No movement this week with only one game, due to the international break. Sky Blue FC earned its first home point of the year, and only its second point overall with a 0-0 draw at home against Washington to avoid slipping into negative territory. Everyone else was idle.
As always, here’s 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 the 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 opponent’s Points Per Game at home to their Performance Score. Teams faced multiple times are counted that number of times. Numbered 1-9, with 9 being the easiest, and weighted at less than 100%.
Strength of Schedule and Performance Score combine to give a team’s Total Score. A negative total score is theoretically possible, although it requires an extended period of very poor play.
Features of Note
- Remaining Schedule: Same as Strength of Schedule, only for games remaining.
- Pace: How many points is a team currently on pace for given their current PPG? Also shows how results for this week impact that pace vs last week.
- Record is in W-L-D format. *Denotes playoff position.
- Parentheses indicate change from the previous week, with – indicating no change.
Rankings
1 *North Carolina Courage (30 pts, 9-0-3) Score: 11.4362 (+0.1116) Prev: 1 (–); High 1 Low 1
Schedule: 8 (–); Pace: 60 (LW 60); Remaining Schedule: 7 (-2)
Last Week: Bye
Next Week: vs (4) Utah
Weeks at 1: 5 (consecutive)
2 *Orlando Pride (16 pts, 4-3-4) Score: 8.3681 (+0.0359); Prev: 2 (–); High 2 Low 3
Schedule: 3 (+1); Pace: 34 (LW 34); Remaining Schedule: 8 (–)
Last Week: Bye
Next Week: vs (9) Sky Blue
3 *Seattle Reign (18 pts, 5-2-3) Score: 7.6298 (+0.1232); Prev: 3 (–); High 2 Low 3
Schedule: 9 (–); Pace: 43 (LW 43); Remaining Schedule: 1 (–)
Last Week: Bye
Next Week: at (8) Washington
4 Utah Royals (14 pts, 3-2-5) Score: 7.1127 (+0.0682); Prev: 4 (–); High 4 Low 5
Schedule: 7 (–); Pace: 33 (LW 33); Remaining Schedule: 5 (+1)
Last Week: Bye
Next Week: at (1) North Carolina
5 *Portland Thorns (15 pts, 4-4-3) Score: 6.5961 (+0.0737); Prev: 5 (–); High 4 Low 5
Schedule: 2 (–); Pace: 32 (LW 32); Remaining Schedule: 9 (–)
Last Week: Bye
Next Week: at (7) Chicago
6 Houston Dash (14 pts, 3-4-5) Score: 5.8877 (+0.0568); Prev: 6 (–); High 6 Low 8
Schedule: 4 (+1); Pace: 28 (LW 28); Remaining Schedule: 6 (+1)
Last Week: Bye
Next Week: Bye
7 Chicago Red Stars (15 pts, 3-3-6) Score: 5.4209 (+0.0876); Prev: 7 (–); High 6 Low 7
Schedule: 6 (–); Pace: 30 (LW 30); Remaining Schedule: 4 (–)
Last Week: Bye
Next Week: vs (5) Portland
8 Washington Spirit (9 pts, 2-7-3) Score: 2.8769 (+0.0875); Prev: 8 (–); High 6 Low 8
Schedule: 5 (-2); Pace: 18 (LW 17); Remaining Schedule: 3 (–)
Last Week: D 0-0 at Sky Blue
Next Week: vs (3) Seattle
9 Sky Blue FC (2 pts, 0-8-2) Score: 0.705 (-0.0164); Prev: 9 (–); High 9 Low 9
Schedule: 1 (–); Pace: 4 (LW 2); Remaining Schedule: 2 (–)
Last Week: D 0-0 vs Washington
Next Week; at (2) Orlando
Predictions
Last Week the SFPI went 0-1 (0%) as Sky Blue actually stood up and earned their second point of the year. Season total is now 8-9 (47.1%). 1.5 points are added to the home team’s score, with a draw called for teams within a point of each other.
Seattle at Washington: SEATTLE
Utah at North Carolina: NORTH CAROLINA
Sky Blue at Orlando: ORLANDO
Portland at Chicago: DRAW