RSL tops MLS power ranking season average

Another late one. Ho hum. Nothing new. Let's dive into something, shall we?

One reader, Kreg, has done a tremendous thing by keeping track of the average power rankings across the league and across various media outlets, so let's take a look at what he's gathered to this point. He's got it broken down by week, too, so I'm quite interested to see how Real Salt Lake has trended over time. To be clear, the sites he's polling are Soccer America, mlssoccer.com, goal.com, Soccer by Ives, ESPN, SB Nation, Bleacher Report, and NBC Sports. A respectable array.

The first obvious thing is that we're leading the league in power rankings averages. Our current average is 2.2, while the next closest — unsurprisingly, Sporting KC — is at 2.5. This is the first time we've jumped ahead of Sporting KC on overall average (across the season) since week 6. Quite interestingly, we led the league from weeks 1 to 6, and have finally recaptured our rightful place at the top.

The lowest any of the outlets have ranked us this season is 6, when Soccer America and Bleacher Report dropped us to a strange spot after that loss to Chivas in week 3. We've proven them wrong, coming back quite well. The outlet to rank us highest the least often is NBC Sports, putting us at #1 only twice (weeks 2 and 10, if you would like to know. Though that's also the case if you wouldn't like to know, obviously enough. So, there's that.) Three outlets have ranked us the highest on average across the season at 1.9: Soccer by Ives, SB Nation, and Goal.com. Soccer America has ranked us the worst. (Blast!)

Some notable jumps across the league: San Jose has gone from 10th to 4th place, NYRB has gone from 12th to 7th place, and DC United has gone from 16th to 12th. On the more negative side of things, the Galaxy are perhaps the biggest stinkers of the bunch: 2nd place to 8th place. Ouch. No less than they've deserved for their absolutely stellar (!!!) gameplay this season. Oh, and there is, of course, the curious case of Toronto FC, who've gone from 13th place to 19th as they search for the worst season record ever.

So, there's that. Thanks again to Kreg for the data — a lot of work goes into things like this, and I love seeing it. A real champion, that one.

Oh, and do look out for a cool new feature soon — actually, two cool new features — though I'll have to finish developing them both. You know the drill. Keep your ears to the ground and whatnot.

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Right, not a whole lot of news coming out of today. Are you surprised? Good, me neither. I shan't bore you too much, then. I would like to again issue a hearty congratulations to Kyle Beckerman and Nick Rimando for their continued involvement with the U.S. camp. I'd imagine we'll also see Luis Gil involved with the U-20s and Will Johnson with the Canadian side. I'm not sure what matches will be played, so maybe I'll look at that later. Maybe.

OK, then. Off to the races! (Or dinner-making. That's similar to a race, right?) 'Til tomorrow, fine folks.