From a personal scheduling perspective there were a lot of advantages to getting my 2nd vaccine shot on Wednesday. Unfortunately, part of the downside was that I was not up for writing a recap. (Brief aside, get vaccinated!) But we should review the appetizer from Wednesday before the main course on Sunday, so let’s dive in.
1) The assist.
What a thing of beauty from Rashid to Greg. Greg had a lot to do, trap the ball, settle the ball, beat the first defender, not pass to a wide open Evan Conway, and in the face of a converging defender bury the ball in the back of the net. But Rashid created that chance from absolutely nothing. Makes you wonder if we see him score this year at Werner Park.
2) Key chances were plentiful.
Even though we managed to end the game with less than 50% of the possession (46.4%, our highest all year) again, this was our most sustained attacking performance of the year, generating a season high in both crosses and chances created.
Best left back in League One, Dami Viader had 6 chances created to go with his 13 crosses in this game. Dami is 2nd in the league in chances created (9) and 1st in crosses (31).
Special recognition for Devin and Ferrety who had 3 chances created each, the same number of chances created by Tyler Polak in 3 games.
3) Some xG analysis.
I’m definitely still trying to understand all of the insight into our league that the fabulous American Soccer Analysis app can provide. For now though it is pretty limited to “LOOK xG” so look xG.
According to opponent xG and defensive g+ metrics that was the best game we’ve had so far. And while I thought it was it was the most entertaining game to date, our max goal probability was never even at 0.15. In other words, statistically, the best chance we created would have been the sixth best chance we created in the game against Fort Lauderdale.
I’ll use that data as evidence that Greg’s goal was as incredible as it seemed! Anyway, I look forward to learning more so I can deliver slightly deeper analysis than “goal was good.” In the meantime, can’t wait to beat the 2020 regular season champions again!
Who Gives A Hoot? 