MLS Power Rankings: Week 2
April 9th, 2008 . 6:52 am . By: Parrish GloverAfter a week of heavy reshuffling, this weekend was much kinder to the Power Rankings staff. The higher ranked teams beat the lower ranked teams and in most cases, the greater the difference in rank, the greater the difference in scoreline. As a result, very little needed to change for week 2.
Despite being at the top of the league, I’m not entirely sold on Kansas City yet. United looked like a machine against TFC and Chicago’s dismantling of New England was a sight to behold. The City team looks to be in good position heading into a third straight home game against a severely depleted Revs side. I’m not even tempted to think about moving the Galaxy up from their tenth spot, but based on other rankings around the league, it seems I was one of the few to not write them off for dead to begin with. Red Bull put up an equally impressive score against a better team and quite frankly the Gals looked better without Xavier slacking up the back line. With the suspension passed, let’s see if Ruud has the stones to leave one of his biggest names on the bench for the benefit of the team. Granted, Toronto’s firepower is far superior to that of the Quakes, but the two import coaches need to learn that speed kills in MLS. How frustrating was the most recent episode in the El Capitan derby? Both Dallas and Houston drop in the standings. The Orange should be more worried about losing Robinson than Onstad at this point, though Caig looked something awful. A wiser man than I already pointed out elsewhere that the Hoops back line has already coughed away four points late. I’m thinking that United-Real may be the game of the week. RSL looked decent at home, terrible on the road. United looked terrible on the road, spectacular at home. D.C. is busy with their second leg against Pachuca, a game they are unlikely to simply write-off as a loss. Home-field has been huge thus far in MLS with 10 wins, 3 ties, and 0 losses for the home side. If RSL is willing to put their shoulder into it (looking at you, Dema), they have a better than decent shot at three points. Still developing the methodology for the ongoing ranking system, and I’m trying to implement a system that will account for recent form. I think that four matches is probably a good window to look at, but am not sure whether I should weight the games according to date. That being said, this week’s results give me hope that I may actually know something about this league after all. The final formula may be better used as a guide to assist my qualitative rankings, rather than as a slavish quant method to which I subjugate my own opinion. Now, let me take a moment to actually edit myself and make sure that I, y’know, finish sentences and stuff… 5 Comments Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI Leave a comment |
Of course you know that FCD is 10th in a single table set up…
Sure, it should have been a win, but a road tie - at the champs’ place, where they never have success, no less - and FCD drops a spot? Hate to see what happens when they lose a game…
a team that played wednesday night in CONCACAF, had scoring issues and light on the bench due to injuries was ripe for the picking.
you will either look like a pure idiot with these rankings or a genius…i just don’t know which at this point…but most will probably argue that KC is number one right now and not that low…
[...] writes, but it looks collective) WVHooligan (Drew Epperley) Blue Blooded Journo (a collective) 3rd Degree (Parrish Glover) ESPN.com (collective) Fox Soccer Channel (Keith [...]