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Week 9 is done; LAFC opened up Banc of California Stadium in dramatic fashion, beating Seattle on a free kick in stoppage time to earn their second 1-0 victory over the 2 time defending Western Conference Champions, and the last unbeaten team in MLS fell as FC Dallas lost at NYC.
As always, a quick reminder of how I arrive at these rankings:
The SFPI has two main Components, “Performance Score,” which is determined 100% by on the field results, and “Strength of Schedule” which takes the average Performance Score of all of a team’s opponents to date, with a mechanism to account for games on the road.
PERFORMANCE SCORE
A team’s Performance Score is made up of the following components:
Points Per Game (PPG) Score: This takes a team’s overall PPG and adds their PPG over their last five matches with the last five being given more weight. This is the single largest component of the SFPI.
Goal Difference Per Game: Overall goal difference divided by total games played
Home/Away Bonus: Bonus points are awarded for earning results (W/D) on the road, and an equal number of points are subtracted for dropping results (D/L) at home. Accrues over entire season.
STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE
As stated above, a team’s Strength of Schedule is reached by taking the average performance score of all of a team’s opponents to date. It accounts for road matches by adding a percentage of an opponents Points Per Game at Home to their Performance Score. Teams faced multiple times are counted that amount of times. Weighted at less than 100%
For the purposes of ranking Strength of Schedule the number represents how hard a team’s schedule is in relation to the rest of the league. So 1 is the toughest and 23 is the easiest. Same goes for Remaining Schedule: 1 is the toughest, 23 is the easiest.
Those combine to give a team’s TOTAL SCORE. Teams are then ranked in order of highest to lowest by Total Score
On to the Rankings! The biggest winner by position this week is New York Red Bulls climbing 5 spots, and the biggest losers are FC Dallas and Real Salt Lake both falling 3. By points, Orlando is the biggest point gainer, increasing by 1.9464 points, RSL had the biggest point drop at a 1.216 point loss.
This week also sees the return of the “Pace” Feature, that number is the number of points a team is currently on pace for.
1 Atlanta (19pts 6W-1L-1D) Score: 11.0639 (+0.0281) Prev: 1 (NC) High 1 Low 1
Schedule: 15 (-3) Pace: 80 Remaining Schedule: 13 Last Week: W 4-1 v Montreal
Next Week: at (13) Chicago. Consecutive Weeks at #1: 2
2 New York City FC (20pts 6W-1L-2D) Score: 11.0237 (+0.7858) Prev: 2 (NC) High 2 Low 2
Schedule: 4 (+1) Pace: 75 Remaining Schedule: 6 Last Week W 3-1 v FC Dallas
Next Week: at (7) New York Red Bulls
3 Orlando (16pts 5W-2L-1D) Score: 9.5185 (+1.9464) Prev: 6 (+3) High 3 Low 6
Schedule: 17 (+3) Pace: 68 Remaining Schedule: 3 Last Week: W 2-1 at Colorado
Next Week: v (14) Real Salt Lake
4 LAFC (15pts 5W-2L-0D) Score: 9.3832 (-0.3568) Prev: 3 (-1) High 3 Low 4
Schedule: 21 (-6) Pace: 72 Remaining Schedule: 20 Last Week: W 1-0 v Seattle
Next Week: v (8) FC Dallas
5 Sporting KC (17pts 5W-2L-2D) Score: 8.4409 (-0.5436) Prev: 4 (-1) High 4 Low 5
Schedule: 20 (+2) Pace: 64 Remaining Schedule: 18 Last Week: L 1-0 at New England
Next Week: v (12) Colorado
6 New England (14pts 4W-2L-2D) Score: 8.117 (+0.8876) Prev: 7 (+1) High 6 Low 7
Schedule: 12 (+2) Pace: 59 Remaining Schedule: 15 Last Week: W 1-0 v Sporting KC
Next Week: at (20) Montreal
7 New York RB (12pts 4W-3L-0D) Score: 7.5944 (+1.4051) Prev: 12 (+5) High 7 Low 12
Schedule: 19 (-3) Pace: 58 Remaining Schedule: 6 Last Week: W 3-2 at LA Galaxy
Next Week: v (2) New York City FC
8 FC Dallas (12pts 3W-1L-3D) Score: 7.2368 (-1.0837) Prev: 5 (-3) High 5 Low 8
Schedule: 14 (+7) Pace: 58 Remaining Schedule: 11 Last Week: L 3-1 at New York City FC
Next Week: at (4) LAFC
9 Portland (8pts 2W-3L-2D) Score: 7.0345 (-0.0436) Prev: 8 (-1) High 8 Low 9
Schedule: 5 (+1) Pace: 38 Remaining Schedule: 23 Last Week: Bye
Next Week: at (22) San Jose
10 LA Galaxy (10pts 3W-4L-1D) Score: 6.1073 (-0.8891) Prev: 9 (-1) High 9 Low 10
Schedule: 1 (NC) Pace: 42 Remaining Schedule: 21 Last Week: L 3-2 v New York Red Bulls
11 Vancouver (13pts 4W-4L-1D) Score: 5.8039 (+0.5707) Prev: 15 (+4) High 11 Low 15
Schedule: 10 (-6) Pace: 49 Remaining Schedule: 22 Last Week: W 2-0 v Real Salt Lake
Next Week: at (18) Minnesota
12 Colorado (8pts 2W-3L-2D) Score: 5.7075 (-0.8884) Prev: 10 (-2) High 10 Low 12
Schedule: 11 (+2) Pace: 38 Remaining Schedule: 17 Last Week: L 2-1 v Orlando
Next Week: at (5) Sporting KC
13 Chicago (8pts 2W-3L-2D) Score: 5.3353 (+0.0509) Prev: 13 (NC) High 13 Low 13
Schedule: 16 (-5) Pace: 38 Remaining Schedule: 8 Last Week: D 2-2 at Toronto
Next Week: v (1) Atlanta
14 Real Salt Lake (10pts 3W-4L-1D) Score: 5.1146 (-1.216) Prev: 11 (-3) High 11 Low 14
Schedule: 7 (NC) Pace: 42 Remaining Schedule: 12 Last Week: L 2-0 at Vancouver
Next Week: at (3) Orlando
15 DC United (5pts 1W-4L-2D) Score: 4.8095 (-0.4401) Prev: 14 (-1) High 14 Low 15
Schedule: 3 (-1) Pace: 24 Remaining Schedule: 5 Last Week: L 3-2 at Philadelphia
Next Week: Bye
16 Houston (8pts 2W-3L-2D) Score: 4.6127 (-0.2838) Prev: 16 (NC) High 16 Low 16
Schedule: 18 (+1) Pace: 38 Remaining Schedule: 7 Last Week: L 2-1 at Minnesota
Next Week: v (10) LA Galaxy
17 Columbus (14pts 4W-3L-2D) Score: 4.4731 (+0.3589) Prev: 20 (+3) High 17 Low 20
Schedule: 23 (NC) Pace: 52 Remaining Schedule: 17 Last Week: W 2-1 v San Jose
Next Week: at (19) Seattle
18 Minnesota (9 pts 3W-5L-0D) Score: 4.4698 (-0.2003) Prev: 17 (-1) High 17 Low 18
Schedule: 9 (+1) Pace: 38 Remaining Schedule 14 Last Week: W 2-1 v Houston
Next Week: v (11) Vancouver
19 Seattle (4pts 1W-4L-1D) Score: 3.9909 (-0.3031) Prev: 18 (-1) High 18 Low 19
Schedule: 2 (+1) Pace: 22 Remaining Schedule: 10 Last Week: L 1-0 at LAFC
Next Week: v (17) Columbus
20 Montreal (6pts 2W-6L-0D) Score: 3.8488 (-0.2879) Prev: 19 (-1) High 19 Low 20
Schedule: 6 (+11) Pace: 25 Remaining Schedule: 9 Last Week: L 4-1 at Atlanta
Next Week: v (6) New England
21 Philadelphia (8pts 2W-3L-2D) Score: 3.6997 (+0.8201) Prev: 22 (+1) High 21 Low 22
Schedule: 5 (+1) Pace: 38 Remaining Schedule: 4 Last Week: W 3-2 v DC United
Next Week: at (23) Toronto
22 San Jose (5pts 1W-4L-2D) Score: 3.6725 (-0.0611) Prev: 21 (-1) High 21 Low 22
Schedule: 8 (NC) Pace: 24 Remaining Schedule: 16 Last Week: L 2-1 at Columbus
Next Week: v (9) Portland
23 Toronto (4 pts 1W-4L-1D) Score: 1.8504 (-0.0679) Prev: 23 (NC) High 23 Low 23
Schedule: 22 (-4) Pace: 22 Remaining Schedule: 22 Last Week: D 2-2 v Chicago
Next Week: v (21) Philadlephia
PREDICTIONS
Last week the SFPI went 5-6 (45.45%) and is 5-6 (45.45%) on the year.
Again will add 1.75 points to the home team’s score and if they are within 1.25 points call it a draw.
Philadelphia at Toronto: DRAW
New England at Montreal: NEW ENGLAND
New York City at New York RB: NEW YORK CITY FC
Vancouver at Minnesota: DRAW
FC Dallas at LAFC: LAFC
Columbus at Seattle: SEATTLE
Atlanta at Chicago: ATLANTA
LA Galaxy at Houston: DRAW
Colorado at Sporting KC: KANSAS CITY
Portland at San Jose: PORTLAND
Real Salt Lake at Orlando: ORLANDO