One new site added - Last Word on Soccer, making 15 of 19 sites used this week. I added the previous weeks from LWoS so totals and placements have changed somewhat. All rankings do not include the games from Wed. night.

A reminder of what Power Rankings should be (not that every site does of course...): ”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

Now on to the rankings. As always, if you come across a site that I’ve not included please send me their link!

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.

2020 MLS Power Ranking Averages Wk 9 Wk 8 Team Wk 9 Avg Wk 8 Avg St. Dev Best Worst 2020 Wk 9 Wk 8 Team Wk 9 Avg Wk 8 Avg St. Dev Best Worst 2020 21 17 Atlanta United FC 20.86 15.91 2.18 18 25 11.56 24 25 Chicago Fire 22.86 23.73 2.19 18 25 21.16 17 22 Colorado Rapids 17 21.91 3.94 8 20 16.36 2 1 Columbus Crew SC 2.29 2.45 2.06 1 7 5.43 23 20 D.C. United 22.71 20.36 2.12 19 26 18.96 25 26 FC Cincinnati 25 23.91 0.87 24 26 22.88 10 13 FC Dallas 9.71 12.91 3.74 7 18 12.86 12 10 Houston Dynamo 11.43 9.73 3.28 6 17 18.1 20 23 Inter Miami CF 19.71 22.55 3.4 14 24 21.65 7 7 Los Angeles FC 7.43 7.55 4.5 2 15 4.05 4 3 Los Angeles Galaxy 5.57 4.18 2.4 1 10 13.85 8 9 Minnesota United FC 8.86 9.18 3.69 4 14 5.56 14 14 Montreal Impact 13 13.18 3.67 8 18 14.96 19 21 Nashville SC 17.43 21.45 2.65 13 22 22.52 15 15 New England Revolution 15.57 14 2.07 12 19 14.09 10 11 New York City FC 9.71 9.82 4.03 2 16 11.31 17 19 New York RB 17 20.27 3 13 21 14.22 4 8 Orlando City SC 5.57 7.91 3.87 3 15 12.59 1 2 Philadelphia Union 2 2.73 1.58 1 6 6.34 13 6 Portland Timbers 12 7.09 6.41 2 23 10.13 16 16 Real Salt Lake 16.43 15.45 3.38 10 21 14.12 22 18 San Jose Earthquakes 21.86 18.64 2.29 19 26 16.58 3 4 Seattle Sounders FC 4.14 5.36 3.43 1 10 4.97 9 12 Sporting Kansas City 9.43 10.36 2.01 7 13 7.61 6 5 Toronto FC 6.29 7 3.59 4 14 5.11 26 24 Vancouver Whitecaps FC 25.29 22.64 1.32 22 26 22.8

Closest to average Site # Exact 1 Off 2 Off 3 Off 4 Off 5 Off 6+ Off Site # Exact 1 Off 2 Off 3 Off 4 Off 5 Off 6+ Off Jeff Sagarin 4 10 1 3 4 0 1 FiveThirtyEight 11 7 2 2 1 0 0 Massey 4 3 4 5 1 2 4 ESPN 7 9 4 0 1 2 0 Soccer America 11 6 1 4 0 1 0 MLS 11 7 2 1 1 1 0 MLS Fantasy Boss 6 11 3 2 1 0 0 Reddit /r/mls 10 8 4 0 1 0 0 The Mane Land 6 8 6 1 1 0 1 Philly Soc Page 7 7 5 2 2 0 0 MLS Multiplex NA Dallas News NA Pro Soccer USA NA Who Scored 4 3 4 5 1 2 4 Stumptown Footy NA Soccer By Ives NA Couch Metrics 7 10 3 2 0 1 0

Best of the week: MLS with 15 exact matches.

Worst of the week: Reddit’s Monkey Power Rankings took the week off, leaving Stumptown Footy with 2 off by 6+, and 1 off by 5 for the tiebreaker.

Site Bias

This table shows how far each team is from average listed by site. Negatives are better (higher on table), positives are worse (lower on table) than the season average from all sites. The further off a site is for each team may indicate how strongly biased they are. Most bias for/against for each site is included in the table.

2018 Power Ranking Site Bias Team / Site AVG Jeff Sagarin Five-Thirty-Eight Massey ESPN Soc. Amer MLS MLS Fant. Boss Reddit /r/mls Mane Land Philly Soc. Page MLS Multiplex Dallas News Pro Soc. USA Who Scored Couch Metrics AVG Team / Site Team / Site AVG Jeff Sagarin Five-Thirty-Eight Massey ESPN Soc. Amer MLS MLS Fant. Boss Reddit /r/mls Mane Land Philly Soc. Page MLS Multiplex Dallas News Pro Soc. USA Who Scored Couch Metrics AVG Team / Site Atlanta United 2.258 -0.108 -0.998 -0.078 -0.568 0.332 -0.318 -0.568 -0.198 2.072 -0.198 0.012 -0.158 -0.698 2.282 -1.218 2.258 Atlanta United Chicago Fire 17.654 -1.864 0.696 0.166 0.846 0.406 1.026 -0.484 0.586 -0.414 -0.074 0.176 0.046 1.586 0.556 0.606 17.654 Chicago Fire Colorado Rapids 20.757 -0.847 0.303 -0.317 0.713 -1.567 0.333 0.003 0.423 0.543 -0.047 -1.427 -1.257 -0.517 0.203 0.373 20.757 Colorado Rapids Columbus Crew 7.794 -0.294 0.206 0.676 -1.294 0.116 -0.504 -0.314 -1.234 -0.584 -0.184 0.006 1.936 0.166 5.456 1.466 7.794 Columbus Crew D.C. United 17.043 -2.663 0.667 -2.303 0.957 0.617 -0.193 1.547 0.247 0.317 -0.883 0.957 1.857 -0.643 0.497 1.437 17.043 D.C. United FC Dallas 7.068 0.522 -0.478 -0.778 1.342 -0.818 -0.098 -0.068 0.022 1.052 1.222 -0.168 0.402 -0.988 -1.608 -3.718 7.068 FC Dallas Houston Dynamo 12.253 -2.043 1.157 1.867 -0.533 -0.693 0.217 0.467 -0.253 -1.403 2.457 0.177 0.017 1.587 -2.253 1.047 12.253 Houston Dynamo Los Angeles FC 5.945 2.315 -0.125 -1.505 0.055 -0.285 0.235 -0.355 -0.155 0.815 -2.335 0.255 0.425 0.535 -2.085 -0.685 5.945 Los Angeles FC L.A. Galaxy 12.029 1.321 -0.819 -0.649 -0.029 -1.059 -0.789 4.381 -0.819 -0.849 4.551 0.471 -1.129 -0.269 -0.779 -1.419 12.029 L.A. Galaxy Minnesota United 18.385 1.525 1.145 0.465 -1.005 -0.545 0.325 1.615 -0.945 1.135 0.775 -0.785 -1.055 -0.425 1.475 -1.515 18.385 Minnesota United Montreal Impact 16.1 0.25 0.75 -0.45 0.18 0.06 -1.04 1.45 0.05 -1.58 0.51 0.93 -0.8 -1.78 -0.67 0.38 16.1 Montreal Impact N.E. Revolution 13.431 -1.431 0.629 -0.871 0.909 -1.741 1.159 -0.121 0.809 1.089 -0.491 -0.361 -0.831 0.529 -1.141 -0.521 13.431 N.E. Revolution New York FC 4.348 -1.138 -0.998 -0.228 0.492 0.372 1.182 -1.108 0.062 0.502 0.842 0.982 -0.578 1.452 0.192 0.002 4.348 New York FC New York RB 3.259 -0.639 -0.199 0.771 -0.449 1.051 -0.319 -0.599 -0.169 -0.259 -0.159 -0.229 -0.659 -0.379 -1.439 -0.169 3.259 New York RB Orlando SC 17.946 1.904 0.874 1.644 -0.816 -0.356 -0.296 2.504 -0.536 -0.526 0.444 -1.476 0.184 -1.666 0.014 -0.816 17.946 Orlando SC Philadelphia Union 13.69 1.16 -0.6 0.52 0.34 -0.16 -0.84 0.59 -0.75 0.4 -0.56 0.58 2.04 -0.05 0.24 0.57 13.69 Philadelphia Union Portland Timbers 9.195 -0.875 -1.845 -0.635 0.555 -0.505 0.065 -0.785 1.715 -0.135 -1.805 0.435 -1.865 0.925 -0.055 -2.715 9.195 Portland Timbers Real Salt Lake 13.448 3.112 -0.828 -1.038 0.022 -0.638 0.372 -0.068 0.142 3.002 -1.128 -0.518 1.722 0.152 -2.158 -1.798 13.448 Real Salt Lake San Jose Earthquakes 20.143 -0.553 2.147 0.507 -0.203 0.107 0.037 0.577 -0.583 -0.993 1.337 -0.173 0.887 0.817 -5.893 2.597 20.143 San Jose Earthquakes Seattle Sounders 12.061 -0.181 -1.971 -0.771 0.069 2.319 0.259 -4.371 1.349 -1.761 -2.771 2.139 -0.891 0.539 2.689 1.419 12.061 Seattle Sounders Sporting Kansas City 5.142 -0.382 -0.492 0.858 0.518 0.828 -0.262 0.648 -0.262 -0.472 2.018 -0.772 -0.112 -0.702 -3.782 0.338 5.142 Sporting Kansas City Toronto FC 12.716 -0.926 -0.536 2.524 -0.156 3.784 -1.566 -4.236 1.464 -1.836 -3.776 -0.286 -0.446 -0.356 3.494 4.984 12.716 Toronto FC Vancouver Whitecaps 13.016 2.134 1.924 -0.016 -1.546 -1.296 1.334 -0.426 -1.106 0.194 0.594 -0.816 0.584 0.464 4.914 -0.316 13.016 Vancouver Whitecaps Most Bias VS (+) 3.112 2.147 2.524 1.342 3.784 1.334 4.381 1.715 3.002 4.551 2.139 2.04 1.587 5.456 4.984 (+) Most Bias VS Most Bias FOR (-) -2.663 -1.971 -2.303 -1.546 -1.741 -1.566 -4.371 -1.234 -1.836 -3.776 -1.476 -1.865 -1.78 -5.893 -3.718 (-) Most Bias FOR