Another week down for the Owls and (thankfully) another win. Let’s dive into the data from that Tucson game as well as look ahead to next week’s big showdown.
Red Sands
Any game against Tucson tends to have some discipline issues, normally in fouls, which made this an interesting game in that front as compared to normal. The fouls (9 us, 10 them) actually is lower than the previous average for either side against one another. In fact, it is the lowest number of fouls either side has ever had against one another. Their previous low being 12 against us in both the playoff game last season and the first regular season game last year. Our previous low against them being 10, also from that playoff game last season.
It’s funny that last season’s final game against them comes up that way in discipline, as it is notable for one other discipline issue, something this game had in common: a red card. This makes only the fifth red card we’ve had, getting two each in the past two seasons. It is our first against Tucson, leading to another interesting tidbit that coincides with their red in the playoffs: Tucson is now only the second match-up of ours where both teams have received a red card. The only other is a team not in this league anymore, North Texas SC, though both reds in that case were in the same game. In a sense of scarlet symmetry, only 5 teams have received reds against us as well. Funny how things work out like that.
A Golden Achievement
One thing this game did involve, unlike last week, was an appearance by JP Scearce. It wasn’t just any appearance though, it was in fact his 50th league appearance (including playoffs) for the club! He is the first Owl to hit that mark. With the first season being shortened, we had only played 46 games over the first two seasons, so no one had been able to reach that milestone prior. Now, we are coming up on a number of long-serving players getting close to it. The list below has the current league appearances of our current players (in alphabetical order). We may have a few more hitting this accomplishment this season, which I will be sure to update on when they happen.
The Big Green Belt is Back
With the next opponent being Greenville, it is indeed #BeltWeek. This game comes at an interesting time for us though, with the schedule for the week after being what it is. The Open cup game against SKC is on the Wednesday after the game, so it will be interesting to see how Jay rotates players. The Chicago Fire game was the only other Open Cup game we’ve had so far (fortunately) in which we had a game the weekend before.
Greenville is a different opponent than going to Tormenta though, which was the last time we had a league game before the cup. This is going to be both a home game and a rivalry game. Going back to the fouls perspective for a second, we average 15.5 fouls against Greenville per game compared to them fouling us less than 10 times per game. Those have resulted in some yellows for us as well. So it will be interesting to see what lineup and subs end up happening as that reflects a glimmer of the different styles of play between them and many of the other teams in the league.
Finally, a quick stat on the belt itself. It is 1,082 miles between Werner Park and Legacy Early College (Greenville’s venue). The belt has made that trip 7 times, for a total of 7,574 miles (not counting the extra mileage around each city it also made). Either way, that’s a lot of miles. I hope that we will become a little bit more environment-friendly, more green, and not make it have to make that trip again this weekend.
Who Gives A Hoot? 