Archived: This article was archived from RSL Soapbox and may contain outdated information.

Original publish date: February 28, 2019

MLS Preseason Power Ranking Averages

Using data from 8 sites, here’s how the field sits mere days before first kick.

Preseason power rankings are always a toss-up. Rankers really only have a handful of games to go on, so it’s mostly just last year’s finish raised or lowered by off-season trade action. But since sites will put rankings out there, I’ll run the numbers!

On to the rankings. As always, if you come across a site that I’ve not included please send me their link! Particularly in these early days, I’m on the search for sites to add. Many of these below will continue for Wk 1 and beyond, others may not.

Sites Used

You may notice the list includes several ‘analytic’ sites; they serve to function as a stable counterbalance to the rest which are based more on personal opinions, and those done by ‘team’ blogs’. There are also included sites that some will argue are really ‘prediction rankings’ - but in reality isn’t that what a Power Ranking is (see the quote at the top).

All the averages use the Olympic method (I.E. Truncated Mean value) of dropping the highest and lowest scores, and then averaging the rest to reduce bias. 2018 is the total average for the year to date (will be changed to 2019 next week).

The 7 year weighted average is the averages that decrease in value over time. Thus 2019 will be worth 100%, 2018 = 90%, 2017 = 80% and so on down. Thus a bad year 4 years ago won’t drag down positive recent years. For expansion teams that don’t have long histories, they are given the overall league average for that year.

PlaceTeamWk 33Wk 34Wk BestWk WorstStd. Dev2022 Avg5-yr avg
21Atlanta United FC20.6720.8610254.4617.611.0832
5Austin FC5.226.145174.027.212.992
23Charlotte FC2021.7116273.6122.814.784
24Chicago Fire23.5622.7117242.1720.719.678
10Cincinnati (FC)11.119.577131.8717.519.634
18Colorado Rapids20.4418.7114222.651615.666
12Columbus Crew SC8.8912.714163.7611.310.859
28D.C. United28282828024.517.176
6Dallas (FC)5.896.294163.828.511.1342
26Houston Dynamo24.5625.4324270.882217.22
15Inter Miami CF1415.1411213.9121.317.622
9L.A. Galaxy10.338.576122.069.811.408
2Los Angeles FC1.561.71130.6725.5268
11Minnesota United FC15.2212.147172.931112.076
3Montreal (CF)332123.0610.214.52
7Nashville SC8.116.864101.968.711.874
17New England Revolution2018.296234.7714.712.164
4New York City FC6.334.863102.116.66.5156
8New York RB7.117.295101.586.49.5228
16Orlando City SC14.1115.8613233.8713.513.312
1Philadelphia Union1.441.29120.52.56.902
14Portland Timbers11.67147162.7913.811.134
13Real Salt Lake14.44139151.7910.813.31
25San Jose Earthquakes2524.4319262.6523.818.838
19Seattle Sounders FC19.4419.4312233.9113.97.384
22Sporting Kansas City20.2221.1416263.1423.510.9248
27Toronto FC25.6726.4320272.5421.714.724
20Vancouver Whitecaps FC18.5620.1416253.4922.619.364
  • Highest Standard Deviation: FC Cincinnati at 5.24
  • Lowest Standard Deviation: Atlanta United at 0.0
  • Biggest Rise: None
  • Biggest Fall: None

Site bias and rankings will begin with Wk 1.