American Soccer News

We realize that power rankings are well-meaning efforts to bring some order to the chaos that is Major League Soccer. As such they are certainly a commendable exercise for bloggers everywhere. Unfortunately, they are mainly a waste of time.

MLS power rankings, which rank the league’s clubs according to some individual metric (usually the blogger’s own) are everywhere. You’d be hard-pressed to find an MLS blog that doesn’t have them in some capacity. ASN even made an effort at power rankings early last season, before the enterprise collapsed under its own weight. Don’t expect to see them in this space again, at least not under current editorial leadership.

The main reason for this is that there is a perfectly good, objective “ranking” that exists already. It is not based on feelings and observations but cold, hard facts. Games won and lost. Goals for and against. Head-to-head records. We are speaking of course of the Supporters Shield standings.

The Supporters Shield standings, for the uninitiated, is very simply a single table view of MLS standings. It tabulates each team’s record and pretends the divisions don’t exist. Very simple. Best of all, the whole thing started as a grassroots efforts by fans during the 1998 season (thus the name). There is even a trophy awarded to each season’s winner. Setting The Table has a comprehensive view of the present-day standings. For a list of all winners see the official (we think?) Supporters Shield site.

Predictably, most power rankings mimic, if not duplicate the Supporters Shield standings. This week everybody has Chivas at No. 1 for example. Earlier in the season it was Seattle. Columbus, the only team in MLS without a win this season, brings up the rear, replacing FC Dallas, who won their first game yesterday. What exactly is the point of this? Is there one, other than mental masturbation?

To be sure, subjective rankings of teams across a given sport can be very interesting. Fans love them, partly because of the debates they cause. Several sites attempt to rank soccer clubs across continents or even globally. A few (well, one) are even somewhat successful, others less so. Such rankings are particularly entertaining because they involve teams that do not play each other often or at all. And therein lies the problem for MLS power rankings. MLS teams play each other all the time. Several times a season, home and away. Often even in different competitions. If you want to “rank” the teams against each other you have plenty of opportunities to do so. The whole thing is neatly wrapped up in the Supporters Shield standings at the end of the year.

Consider those your power rankings, folks. Based on actual results, with head-to-head competition the first tie-breaker, they supply a snapshot ranking of all MLS teams at a given moment in time. If you want to have discussions around that, be our guest. Just don’t get too carried away. Unlike other sports, MLS settles these matters on the field.