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Original publish date: October 22, 2015

Week 33 Power Ranking Averages from 13 sites

Coming down to the end, 13 of 15 sites published. The Red Bulls narrowly edged Dallas for first yet again.

MLS Power Ranking Averages - Week 33

For Wk 33 - 13 of the 15 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 33
  • Bleacher Report (bleacherreport.com/mls)
  • Jeff Sagarin's MLS Rankings (sagarin.com/sports/soccer.htm - overall ranking not "recent")
  • Squawka (squawka.com/football-team-rankings#performance-score#team-stats#us-major-league-soccer)
  • MLS Fantasy Boss (mlsfantasyboss.com) *No ranking for Wk 33

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
  • 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

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 site evaluations showing closest and furthest from average to indicate 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
33

Wk
32

Wk
31

Wk
30

Team

W33
Avg

W32
Avg

W31
Avg

W30
Avg

Worst

Best

Range

1

1

1

2

New York RB

1.45

1.22

1.18

1.92

2

1

1

2

3

3

4

Dallas

1.73

3.00

3.64

5.58

4

1

3

3

2

2

1

Los Angeles

4.09

2.00

2.09

1.42

10

2

8

4

7

7

5

Columbus

4.27

7.89

7.00

5.92

10

3

7

5

13

12

10

Portland

7.00

12.00

11.73

9.50

11

3

8

6

8

8

11

Toronto

7.27

8.44

7.64

9.67

13

3

10

7

10

10

9

Montreal

7.45

10.44

10.55

9.17

14

5

9

8

5

5

7

Seattle

8.27

6.44

6.18

6.58

13

5

8

9

4

6

8

Kansas City

8.64

5.56

6.36

8.75

14

3

11

10

6

4

5

Vancouver

9.00

6.67

5.90

6.42

16

2

14

11

12

13

13

D. C.

9.45

11.33

11.82

13.75

13

3

10

12

9

9

3

New England

11.82

8.56

7.91

5.17

18

8

10

13

10

11

12

San Jose

12.18

10.44

11.00

11.42

15

3

12

14

15

15

17

Orlando

13.82

14.22

13.73

15.08

20

10

10

15

14

14

15

Salt Lake

15.00

13.33

13.55

14.42

16

12

4

16

17

17

16

Houston

15.45

16.33

16.18

14.58

17

11

6

17

16

16

14

New York FC

16.45

16.11

16.09

14.08

18

10

8

18

18

18

18

Philadelphia

18.27

18.11

18.00

17.42

20

16

4

19

20

20

19

Colorado

18.82

19.667

19.45

18.92

20

18

2

20

19

19

20

Chicago

19.27

18.33

18.91

19.83

20

15

5


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

7

7

5

1

POR +3

SJE +1.96

MON -1.47

Soccer America

6

8

6

0

6 @ +/-2

POR +1.63

SJE -2.31

ESPN

5

7

4

4

VAN -8

FCD +2.31

NER -3.05

Seattle Times

10

7

0

3

SEA +1/DCU -4

SJE +1.86

ORL -1.82

Black & Red United

6

8

1

5

TFC +7

TFC +3.14

SJE -3.16

Sports Illustrated

3

7

4

6

SKC +5

SKC +2.77

ORL -1.73

The Mane Land

7

7

4

2

VAN -4

MON +1.44

LAG -1.46

Who Scored

5

3

2

10

NYFC -7

NER +5.32

NYFC -4.74

Reddit /r/MLS

16

2

0

2

POR +6

NYFC +1.01

CLB -1.02

Soccer In America

4

9

2

5

POR +6

NYFC +1.72

NER -1.27

MLS Fantasy Boss

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

TFC +4.19

NER -3.40

Pro Soccer Talk

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

SKC +2.17

SJE -3.39

Bleacher Report

4

10

3

3

DCU -8

RSL +1.95

NER -1.80

Jeff Sagarin

7

4

4

5

SJE +10

DCU +3.31

SJE -4.71

Squawka

1

6

5

8

MON +7

NER +9.31

POR -7.52

  • Most Accurate Site: (best Exact, with 1 off as tiebreaker) Reddit/r/MLS with 16 exact!

  • Least Accurate Site: (most 3+ with 2 off as tiebreaker) Who Scored with 10 off by 3+.

  • Furthest Off: Jeff Sagarin placed SJE 10 places better than average.

  • Site with Worst Bias: Squawka for placing NER an average of 9.31 places worse than average (down .14 from last week).

  • Sites with Least Bias - (best to worst by adding the absolute value of the bias scores) including the "dead" sites:

    • Reddit /r/MLS = 2.03

    • The Mane Land = 2.9

    • Soccer In America = 2.99

    • Major League Soccer = 3.43

    • Seattle Times = 3.68

    • Bleacher Report = 3.75

    • Soccer America = 3.94

    • (Soccer By Ives) = 4.10

    • Sports Illustrated = 4.50

    • (MLS GB) = 5.33

    • ESPN = 5.36

    • Pro Soccer Talk = 5.56

    • Black & Red United = 6.30

    • (Soccer Information Network) = 7.06

    • MLS Fantasy Boss = 7.59

    • Jeff Sagarin = 8.02 *missing first 10 weeks of season

    • Who Scored = 10.06

    • (The Sports Network) = 10.61

    • Squawka = 16.83 *missing first 15 weeks of season

Season Average Power Ranking

Team

W30
Avg

W31
Avg

W32
Avg

W33
Avg

2015

(run. avg)

2014
Avg

2013
Avg

2012
Avg

Seattle Sounders

5.96

5.97

5.98

6.05

4.19

4.04

9.36

4.39

FC Dallas

4.91

4.87

4.81

4.72

4.29

7.09

8.78

17.17

LA Galaxy

4.63

4.55

4.47

4.46

4.69

6.77

5.14

2.46

D.C. United

5.22

5.43

5.62

5.73

4.93

12.15

7.29

9.33

New York Red Bulls

5.14

5.01

4.89

4.79

5.91

11.07

6.38

7.23

Vancouver Whitecaps

4.86

4.89

4.96

5.08

6.20

7.40

10.41

7.87

Sporting Kansas City

6.20

6.20

6.18

6.26

7.97

4.45

4.45

3.09

Columbus Crew SC

9.15

9.08

9.04

8.90

9.30

8.97

12.89

9.46

Toronto FC

9.97

9.89

9.85

5.08

9.99

7.47

16.85

10.96

New England Revolution

9.48

9.43

9.40

9.47

10.26

11.50

12.35

14.84

Real Salt Lake

12.19

12.23

12.27

12.35

10.37

2.94

4.52

8.40

Portland Timbers

9.51

9.58

9.66

9.58

10.86

11.34

5.73

13.89

San Jose Earthquakes

11.09

11.09

11.07

11.10

11.57

14.44

12.34

4.86

Orlando City

14.23

14.22

14.22

14.20

12.90

--

--

--

Houston Dynamo

13.53

13.62

13.70

13.75

13.23

9.48

7.74

6.29

New York City FC

15.33

15.35

15.38

15.41

13.80

--

--

--

Chicago Fire

17.54

17.59

17.61

17.66

17.18

15.61

14.27

13.07

Colorado Rapids

17.14

17.21

17.29

17.34

17.19

9.66

9.79

10.06

Montreal Impact

15.87

15.70

15.53

15.29

17.42

17.67

5.32

15.74

Philadelphia Union

18.09

18.08

18.08

18.09

17.78

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

19.67

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

7

20

7.45

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