Data Dump: at Tucson (#1)

Well, I have to admit, I liked that more than other games in the last month. Is that because I watched from home and therefore gave the game my undivided attention? No, it’s because we won and scored two goals. Duh, let’s dive in.

1) Soccer is a game with a lot of randomness

Game A: Owls xG: 1.21, best chance not resulting in a goal: 0.44, opponent xG: 0.40
Game B: Owls xG: 1.22, best chance not resulting in a goal: 0.41, opponent xG: 0.40

You’d want to guess that these games had the same result. We all WISH these games had the same result. But, they didn’t. Game A is our draw on 7/16/2021 against Madison at home. Game B is our win over Tucson on 7/24/2021.

What’s even crazier to me is that when measured by opponent’s xG those are two of our three best games ever. Number 1 on the list? Our first game ever, aka, The “Gary Green’s Instagram” game.

2) What formation did we line up in?

Let’s review what we know.
A) Jay only plays a 4-4-2.
B) The announcer and pre-game graphic said we were playing a 4-1-4-1.
C) The game summary says we played a 4-2-3-1.
D) When Blake “Ba-Lock-A Muh-Loan” Malone game on, he clearly indicated with his hands we were going to play a 5-4-1.

Let’s start with #D. I definitely saw us play a 5-4-1 with Blake on the field.

So how about the rest of the game?

Here is how the league has us lined up.

So I’m not going to lie, I love that formation for that lineup. Maybe not the best lineup we have if everyone is healthy, but that’s not our life at the moment. (Brief aside on health, EVD looked like himself again and he was responsible for our big chance early in the game, before going down. I’m hoping that it is not as serious as it looked.) But what did we actually play?

Oh wow. We actually sort of a played a 4-2-3-1!

Given that we ended up winning when we’ve been drawing games, I’d like to see this formation again.

3) *very Owen Godberson voice* DAMIIIIIIIIIA VIAAADER

What a goal. Let’s watch it again real quick. (Goal is at 0:42)

First off, good for Dami for scoring this screamer. You could tell he loved it and it was a much needed change of pace from the Greg and Devin show (although they were back on their BS shortly after).

Second, he does more than score for us and he is having a better season than last year.
2020: 13 games, 1172 minutes, 1 goal, 1 assist, 1.05 xG, 2.33 xA, 21 Key Passes
2021: 13 games, 1272 minutes, 2 goals, 2 assists, 0.79 xG, 3.22 xA, 32 Key Passes

Third, he’s one of the best players in the league by many critical metrics. He is tied for first on Key Passes and is second in Crosses. His chief rival in these categories has 100 more minutes of game time than Dami does. Oh and he is the starting left back for the best defense in the league (see endnote). There are no other defenders in the top 5 for these categories.

He is tied for 2nd in goals and 2nd in assists for defenders. His xG+xA mark tops the league for defenders as well. Even though the league values duels won extremely highly for Team of the Week honors, it is not sortable in a public database that I am aware of, so I will not be comparing his defensive stats. It is also worth noting he has not been carded on the year. Did I mention that he did all of this while being the starting left back for the best defense in the league.

The only remaining question is: he is the MVP in addition to the Defender of the Year?

Brief endnote: We are the best defense in the league by the only metric that matters, goals allowed. We’ve let in 10. Sitting in a three-way tie for 2nd on 16 goals allowed is: Greenville, Chattanooga, and Madison. Madison has scored 6 fewer goals than Greenville and Chattanooga, which may help explain why they are in 8th place not somewhere between 2nd and 4th.