Welcome to the new, revamped data segment! I’m Kyle and I’ll be doing our Data Dives this season (unless Ben really wants to, I suppose). [Editor’s note: Welcome Kyle, I’m excited you’re carrying the torch here!]
First True Sad Wolves
At long last the Owls have been able to tackle the Red Wolf in the room. The lingering thing only spoken of in the shadows, whispered but never dared to be said aloud. That is, that the Red Wolves were the only team at the end of last season that we had never beaten in League One play before.
For those unaware, the history goes like this:
1. The only 2020 game against them was rescheduled due to the infamous no lights incident. We lost the rescheduled game (as well as Dami for a bit) which set up our three game losing streak that year.
2. The only home game so far was the first against them in 2021 and had a (still bewildering how it was given) red card for JP. Down a man, we allowed a late equalizer for a draw.
3. The other game against them last year caught us in a bad place depth-wise. With a rotated lineup we played close for much of the game but ending up losing to a late goal on the road.
This means that not only is this the first win against Chattanooga, but it’s the first points we’ve gotten in their stadium. But that foe is now vanquished! With how this year’s schedule works, we only play them at home the rest of the season, so no other trip there until next year. As for teams we haven’t beaten in league play, there are now two that still remain with the entrance of the 3 new teams this year. In our one game against Charlotte, we did not win (somehow…) and while we have beaten Hailstorm in the US Open Cup, we played to a 0-0 draw against them in league play so far. But those may still change this season, with 2 more chances against each team.
How’s That Possession Stat Looking?
One of the main topics in previous data segments was the discussion of our play style, which is that we purposefully play with low possession. So, with a mostly new team does that still look the same? You betcha! Only twice this season have we had the majority of the possession (at Tormenta and vs Hailstorm). In fact, this game was our lowest of the league season at an even 31%. Our only other win so far is the third lowest mark this season, 40.1% against the Fuego. So as expected, even with the personnel changes the style truly is set and Jay has imbued this vision of play into yet another core of players.
Something Afoul(s)
It was discussed on the pod (and among supporters in general) that the Red Wolves are a relatively rough team in their style of play. I wanted to find a way to quantify this to see how measurable it could be. While not exact for a number of reasons (including reffing), I decided to look through the number of fouls and cards have happened in our games back through to the first season.
I’m deciding to take out games where we’ve only played a team once in the league, as only a single game can skew the data. To that end, the games against Fuego, Charlotte, Hailstorm, and Orlando City B (remember them?) will be excluded. I do want to mention two things about those 1-off teams first though.
1. The number of total fouls in the Fuego game is about as high as the highest average total fouls per game, 32. It’ll be interesting to see if our future games with them are similar.
2. The NoCo Hailstorm game produced 6 total yellows, which is also the average for the matchup with the most yellows. This one actually has some more data in the form of the Open Cup game against them. That game had a few more fouls, but a lower number of cards. Again, it will be interesting to see how things look once we play them a few more times.
So, how does Chattanooga fare for us? Here’s the full table:
They are, in fact, second in the number of fouls per game, at 28.5, and first in the number of total yellows per game, 6. Now, we actually end up having more fouls when playing them, 16/game to their 12.25/game but we are equal with 3 yellows/game each.
So while not being able to truly state it, it does go to show that these matches end up being some of the rougher ones we play in. There’s only really one match-up that might be considered rougher, which averages almost 31.5 total fouls per game and over 5.25 yellow cards per game. That opponent happens to be the one we play next weekend, FC Tucson.
Who Gives A Hoot? 