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Original publish date: October 8, 2015

Week 31 MLS Power Ranking Averages

13 of 17 sites published. Once again there are changes at the top and bottom.

MLS Power Ranking Averages - Week 31

For Wk 31 - 13 of the 17 sites 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 for next season.

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? 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 (mlssoccer.com/news/power-rankings)
  • Soccer America (socceramerica.com)
  • ESPN (espnfc.us/major-league-soccer)
  • Seattle Times Blog (seattletimes.com/author/matt-pentz)
  • Black & Red United (blackandredunited.com)
  • Sports Illustrated (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)
  • Soccer In America (soccer-in-america.com)
  • NBC Sports Pro Soccer Talk (prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com) *No ranking for Wk 31
  • Bleacher Report (bleacherreport.com/mls)
  • Jeff Sagarin's MLS Rankings (sagarin.com/sports/soccer.htm)
  • Squawka (squawka.com/football-team-rankings#performance-score#team-stats#us-major-league-soccer)
  • MLS Fantasy Boss (mlsfantasyboss.com) *No ranking for Wk 31

Possibly Dead List

  • Soccer by Ives (sbisoccer.com/sbi-mls-power-rankings) *No ranking since Wk 25
  • MLS GB (mlsbg.com/tag/power-rankings) *No ranking since Wk 26

Dead List - I'll check it periodically just in case they run one; their old ratings won't be removed.

  • The Sports Network (sportsnetwork.com) *No ranking since 5/19
  • Soccer Information Network (soccerinformationnetwork.com) *No ranking since 6/30

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 31

Wk 30

Wk 29

Wk 28

Team

W31 Avg

W30 Avg

W29 Avg

W28 Avg

Worst

Best

Range

1

2

1

1

New York RB

1.27

1.92

1.00

1.33

4

1

3

2

1

4

2

Los Angeles

2.00

1.42

4.73

2.78

3

1

2

3

4

4

4

Dallas

3.64

5.58

4.73

4.11

8

2

6

4

5

2

2

Vancouver

6.20

6.42

4.55

3.22

15

2

13

5

7

7

10

Seattle

6.27

6.58

7.36

9.89

11

3

8

6

8

8

9

Kansas City

6.55

8.75

7.64

9.56

14

4

10

7

5

2

6

Columbus

7.00

5.92

3.55

6.00

12

4

8

8

11

9

12

Toronto

7.73

9.67

9.73

10.44

13

4

9

9

3

6

5

New England

8.00

5.17

5.27

5.67

18

4

14

10

9

12

13

Montreal

10.45

9.17

11.18

13.67

15

7

8

11

12

13

10

San Jose

11.00

11.42

12.00

9.89

17

2

15

12

10

10

7

Portland

11.73

9.50

10.82

8.00

15

3

12

13

13

11

8

D. C.

11.82

13.75

11.00

9.00

18

9

9

14

15

14

14

Salt Lake

13.55

14.42

12.09

13.89

15

5

10

15

17

16

17

Orlando

13.64

15.08

16.36

17.44

20

7

13

16

14

15

19

New York FC

15.64

14.08

15.36

18.67

18

9

9

17

16

17

15

Houston

16.27

14.58

16.45

14.44

18

12

6

18

18

18

18

Philadelphia

17.91

17.42

16.82

17.89

20

15

5

19

20

20

20

Chicago

18.91

19.83

19.73

18.78

20

11

9

20

19

19

16

Colorado

19.45

18.92

18.64

16.11

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

Furthest off

most bias vs

most bias for

Major League Soccer

10

2

4

4

VAN +5

SJE +1.91

TFC -1.46

Soccer by Ives

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

RSL +2.17

DCU -1.75

Soccer America

8

4

7

1

TFC -4

POR +1.76

SJE -2.37

ESPN

4

9

2

5

FCD +5/NER -5

FCD +2.26

NER -3.06

Seattle Times

6

8

4

2

SEA +3/NER -3

SJE +1.88

ORL -1.90

MLS GB

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

TFC +2.87

RSL -2.14

Black & Red United

4

6

4

6

SJE -7

TFC +3.03

SJE -3.16

Sports Illustrated

5

5

2

8

SKC +8

SKC +2.66

ORL -1.66

The Mane Land

4

12

2

2

MON +5

MON +1.31

LAG -1.48

Who Scored

2

7

1

10

NER +7/NYFC -7

NER +5.25

NYFC -4.60

Reddit /r/MLS

7

12

0

1

DCU -3

NYFC +1.05

CLB -1.08

Soccer In America

5

8

4

2

TFC -4

NYFC +1.80

NER -1.25

MLS Fantasy Boss

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

TFC +4.06

NER -3.36

Pro Soccer Talk

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

SKC +2.22

SJE -3.37

Bleacher Report

9

6

1

4

SJE +3/CLB,DCU,ORL -3

RSL +1.97

NER -2.07

Jeff Sagarin

1

8

2

9

VAN +11

SEA +3.46

SJE -4.52

Squawka

4

5

0

11

NER +9/POR-9

NER +9.45

POR -7.76

  • Most Accurate Site: (best Exact, with 1 off as tiebreaker) MLS with 10 exact.

  • Least Accurate Site: (most 3+ with 2 off as tiebreaker) Squawka with 11 off by 3+.

  • Furthest Off: Jeff Sagarin placed VAN 11 places worse than average.

  • Site with Worst Bias: Squawka for placing NER an average of 9.45 places worse than average (no change from last week).

  • Sites with Least Bias - all with bias for/against less than 2:

    • 1st - Reddit /r/MLS

    • 2nd - The Mane Land

    • 3rd - Soccer In America

    • 4th - Major League Soccer

    • 5th - Seattle Times

Season Average Power Ranking

Team

W28
Avg

W29
Avg

W30
Avg

W31
Avg

2015

(run. avg)

2014
Avg

2013
Avg

2012
Avg

Seattle Sounders

5.89

5.94

5.96

5.97

4.07

4.04

9.36

4.39

FC Dallas

4.90

4.89

4.91

4.87

4.26

7.09

8.78

17.17

LA Galaxy

4.74

4.74

4.63

4.54

4.70

6.77

5.14

2.46

D.C. United

4.71

4.92

5.22

5.43

4.88

12.15

7.29

9.33

New York Red Bulls

5.40

5.25

5.14

5.01

5.98

11.07

6.38

7.23

Vancouver Whitecaps

4.82

4.81

4.86

4.90

6.28

7.40

10.41

7.87

Sporting Kansas City

6.06

6.11

6.20

6.21

8.09

4.45

4.45

3.09

Columbus Crew SC

9.46

9.26

9.15

9.08

9.32

8.97

12.89

9.46

Toronto FC

9.99

9.98

9.97

9.90

10.00

7.47

16.85

10.96

Real Salt Lake

12.11

12.11

12.19

12.23

10.25

2.94

4.52

8.40

New England Revolution

9.78

9.62

9.48

9.43

10.31

11.50

12.35

14.84

Portland Timbers

9.47

9.51

9.51

9.58

10.94

11.34

5.73

13.89

San Jose Earthquakes

11.05

11.08

11.09

11.09

11.60

14.44

12.34

4.86

Orlando City

14.13

14.20

14.23

14.21

12.81

--

--

--

Houston Dynamo

13.39

13.49

13.53

13.62

13.20

9.48

7.74

6.29

New York City FC

15.37

15.37

15.33

15.34

13.70

--

--

--

Chicago Fire

17.38

17.46

17.54

17.59

17.15

15.61

14.27

13.07

Colorado Rapids

17.02

17.08

17.14

17.21

17.18

9.66

9.79

10.06

Montreal Impact

16.27

16.10

15.87

15.69

17.55

17.67

5.32

15.74

Philadelphia Union

18.15

18.11

18.09

18.08

17.77

11.33

10.53

15.70


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

11.79

19.83

Colorado Rapids

14

20

14.62

19.45

Columbus Crew SC

2

14

3.55

14.25

D.C. United

1

13

2.19

13.75

FC Dallas

1

10

1.13

9.25

Houston Dynamo

7

18

8.50

16.69

LA Galaxy

1

11

1.15

10.88

Montreal Impact

9

20

9.17

19.93

New England Revolution

3

17

3.33

17.00

New York City FC

4

20

6.73

20.00

New York Red Bulls

1

11

1.00

12.63

Orlando City

7

20

7.46

19.18

Philadelphia Union

16

20

14.77

19.62

Portland Timbers

3

17

4.23

16.33

Real Salt Lake

5

18

4.43

16.64

San Jose Earthquakes

7

19

7.06

18.33

Seattle Sounders

1

13

1.00

13.92

Sporting Kansas City

1

15

1.21

14.13

Toronto FC

3

17

3.33

17.25

Vancouver Whitecaps

1

15

1.31

13.75

  • Largest Range (position): New York FC = 16 point span
  • Smallest Range (position): Philadelphia = 4 point span
  • 7 teams have been ranked first
  • 6 teams have been ranked last