SFPI MLS Power Rankings Week 15

I decided to do a rankings despite a very light week that only saw 3 matches, as most teams elected to skip this international window. But still some movement. Most movement is a result in changes of Schedule Strength, The biggest winner is Portland climbing 6 slots following a big win against Dallas. Biggest Loser is Sporting KC who fell 6 spots after conceding a late equalizer to draw at home against Montreal.

One bit of housekeeping to address. Toronto's score this week is much lower than last because I accidentally gave them credit for one too many Road Wins. Fortunately it did not affect their ranking, but now makes the distance between them and #2 much slimmer.

COMPONENTS OF SFPI

PPG SCORE: Overall Points per Game added to Points per Game over last five matches. Last five is given more weight. Single largest component of SFPI

GOAL DIFFERENCE/GAME: Overall Goal Difference divided by games played.

HOME/AWAY BONUS: Bonus points are added for earning results (W/D) on the road, points subtracted for dropping results (D/L) at home. Accrues over entire season.

PERFORMANCE SCORE: All the above components are added together to form the Performance Score.

STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE: Average performance score of all of a teams opponents thus far, weighted at less than 100%. Teams that have been faced multiple times are included as many times as they are played (ex: If Portland has played Seattle twice so far, Seattle's Performance Score is added twice).

TOTAL SCORE: Performance Score and Strength of Schedule are added together to make Total Score. Teams are then ranked in order of highest to lowest.

New Feature this week: Am including how a teams Total Score has changed from last week to this.

RANKINGS

(all times pacific)

1: TORONTO FC (29pts 8W-2L-5D): SCORE: 9.7753 (-0.54) PREVIOUS: 1 (NC) H1/L10

LAST WEEK: NO LEAGUE MATCH

NEXT WEEK: vs (20) DC United Saturday 6/17 5pm

2: CHICAGO FIRE (28pts 8W-3L-4D): SCORE: 9.7289 (+0.1629) PREVIOUS: 2 (NC) H2/L14

LAST WEEK: W 2-0 vs Atlanta

The Fire used goals from Luis Solignac and Nemanja Nikolic on each side of halftime to post a 2-0 victory over Atlanta United on Saturday. Solignac scored in the 29th minute at Toyota Park following some good work from David Accam, and Nikolic scored his league-best 12th goal on a penalty kick in the 70th. With the win over the expansion club, Chicago are now unbeaten in seven straight games. They remain in second place of the Eastern Conference, but are now just one point behind leaders Toronto FC.

NEXT WEEK: at (7) New England Revolution Saturday 6/17 430pm

3: LOS ANGELES GALAXY (18pts 5W-5L-3D): SCORE: 7.386 (+0.1326) PREVIOUS: 5 (+3) H3/L21

LAST WEEK: NO LEAGUE MATCH

NEXT WEEK: vs (17) Houston Saturday 6/17 8pm (Univision, FB Live)

4: NEW YORK CITY FC (24pts 7W-5L-3D): SCORE: 7.3514 (+0.0018) PREVIOUS: 4 (NC) H2/L12

LAST WEEK: NO LEAGUE MATCH

NEXT WEEK: vs (10) Seattle Saturday 6/17 10am (ESPN)

5: NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION (20tps 5W-5L-5D): SCORE: 7.2823 (+0.0699) PREVIOUS: 7 (+2) H5/L17

LAST WEEK: NO LEAGUE MATCH

NEXT WEEK: vs (2) Chicago Saturday 6/17 430pm

6: MONTREAL IMPACT (17pts 4W-4L-5D): SCORE: 7.279 (+0.5886) PREVIOUS: 10 (+4) H6/L17

LAST WEEK: D 1-1 at Kansas City

Not only were the Impact minus five starters from their last game, but they lost another starter just before kickoff when Jean-Yves Tabla was a last-minute scratch after suffering some kind of injury during warmups. Dominic Oduro was quickly inserted to the lineup in place of Tabla and nearly equalized in the 76th minute, but his apparent goal was waved off for offside. He was substituted off a minute later, and his replacement, Matteo Mancosu, was the one who eventually got the equalizer five minutes after coming on.

NEXT WEEK: at (16) Orlando Saturday 6/17 430pm

7: ATLANTA UNITED (18pts 5W-6L-3D): SCORE: 7.2084 (-0.0196) PREVIOUS: 6 (-1) H3/L12

LAST WEEK: L 2-0 at Chicago

Atlanta United had their chances to find the back of the net despite starting the match without Miguel Almiron, but could not find their shooting boots. The expansion club finished with just two shots on target, even with forward Josef Martinez making his return from injury by coming off the bench in the second half.

NEXT WEEK: vs (13) Columbus Saturday 6/17 4pm

8: PORTLAND TIMBERS (24pts 7W-5L-3D): SCORE: 7.1473 (+1.1909) PREVIOUS: 14 (+6) H1/L17

LAST WEEK: W 2-0 vs Dallas

Adi scored his usual two, Valeri SHOULD have scored a third, and shorthanded Portland dealt with a handful of injury stoppages early, with Liam Ridgewell having to leave the match with a quadriceps injury after taking a ball to the leg. Later in the first half, Roy Miller struggled with a leg injury after Maximiliano Urruti fell into it while they battled for the ball. Still, they pulled out the 2-0 win for their second consecutive Clean Sheet. They have now gone 266 minutes without conceding a goal (just under 4.5 hrs).

NEXT WEEK: at (19) Colorado Saturday 6/17 630pm

9: SPORTING KANSAS CITY (26pts 7W-4L-5D): SCORE: 7.085 (-0.4161) PREVIOUS: 3 (-6) H2/L11

LAST WEEK: D 1-1 vs Montreal

Gaso Fernandes scored in the 24th minute and for nearly an hour it looked as if SKC would stretch thei home winning streak to 7 games, until Soni Mustivar, who had been in the game for only 2 minutes, did this allowing Matteo Mancosu to score the equalizer and The Impact to steal a point.

NEXT WEEK: at (14) San Jose Saturday 6/17 6pm

10: SEATTLE SOUNDERS (19pts 5W-6L-4D): SCORE: 6.7354 (+0.0569) PREVIOUS: 11 (+1) H8/L17

LAST WEEK: NO LEAGUE MATCH

NEXT WEEK: at (4) New York City Saturday 6/17 10am (ESPN)

11: VANCOUVER WHITECAPS (19pts 6W-6L-1D) SCORE: 6.7301 (-0.0922) PREVIOUS: 9 (-2) H8/L22

LAST WEEK: NO LEAGUE MATCH

NEXT WEEK: vs (12) Dallas Saturday 6/17 7pm

12: FC DALLAS (23pts 6W-3L-5D): SCORE: 6.5425 (-0.4223) PREVIOUS: 8 (-4) H1/L12

LAST WEEK: L 2-0 at Portland

There's not much for FC Dallas fans to take away from a shutout loss on the road during an international break, but Mauro Diaz continuing to make his recovery from last year's Achilles tendon injury is a small bright spot. This was his first road trip since making his 2017 season debut on May 29th, and he did manage a key pass in his limited time. Dallas will only keep getting better as he returns to form.

NEXT WEEK: at (11) Vancouver Saturday 6/17 7pm

13: COLUMBUS CREW SC (22pts 7W-8L-1D): SCORE: 6.3551 (-0.0044) PREVIOUS: 12 (-1) H1/L13

LAST WEEK: NO LEAGUE MATCH

NEXT WEEK: at (7) Atlanta Saturday 6/17 4pm

14: SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES (19pts 5W-6L-4D): SCORE: 6.1393 (+0.9682) PREVIOUS: 17 (+3) H5/L17

LAST WEEK: NO LEAGUE MATCH

NEXT WEEK: vs (9) Kansas City Saturday 6/17 6pm

15: PHILADELPHIA UNION (16pts 4W-6L-4D): SCORE: 6.0143 (+0.0347) PREVIOUS: 13 (-2) H6/L22

LAST WEEK: NO LEAGUE MATCH

NEXT WEEK: vs (18) New York Red Bulls Sunday 6/18 2pm (ESPN)

16: ORLANDO CITY SC (24pts 7W-5L-3D): SCORE: 5.705 (+0.0249) PREVIOUS: 15 (-1) H2/L19

LAST WEEK: NO LEAGUE MATCH

NEXT WEEK: vs (6) Montreal Saturday 6/17 430pm

17: HOUSTON DYNAMO (23pts 7W-6L-2D): SCORE: 5.625 (+0.0403) PREVIOUS: 16 (-1) H4/L17

LAST WEEK: NO LEAGUE MATCH

NEXT WEEK: at (3) Los Angeles Saturday 6/17 8pm (Univision, FB Live)

18: NEW YORK RED BULLS (20pts 6W-7L-2D): SCORE: 4.6903 (-0.0385) PREVIOUS: 18 (NC) H7/L19

LAST WEEK: NO LEAGUE MATCH

NEXT WEEK: at (15) Philadelphia Sunday 6/18 2pm (ESPN)

19: COLORADO RAPIDS (13pts 4W-8L-1D): SCORE: 4.5018 (-0.0661) PREVIOUS: 19 (NC) H17/L22

LAST WEEK: NO LEAGUE MATCH

NEXT WEEK: vs (8) Portland Saturday 6/17 630pm

20: DC UNITED (15pts 4W-7L-3D): SCORE: 4.11 (-0.0552) PREVIOUS: 20 (NC) H8/L20

LAST WEEK: NO LEAGUE MATCH

NEXT WEEK: at (1) Toronto Saturday 6/17 5pm

21: REAL SALT LAKE (14pts 4W-10L-2D): SCORE: 3.4617 (-0.096) PREVIOUS: 21 (NC) H17/L21

LAST WEEK: NO LEAGUE MATCH

NEXT WEEK: vs (22) Minnesota Saturday 6/17 7pm

22: MINNESOTA UNITED (14pts 4W-8L-2D): SCORE: 3.4441 (+0.4827) PREVIOUS: 22 (NC) H19/L22

LAST WEEK: NO LEAGUE MATCH

NEXT WEEK: at (21) Salt Lake Saturday 6/17 7pm

PREDICTIONS

A three game week and the SFPI went 0-fer. This brings the season total to 39-67 (36.8%). Still keeping at same formula 1.5 point bonus for home team, if still within 1 point call a draw.

Seattle at NYC: NEW YORK

Columbus at Atlanta: ATLANTA

Chicago at New England: DRAW

Montreal at Orlando: DRAW

DC at Toronto: TORONTO

Kansas City at San Jose: DRAW

Portland at Colorado: PORTLAND

Minnesota at Salt Lake: SALT LAKE

Dallas at Vancouver: DRAW

Houston at LA: LOS ANGELES

New York RB at Philadelphia: PHILADELPHIA