Life intervened and prevented me from having a comprehensive watch of this game. However, I have watched every minute of it at least once. And, *lowers voice to a whisper* it was a little boring. *returns to normal volume* We’re so very good at defending, and pressing, and counter-attacking, it all kind of melds into just watching us execute. Probably time to start embracing the beauty of the Jay Mims way. Anyway, I’m debuting a new data source this week so let’s dive in.
1) JP Scearce had another great game.
I normally don’t love shining the light on guys who make team of the week. The light is already on them. But since it took looking at the stats for me to see the full impact he made on the game, I’ll share some highlights for JP.
With 30 passes, he tied with Rashid for 8th among our starters in passes. But tied with Greg Hurst for 1st on the team with 5 duels won.
He led the team with 3 chances created and had an assist on Dami’s goal (also tied for first on the team).
And while he did take a shot from inside 25 yards that managed to go out for a throw-in, he also forced a tremendous save on a shot late in the game, on his way to leading the team in shots taken.
To recap, JP led the team in shots, duels won, assists, and chances created.
One last look at the impact JP had can be seen in this chart of shots, goals, assists, and chances created/key passes.
2) Rashid has been valuable.
Let me give a little preamble and say that in addition to Opta data from the league and Transfermarkt, I’m going to start using data from website I recently found: American Soccer Analysis and their INCREDIBLY useful app. And now because of this incredible project (folks who are doing this, where can I send money?) we can start analyzing xG! That’s right, we’re adding expected goals and related data into the mix.
Now, you are probably wondering why I am burying the lede here and dumping this huge development into the 2nd segment which is about Rashid. This is why: according to the American Soccer Analysis app, Rashid has, faced 0.99 xG on the season. And of course, you know Rashid has kept a clean sheet in both games.
All of this is to say, Rashid has personally been good for preventing an entire goal on the season so far, good for 2nd best in the league. Who keeps the shots out, indeed!
3) Conor Doyle is legit.
Not to get too far into the emotional side of the game, but Conor Doyle did not get me very excited as signings go. I suspect I’d have been more excited by a younger player at a different spot in career trajectory. But holy cow, was I wrong to be underwhelmed. He might just be the piece that unlocks everything.
For instance, the first goal in this game never happens without his perfect pass to Dami and that pass doesn’t show up anywhere in the stats. (Because our league doesn’t track hockey assists which is just fine with me.)
Check out his passes and crosses from the game.
Here is why I like this chart so much.
He’s not perfect with the ball, those two turnovers on short passes deep in our own half stand out as less than ideal. But the other four passes that were not completed all are clearly attack minded. Which is great!
The fact that he has no successful crosses doesn’t bother me, these are strikes of the ball with a low probability of success to begin with. Our crossing accuracy for the game was 16.7% (compared to 4.8% (!!) for Fort Lauderdale). What I love is that we have someone making these crosses that is more than just Dami.
That’s all for now, can’t wait to see Union Omaha finally settle an old score this week…and actually beat Revs II!
BONUS) Revs II are one of 6 (SIX) teams in the league we have not beaten. The list is Chattanooga, Forward Madison, NCFC, Richmond, Revs II, and TFC II. NCFC and TFC II didn’t play in the league last year, so hard to complain about that. We lost to Chattanooga and Richmond the only time we played them. We took 2 points from our 2 games against Madison, and we took one from Revs II. Accordingly, I’d rank this game as a top 3 score to settle.
Who Gives A Hoot? 