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Well that was a fun week! In Sporting Kansas City world and elsewhere. Lots of entertaining matches around Major League Soccer, and lots to ponder as the season is now well under way. Chief question for me is, will Sporting rue not having turned one of their draws into a win? That’s always a question that can be asked, of course, and as one of only three undefeated teams left, I’m not sure I have much to complain about.
Speaking of Sporting Kansas city, they climb this week, after a dismantling of the Colorado Rapids. Whether that’s deserved may come down to how they fare in their next two away matches, as they face the #1 and #2 teams in the league, according to both the standings and my rankings.
And, speaking of my rankings... here they are! You’ll note this week there was a few oddities, that I felt I should justify somewhat. Because I’m using a bit of a moving average system, it tends to lag a bit. Because of that, the New York Red Bulls, who started the season off quite well, are still ranked fairly high. It is, however, possible to take a look at recent results and establish how they’re trending. I arbitrarily chose to look back three weeks at rankings, and sure enough, NYRB are trending downwards. It’s little quirks like that that make things interesting. Outside of that, perhaps no major surprises. For my money, Toronto may be ranked a bit high, but they’ll probably be asking themselves the same question about draws, so glass houses, stones, etc.
And the system may be a bit harsh to Minnesota United, but their early season comb games put them in a big hole, and right now it’s less a question of when will they become better and more a question when will Philadelphia finally become worse to bump them up? Probably soon...
Given that, here’s the tables. Side note, I figured out how to import tables. Yay me!
Week 6 Power Rankings
| Rank | Team | Points | Wins | Losses | Draws | Trend | Games Played |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Team | Points | Wins | Losses | Draws | Trend | Games Played |
| 1 | Portland | 13 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 6 | |
| 2 | FC Dallas | 10 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 | |
| 3 | NYRB | 7 | 2 | 3 | 1 | down | 6 |
| 4 | Houston | 9 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 5 | |
| 5 | Toronto | 7 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 5 | |
| 6 | Orlando | 9 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 | |
| 7 | Sporting Kansas City | 9 | 2 | 0 | 3 | up | 5 |
| 8 | NYCFC | 7 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | |
| 9 | Columbus | 10 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 | |
| 10 | San Jose | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | down | 5 |
| 11 | Atlanta | 8 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | |
| 12 | Colorado | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | down | 4 |
| 13 | Seattle | 6 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | |
| 14 | Chicago | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | up | 5 |
| 15 | New England | 7 | 2 | 2 | 1 | up | 5 |
| 16 | LA Glaxy | 6 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 5 | |
| 17 | DC United | 7 | 2 | 2 | 1 | up | 5 |
| 18 | Vancouver Whitecaps | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 | |
| 19 | Philadelphia Union | 2 | 0 | 3 | 2 | down | 5 |
| 20 | Real Salt Lake | 5 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 6 | |
| 21 | Montreal Impact | 3 | 0 | 2 | 3 | down | 5 |
| 22 | Minnesota United | 4 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 6 |
Still a lot of wiggle room in the middle two thirds. For my money, Portland and Dallas are quite good, Philly, RSL, Montreal and Minnesota are bad, and then there’s a bunch of teams in the middle who still have work to do to prove their quality, one way or another.