Time has made this game a lot sweeter. And let’s be serious Red Wolves beating the Kickers Saturday made everything okay. Was it perfect, no. Should be be happy fans? Absolutely. We are rooting for a team that is doing something very special. It was pretty great that we got a third division professional soccer team to call our own, but now we are crushing it. Let’s dive in!
1) Elma Nfor must play.
I know you come to Data Dump for the data not the takes. So let me back this one up. Elma has been on the field for every single goal we’ve scored this season. All eleven of them. Full stop, send tweet.
Elma has played 435 minutes this season, about 60% of all of our available minutes. The entirety of our measurable offensive production has occurred in those minutes (apologies to the beautiful linkup between Sebas and Elvir that got chalked off on Friday). The triple-E offense needs to be together.
So, congrats to Elma for getting his first goal of the season, looking forward to more!
2) Was our center back play bad?
This one comes from friend of the column and Parliament head honcho, Ryan Legrande, who said at 8:23pm CST Friday night: “Can’t wait for your data dump on all of the CB turnovers tonight.” Well, I’m here to give the people what they want.
Let’s start with season stats on passing for the three center backs that played on Friday.
If you recall my previous Data Dump conclusion that Jay views left and right center back as two discrete positions. So, I will use Illal as a point of reference to compare Daltyn and Jake’s performance in this game and you should view Daltyn and Jake has sharing a position for the game.
Jake Crull received a fair amount of criticism for his first half performance and was subbed off at halftime for his troubles. His error at the back led to the first goal. Daltyn came on and knocked down the corner that led to our first goal. Jay looks like a genius.
However, from the data above I think a few things stand out. One, it is hard to argue Jake had a good game (I love you Jake, sorry to write that). His passing accuracy was 20 percent off his season average. He completed 3 in 5 passes instead of his usual 4 in 5 passes. He lost several duels as well. Two, Daltyn, wasn’t particularly accurate either, but did win all of his duels. Three, Illal had another rock solid game.
The unsuccessful passes chart for our center backs shows what the overall passing accuracy numbers do, our left center backs had a rough game.
3) We have an eight game undefeated streak!
Longest such streak to start a season in USL League One history. Now that you’re done laughing at that qualifier, let me point out this is INCREDIBLE. To claim that record for ourselves we became just the second team this season to come back from a two goal deficit to earn points.
For those who are determined to not revel in the moment, we’d need to go undefeated for the next five games to claim the longest ever undefeated streak in USL League One history, snatching the mark from Lansing United.
But ignore that and enjoy the now!
Who Gives A Hoot? 