Let’s just come out and admit it: Power rankings are rather silly. There is rarely a clear indication of what, exactly, is being measured and no voter gives a clear criteria for how they decide how they make their decisions. We at SB Nation have always tried to do things a little differently, taking the average of multiple bloggers and adding an element of tiers. Now, we’ve add another variable: We’re only going to do them once a month.
MLS Power Rankings, March: Trying something new
Rather than doing weekly power rankings that can be unduly influenced by the most recent result, we’re going to be doing ours once a month.
USA TODAY Sports
Sure, that means that our readers will be “deprived” of our weekly insight, but we’re going to look for ways to fill that void in the coming months. For now, here are our rankings based on March’s results. Let us know what you think. Our ranking tiers are themed by Justin Timberlake.
1. Montreal Impact (average ranking: 2.16): Even after their setback last week, they still have the best start in the league. No big surprise they top our rankings.
1. LA Galaxy (2.16): A bit of an uneven start, but they've shown enough quality that there's little reason to doubt that they are still an elite team.
3. FC Dallas (3.26): Safe to say few if any expected them to be tied for the best record in the league after a month. But the offseason changes seem to have paid off.
4. Houston Dynamo (3.47): Picking up right where they left off last year it appears that Dominic Kinnear has his squad looking as good as ever.
5. Chivas USA (4.89): Raise your hand if you predicted El Chelis would have the Goats off to one of their best starts in history. Oh, put it down you freaking liar. Even people who were reasonably optimistic didn't see this coming.
6. Columbus Crew (6.68): Truth be told I'm a little surprised to see them up this high, but that's the beauty of once-a-month rankings: voters actually look at a bigger picture.
7. Sporting Kansas City (6.95): Conversely, I would have expected KC to be higher than this, especially after they whipped the Impact.
8. Vancouver Whitecaps (8.47): This is a little higher than I'd expect for a team that is currently outside of the playoffs, but their PPM tells a slightly more optimistic story. There's no doubt about the talent on this squad.
9. Real Salt Lake (8.95): A resounding win over the Sounders doesn't look quite as impressive as it may have looked in the past, but this team seems to be coming together now.
10. San Jose Earthquakes (9.21): Hard to argue that this team has taken a step back from their Supporters' Shield-winning season of a year ago.
11. Philadelphia Union (10.68): John Hackworth seems to at least stabilized the situation, but this team has shown glimpses of being capable of falling either way.
12. New York Red Bulls (12.74): Tons of talent, but results have been spotty. First win of the season came last week, which could shoot them up the rankings quickly.
13. DC United (13.26): Another talented team that has found results hard to come by. Dwayne De Rosario has only played in two games and could miss some more.
14. Toronto FC (14.32): The bar is set impossibly low for Ryan Nelson. The early results suggest they have at least moved beyond "worst team in the world" status.
15. New England Revolution (14.63): Being a fun team to watch has not necessarily led to results that are easy on the eyes.
16. Portland Timbers (15.26): Caleb Porter clearly has a plan and it is absolutely fun to watch. For all those strides, they are still winless on the season.
17. Seattle Sounders (16.47): There was some expectation that the late-forming nature of their roster would lead to a rough start. But this is worse than anyone really expected. No wins after four games understandably has left their ranking plummeting.
18. Colorado Rapids (17.53): Injuries have absolutely ravaged Oscar Pareja's side and they watched a 2-0 lead evaporate at home in their last game.
19. Chicago Fire (18.89): The start of the season has been an unmitigated disaster with just one goal punctuating their three losses in four games.
How the rankings work: Each of our 19 team blogs and one voter from SBNation.com ranked teams from 1-19. We then averaged those 20 votes to come up with one score.
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