAG +6.56

TFC -5.82

American Soccer Analysis

1

4

2

1

12

DCU +17

DCU +15.15

TFC -9.82

  • Most Accurate Site: (best Exact, with +1 as tiebreaker) Soccer Info. Network
  • Least Accurate Site: (most 4+ with +3 as tiebreaker) American Soccer Analysis
  • Furthest Off: American Soccer Analysis with DCU 17 places higher than average.
  • Site with Worst Bias: American Soccer Analysis for placing DCU an average of 15.15 places worse than their average. Due to their practice of using past season results for trends, it would seem that DCU's ranking isn't likely to improve greatly.
  • Site with Least Bias: Reddit /r/MLS and Soccer In America, both of which have for/against less than 2 places from average.

Season Average Power Ranking

Team

2015

(run. avg)

W15 Avg

W14 Avg

W13 Avg

W12 Avg

W11 Avg

2014 Avg

2013 Avg

2012 Avg

Seattle Sounders

3.51

3.05

3.18

3.30

3.57

3.73

4.04

9.36

4.39

FC Dallas

3.60

4.48

4.22

4.03

3.85

3.87

7.09

8.78

17.17

LA Galaxy

4.08

6.24

6.00

5.72

5.56

5.19

6.77

5.14

2.46

D.C. United

5.39

4.52

4.52

4.55

4.70

4.88

12.15

7.29

9.33

New York Red Bulls

6.16

5.15

4.87

4.58

4.39

4.36

11.07

6.38

7.23

Vancouver Whitecaps

7.48

5.77

5.83

5.88

5.85

5.68

7.40

10.41

7.87

Real Salt Lake

8.96

10.37

10.02

9.58

9.29

9.03

2.94

4.52

8.40

Columbus Crew SC

9.00

9.30

9.01

8.69

8.67

8.60

8.97

12.89

9.46

Toronto FC

9.87

10.82

11.21

11.68

11.94

12.04

7.47

16.85

10.96

Sporting Kansas City

9.93

8.06

8.48

8.98

9.52

9.81

4.45

4.45

3.09

New England Revolution

11.34

8.48

8.66

8.77

9.22

9.53

11.50

12.35

14.84

Orlando City

11.87

13.15

13.25

13.28

12.98

12.90

--

--

--

Portland Timbers

11.98

11.85

12.21

12.56

12.77

12.38

11.34

5.73

13.89

New York City FC

12.07

15.17

15.03

14.70

14.20

13.72

--

--

--

San Jose Earthquakes

12.15

10.96

10.97

11.01

10.96

11.27

14.44

12.34

4.86

Houston Dynamo

12.81

13.19

13.29

13.42

13.30

13.39

9.48

7.74

6.29

Colorado Rapids

17.10

17.08

17.04

16.98

16.89

17.08

9.66

9.79

10.06

Chicago Fire

17.23

16.11

15.96

15.90

16.02

15.95

15.61

14.27

13.07

Philadelphia Union

17.26

18.17

18.21

18.23

18.14

18.17

11.33

10.53

15.70

Montreal Impact

18.27

18.11

18.19

18.40

18.40

18.59

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

15

19

15.29

19.17

Columbus Crew SC

5

14

6.38

13.31

D.C. United

1

10

2.21

10.40

FC Dallas

1

8

1.13

8.23

Houston Dynamo

7

17

8.38

16.67

LA Galaxy

1

11

1.69

10.79

Montreal Impact

15

20

15.40

19.92

New England Revolution

3

17

3.21

15.69

New York City FC

4

20

6.69

20.00

New York Red Bulls

1

11

1.38

11.15

Orlando City

7

16

7.31

16.00

Philadelphia Union

16

20

14.62

19.69

Portland Timbers

7

17

6.92

16.57

Real Salt Lake

5

16

4.69

15.53

San Jose Earthquakes

7

19

7.33

18.23

Seattle Sounders

1

6

1.06

6.31

Sporting Kansas City

2

15

1.93

14.53

Toronto FC

3

17

3.31

17.27

Vancouver Whitecaps

1

15

1.33

13.85