In the Power Rankings I will, first of all, put the top ten teams in my Stable. Then, I will put the rest of The Herd out to pasture (in no particular order). Finally, I will name The Deuce, the two teams in the PASL that are stinking up the outhouse.
THE STABLE
1. Monterrey Flash The Flash are coming off of a commanding win in Saltillo and will now face rival Hidalgo La Fiera in their next two games. This will be a huge 2 games for the Central Division as the 2 top teams battle it out twice in a row, once in Monterrey and once in Hidalgo. I think that the Flash should be at the #1 spot because they are strong on both sides of the ball, they are good on the man advantage, they have the second best penalty kill in the league, and they have indoor defensive legend Genoni Martinez, not only coaching the team, but is second in the league in assists and tied for first with shots blocked.
2. San Diego Sockers San Diego has won 7 in a row, they beat the Fury soundly at home, and went into Tijuana and beat the Toros 12-7 in a physical battle. It seems as if the pieces are beginning to fit and the team is starting to play as one. That was the biggest thing I took away from the game against the Fury, the fact that the team looked like one singular conciseness on the field. They seemed like a team who knew where everyone else was on the field, and what each others next move was going to be. Lets just hope they can keep it rolling next week when Las Vegas comes to town.
3. Hidalgo La Fiera They beat division rivals Monterrey and Dallas in Hidalgo and are coming off of a win on the road where they beat the pants off of Texas by 11 goals. They are good on special teams, they have one of the best goalies in Juan Gamboa, and have won 8 games in a row. If they can pull off a win against the Flash in Monterrey they will be the best team in the Central, and maybe in the PASL.
4. Chicago Mustangs I know that many people think that the Chicago Mustangs deserve to be in the #1 spot because they are undefeated, but I disagree. First of all, the power ranking are not based on win percentage alone, if that were the case, Las Vegas would be the 3rd best team in the league and San Diego would be the 6th best team in the league. Secondly, the Mustangs have only beat one team this season that have a winning record, Cleveland. Cleveland is a brand new expansion team this season, and when Chicago did play the Freeze, they spanked them. Detroit, who the Mustangs beat twice, struggled at the beginning of the season, but now seem to righting the ship. Thirdly, one of the things that the Mustangs did this season was win two back to back games on the road, which many teams have struggled to do this season, but not all of them. Hidalgo, Las Vegas, Monterrey, and San Diego have also won back to back games on the road. Fourthly, Chicago is the worst team in the league when it comes to scoring on the powerplay. The Mustangs have gone on the powerplay 20 times, but only converted 3 times averaging 15%. Finally, in my opinion, the Eastern Division is the weakest of the three Divisions, and if Monterrey, Hidalgo, San Diego, Dallas, or Las Vegas were in Chicago's position, they too would be undefeated on the season. On the other hand, Chicago does have the best penalty kill in the PASL at 88%, they have Wilo Martinez and Miguel Vaca leading the team in points, and one of the best goalies in Jesus Flores.
5. Dallas Sidekicks After losing to Hidalgo on the road, Dallas was able to beat Wichita in Dallas and then go on the road to shut out the B-52's in Wichita. The biggest thing plaguing the Sidekicks it that they have a weak schedule, which I think could come back to bite them in the ass late in the playoffs. They do have two solid goalies, quality veteran leadership, and a team of solid experienced players.
6. Cleveland Freeze Whipping a terrible team like the Piasa at home is no big feat, but the Freeze are on a 6 game winning streak and are getting better with every game that they play. They face the Detroit Waza Flo next week and the Chicago Mustangs the week after that in what will be a litmus test of the Eastern Division. The Freeze are led by the play of Allen Eller and Stefan Ostergren, who have a combined 64 points on the season, and a veteran coach in Hector Marinaro.
7. Las Vegas Legends The Legends have played one game this whole season against a team with a winning record, San Diego, and in that game they got handled with the greatest of ease by the Sockers. Their new acquisition, Israel Sesay, is a force on the field with the speed to burn defenses. When Israel was playing with the Fury in Monterrey, it was the play of Sesay that impressed the Flashes announcers the most. Maybe in the line up of the Legends Sesay can be the catalyst that brings out the best play of the Las Vegas squad.
8. Detroit Waza Flo Detroit has won two in a row against 3-6 Cincinnati, but this weekend they have to travel to take on Cleveland and Harrisburg in their respective homes. Last time the Freeze played Detroit the Waza won by a point, and the last time the Waza played the Heat, they lost by a point. Detroit is in the 3rd spot of the East and needs to keep up with Cleveland who are 2 games ahead of them.
9. Saltillo Rancho Seco Saltillo has a very difficult schedule this season and are coming off of a loss to Monterrey at home and will face Hidalgo in their next game, but they did handle the Fury at home and have the third best penalty kill in the PASL.
10. Ontario Fury The Fury are in the #9 spot because the other teams that were at the bottom of the Stable all lost their games since last rankings, and the Fury beat Mexico in Ontario with ease. The loss of Sesay is very damaging to the Fury, and I think that their ability to win in the playoffs is significantly hurt without him.
THE HERD
- Mexico Toros
- Cincinnati Saints
- Harrisburg Heat
- Wichita B-52's
- Sacramento Surge
- Turlock Express
- Tulsa Revolution
- Bay Area Rosal
THE DEUCE
1. Texas Strikers The only winless team in the PASL just lost a game to Premier team, Austin FC, and are the first team eliminated from the playoffs.
2. Illinois Piasa 27-6
I totally agree with you!!! I would like to see Chicago playing against Dallas, Monterrey or Sockers to judge them in a better way
ReplyDeleteThank you for commenting, I would love to see Chicago play Dallas, Monterrey, and San Diego in the regular season. It would benefit the Mustangs the most because it would make them a better team for the postseason.
DeleteI will respectfully disagree with your ranking the Sockers #2. Chicago is indeed unbeaten, but more to the point: Dallas a better record (8-2), and defeated the Sockers in San Diego on the latter's opening night. I acknowledge you have a "home team bias", but based solely on the numbers and head to head performance, San Diego is no better than 5th place in the league right now. That will change by the end of the season, but that is where they are right now.
ReplyDeleteOn Dallas' weak schedule: Massey Ratings service (http://www.masseyratings.com/rate.php?s=pasl) does rank the Sidekicks as having the 14th toughest schedule in the PASL, but the Sockers have the 15th toughest schedule, both so far and remaining.
Thanks for replying Alan, I am glad that you read my blog and respond to what I say. Sure I have home team bias, but #5 is way too low. The Sockers are playing so much better than they did at the beginning of the season, they deserve to be at least top three. Especially since the 4 time consecutive champs have added to their line up in the off season and only gotten better. I try hard not to be a homer, and honestly think that the Central Division is by far the best Division in the PASL. If you remember, I said that my power rankings are not based on win percentage, so I don't give too much weight to an 8-2 record, especially since six of those wins came against Tulsa and Wichita. I think that the Sockers home opener would have been a little different if the Sockers could have tuned up first on a bad team like Wichita. I am actually glad that the Sockers lost their first game, because their is a high possibility that San Diego faces Dallas in the Postseason, where it will be more than a playoff game, but payback.
DeleteIt is funny that you mention Massey, because he is wrong an awful lot about the PASL. I could sit here and tell you all of the things wrong with his ratings, but that is a lot of material that I could use in my blog in the future.
Thanks again for reading my blog and responding. But I guess we will have to agree to disagree.
We are not in total disagreement here. I firmly believe you will be #2 at the end of the season....to Dallas, of course (that's MY home team bias showing).
DeleteShould you find yourself out this way, I'd admire to buy you a glass of whatever you are drinking.
Sounds Good! The offer is the same if you come out to San Diego. I would love to talk with indoor soccer with you. As a student of the game I would not pass up the opportunity to pick your brain.
DeleteSomething else to consider when pounding on Illinois for that 27-6 loss: the Piasa's head coach stated publicly on Friday that he was not sending his team to Cleveland due to the weather. It is possible that the club that showed up in Cleveland was not the Pro team. The Piasa's web site stated that their Premier League's season opener scheduled for Saturday night was postponed.
ReplyDeleteAt this moment, there is only circumstantial evidence to suggest this, but as bad as Illinois is on the road, this loss literally may not be their fault.
I know about the team that suited up as "The Piasa" but I still think that Illinois still loses on the road. I try not to pile up on the Piasa because it is low hanging fruit, but I again don't want to say any more because I am cutting into future blog material.
DeleteAs a Cleveland fan, I have to agree that the "A" team from Illinois certainly was not on the field. That said, we can only play the team in front of us, and we did just that.
DeleteThank you for reading and responding. I apologize if I came off as condescending to the East in my last post. I should have also noted that the Pacific division is the second best, and the Central the best in my opinion. I have to disagree with saying that Detroit is a proven winner year after year. They weren't that good in the 2009-2010 season. In the 2010-2011 season they were better than the Ohio Vortex in the East and that was it. In the 2011-2012 season, when in my opinion the PASL was the weakest, they made it to the finals and lost to the Sockers. That was also the season when the Sockers went undefeated, but I don't get to hyped up because I know that the league was weak. That 2011-2012 Detroit team was not as good as the 2012-2013 team. The league was better in 2012-2013, and so were the Waza. When you say that I am giving league stalwarts a pass when they are under performing, who do you mean? Dallas? San Diego? Because San Diego is looking good, not because I am a Sockers fan, but because their growth as a team this year is evident. They lost 2 games at the beginning to 2 great teams, but they have improved with every game of the season, just like the Freeze. If you are talking about Dallas then you are right, I am sick of it too! HA! Thanks for reading and keep telling me what you think, I appreciate it. I hope Dominic doesn't see this.
DeleteAlso the Mustang's undefeated streak ends on January 18th.
Deleteyou are not fully informed, thats ok though you cant always see the forest through the trees our record in the past was reflected by our budget having to replace nearly half of our team for road games because everyone coaches, and has other work we have made a stronger commitment to getting many of our main players to go on road trips in the last two years !we have 75
Delete% of our team coaching kids which is our life and how we afford this team we are the only founding members left and im not going to post our tribulations of living in Detroit just to get all of your respect u cant make statements your not fully informed on without considering all the facts you are making judgments based off your preferences the league has gotten better every year and so are most of the teams and divisions reguardless of all your views which i appreciate and will never agree thats why i play own coach to show all you doubters differently . i will play u debate u fight u pacify u score on u help u and party with u forgive u peace wazawazawuha www.detroitwaza.com on instagram 2 twitter
Dominic, as always thank you for reading and responding to my blog, that is awesome. I dig you and your teams style and love watching your team play soccer. I really appreciate the fact that you and so many other people involved with the PASL read what I have to say and respond to it, I think it is pretty cool considering when I started the Indoor Outhouse I honestly thought that maybe 5 or 6 of my buddies would read it and we would have some fun with it. Now I have had 10,000 page views and people all over the country reading it, including players, coaches, and league officials. Please know that I mean no disrespect to anyone or any team by anything I say, but that I am just a fan of sports, sports history, and the PASL. I write this blog is my spare time for fun and I am stoked that so many people read it. Good luck in the rest of the season and I will see you in the playoffs.
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