The Football Forge Power Rankings: Week 2Some serious movement this week
The Forge’s power rankings saw some major changes this week as a few teams gave us some surprises, both good and bad. Expect this to continue a while until the season evens out. For now, here’s where we stand:
| Rank | Team | Previous | Change | Record | Notes |
| 1 | Tampa Bay Rowdies | 2 | +1 | 1-0-1 | 34 seconds was all Tampa needed to beat Indy. Other than that, they simply dominated all game. |
| 2 | Pittsburgh Riverhounds | 3 | +1 | 2-0-0 | For the second straight game Pittsburgh benefitted from a 1-man advantage but needed a golazo from Kenardo Forbes to beat previously idle Hartford. |
| 3 | Louisville City | 5 | +2 | 2-0-0 | 2 home games, 2 wins. No surprise there. The win over Miami was much more impressive than over Twonited. And Lou City are 1 of just 2 teams yet to concede a goal. |
| 4 | San Antonio | 6 | +2 | 2-0-0 | San Antonio struggled to get past Detroit in Week 1 and immediately capitalized on a Los Dos red to get the winning goal Otherwise they were outplayed. And gor their own red. |
| 5 | San Diego Loyal | 9 | +4 | 2-0-0 | Koke Vegas made 6 saves to earn a clean sheet over SacRep in a much more impressive win than over Los Dos in Week 1. Still, they have yet to go on the road. |
| 6 | Phoenix Rising | 1 | -5 | 1-1-0 | If not for a poor error by Las Vegas keeper Tomas Romero Rising would have been shut out in a game they were doubtless expecting to win. |
| 7 | Sacramento Republic | 4 | -3 | 1-1-0 | The Republic cruised past El Paso at home, then ran into a wall in San Diego by the name of Koke Vegas. Still, SacRep look to be one of the stronger teams in the West. |
| 8 | New Mexico United | 10 | +2 | 2-0-0 | New Mexico had a tougher time than they did against Las Vegas but still squeaked out a win. Neco Brett is scoring at the rate of a goal a game. |
| 9 | Colorado Springs Switchbacks | 11 | +2 | 2-0-0 | Still no goals for Hadji Barry, and the Switchbacks struggled to get by Monterey 1-0 at home despite a man advantage. |
| 10 | Orange County | 13 | +3 | 1-1-0 | OC barely outplayed 10-man Rio Grande and even allowed a short-handed goal before finally getting the winner 9 minutes into second half stoppage time. |
| 11 | Rio Grande Valley Toros | 14 | +3 | 1-1-0 | Losing on the road down a man and still managing to score is a pretty fair piece of work. RGV looks like they may be better than anticipated. |
| 12 | Loudoun United | 20 | +8 | 2-0-0 | 2 games, 6 points, no goals allowed. Admittedly the wins were over Indy and a Baby Bulls team that had played midweek, but still this is a big start to the season for Loudoun. |
| 13 | FC Tulsa | 17 | +4 | 1-1-0 | Sean Lewis making 5 saves and a major error by Birmingham counterpart Matt van Oekel were what gave Tulsa this victory. Next up is another tough opponent in San Diego. |
| 14 | The Miami FC | 8 | -6 | 1-1-0 | MIami looked completely lackluster in the loss to Louisville. Maybe beating the Baby Bulls wasn’t such an accomplishment? |
| 15 | Birmingham Legion | 7 | -8 | 0-1-1 | Strong midfield play and an improving attack were not enough to get an expected road win in Tulsa. Now the Legion has back line problems to deal with against Colorado Springs. |
| 16 | Detroit City | 19 | +3 | 1-1-0 | Keeper Nate Steinwascher put up another good game although he only had chance he had to stop. Detroit were somewhat unlucky in San Antonio; they made sure of the win at home. |
| 17 | Charleston Battery | 15 | -2 | 1-1-0 | So far this season the Battery have had one shot on goal per game. That was enough to win over Tulsa but not enough to spoil Detroit’s inaugural USL home opener. |
| 18 | Memphis 901 | 18 | 0 | 1-1-0 | Embarrassed at home by Pittsburgh in Week 1, 901 made the most of limited possession and shooting to beat Oakland. They were probably also incorrectly denied a Phillip Goodrum goal for offside. |
| 19 | Hartford Athletic | 16 | -3 | 0-1-0 | The latest victim of the red plague, Hartford’s late start to the season still looked fairly good as they hung with the Hounds most of the game. |
| 20 | El Paso Locomotive | 12 | -8 | 0-2-0 | 72.5% possession but couldn’t outshoot New Mexico at home. Hit the woodwork a couple of times and can consider themselves a little unlucky to have lost two straight to start the season. |
| 21 | Las Vegas Lights | 27 | +6 | 1-1-0 | Outpossessed and outshot by Phoenix, but got more on target and made them count. Another surprise win for expected cellar-dwellers. |
| 22 | Oakland Roots | 21 | -1 | 0-2-0 | Dominated Area Code FC in all the stats except the scoreline. A predicted contender has 0 points from its first two games. |
| 23 | Atlanta United 2 | 22 | -1 | 0-2-0 | Played midweek against the Baby Bulls down a man and were off at the weekend. Now they have to face Tampa Bay without Aidan McFadden. |
| 24 | LA Galaxy II | 23 | -1 | 0-2-0 | Two unlucky losses to start the season. LA were the better team against San Antonio but in the 10v10 game couldn’t get it quite done. |
| 25 | Monterey Bay | 24 | -1 | 0-2-0 | The long hard road trip continues. However, Monterey managed to stay close to Colorado Springs despite going down a man thanks to tough defending. |
| 26 | New York Red Bulls II | 25 | -1 | 1-2-0 | Beating a 10-man Twonited is hardly a big deal, especially when the player lost was Aidan McFadden. Losing at home to Loudoun four days was equally unsurprising. |
| 27 | Indy Eleven | 26 | -1 | 0-2-0 | 2 shots on goal and going down to ten men is not going to get you a result against Tampa on the road. Indy is looking very poor. |
