SFPI MLS Power Rankings (MLS Week 9)

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