The Football Forge Power Rankings: Week 4When will the Switchbacks lose?
Some slightly surprising results this week; others less so. And the gap between top and bottom is already getting pretty wide. Here are this week’s power rankings:
| Rank | Team | Previous | Change | Record | Notes |
| 1 | Colorado Springs Switchbacks | 6 | +5 | 4-0-0 | Now the only perfect team in the league, the Switchbacks went to Miami and took the lead in under 4 minutes and eventually held on for the 2-1 win in a pretty even contest. |
| 2 | Pittsburgh Riverhounds | 5 | +3 | 3-0-1 | Two second half goals by Dane Kelly, one on a bad defensive error, propelled the Hounds past a very solid Loudoun United team. Still no losses, but Pittsburgh has had a run of good luck. |
| 3 | San Diego Loyal | 4 | +1 | 4-1-0 | Only one blemish on San Diego’s season so far, but is beating El Paso at home by just one goal a statement? Probably not; even so, the Loyal are definitely for real. |
| 4 | Louisville City | 1 | -3 | 3-0-2 | After going down a man at Birmingham Legion, Lou City escaped with a scoreless draw, thanks largely to the heroic efforts of keeper Kyle Morton. |
| 5 | San Antonio | 2 | -3 | 3-1-0 | Previously unbeaten and untied, San Antonio were completely outplayed at home by Phoenix Rising, falling 0-2 to the dominant visitors. |
| 6 | Tampa Bay Rowdies | 3 | -3 | 2-0-3 | Made the cross-country trip to Oakland to come away with a 0-0 draw, and were probably lucky to do so: 2 Oakland goals were called off. The Rowdies now have three draws and are not looking too convincing. |
| 7 | Phoenix Rising | 9 | +2 | 2-2-0 | The Rising looked like their normal selves in San Antonio, taking the hosts to the woodshed. But the fact remains that this Phoenix team looks very inconsistent. |
| 8 | Sacramento Republic | 7 | -1 | 3-1-0 | SacRep needed two PKs to defeat Monterey Bay, and otherwise were not dominant at home. Still looking for a signature win. |
| 9 | New Mexico United | 8 | -1 | 2-0-2 | United can consider themselves extremely lucky to have come away from the game against Oakland with a point. Sergio Rivas’ goal was manifestly offside. |
| 10 | FC Tulsa | 12 | +2 | 3-2-0 | A 3-2 win at home against a 10-man Baby Bulls team is hardly a major achievement. Still, Legion alum JJ Williams gets a goal. |
| 11 | Orange County | 10 | -1 | 1-1-1 | Orange County were on a bye this week. |
| 12 | Loudoun United | 11 | -1 | 2-1-1 | Loudoun had some good scoring chances of their own, but still fell to their first loss of the season. It could have been worse though if not for some excellent goalkeeping by Luis Zamudio. |
| 13 | Las Vegas Lights | 17 | +4 | 3-2-0 | Las Vegas is not the same team as last year. Mostly because of the improved play of Danny Trejo. The 2-1 win in Charleston was fairly easily managed. |
| 14 | Detroit City | 15 | +1 | 1-1-2 | After the opening loss, City have earned points in every game since. They should consider themselves somewhat unfortunate not to take all 3 against Memphis; they were the better team on the day. |
| 15 | Memphis 901 | 14 | -1 | 2-1-1 | Memphis took the early lead in Detroit but eventually left with 1 point in a 1-1 draw. They were not impressive for most of the game and could easily have lost. |
| 16 | The Miami FC | 13 | -3 | 1-2-1 | In the home loss against Colorado Springs, Miami looked like it can compete, but its record to date says it is very much a mid-table team. |
| 17 | Birmingham Legion | 19 | +2 | 0-2-2 | Still looking for that first win, the Legion dominated even before getting a man advantage but could not convert against a stout Lou City defense. The tough start may change against Hartford. |
| 18 | Atlanta United 2 | 21 | +3 | 2-3-0 | After 3 opening losses, Twonited have now beaten Charleston and Hartford back to back and looked fairly dominant doing so. Not a pushover by any means. |
| 19 | Hartford Athletic | 16 | -3 | 0-2-1 | Last week’s draw at Tampa is beginning to look like an outlier. The 1-2 home loss to Atlanta was totally uninspiring. They now face a hungry Legion team in Birmingham. |
| 20 | Rio Grande Valley Toros | 18 | -2 | 1-3-0 | The Toros were on a bye this week. |
| 21 | LA Galaxy II | 22 | +1 | 1-2-1 | Los Dos took the early lead but gave up 2 points in Indianapolis thanks to very poor defending in the box. Not a spectacular start to the season. |
| 22 | Oakland Roots | 26 | +4 | 0-3-2 | In a double-game week, the Roots got their first points of the season in two draws at New Mexico and against Tampa. They should have gotten all 6 points: 1 New Mexico goal was clearly offside and a goal in Tampa was also disallowed. They look more like last year’s team now. |
| 23 | Monterey Bay | 23 | 0 | 1-3-0 | The Union gave up 2 PKs in Sacramento but lost by just 1 goal in the end. Not able to repeat last week’s win, but they are getting better. Still 3 weeks from a home game. |
| 24 | Indy Eleven | 24 | 0 | 0-2-2 | The Eleven were probably the better team, but only scraped by with a 1-1 draw against Los Dos thanks to some messy defending by the visitors. |
| 25 | New York Red Bulls II | 25 | 0 | 1-4-0 | Losing your starting goalkeeper less than 4 minutes into the game is not a winning strategy. Still, New York managed to score first in the 2-3 loss at Tulsa. |
| 26 | Charleston Battery | 20 | -6 | 1-3-0 | The Battery have fallen on some hard times. The 1-2 loss against the Lights was not as close as the scoreline; Charleston’s goal was on a very iffy PK call. |
| 27 | El Paso Locomotive | 27 | 0 | 0-4-0 | El Paso can score easily enough. They just can’t defend worth a damn. At least they no longer have the Open Cup to worry about. |
