What a night! So much has been already said about this game: from the earliest goal in UO history that is also the first GK goal in USL League One history, to the highest number of goals we’ve scored this season, to the reasons for the two red cards, to the incredible after-game scenes. That is all going to be covered in detail throughout other places this week, so I’d like to focus on a few of the other things about Saturday night’s game that stood out.
A Slightly Different Style of Play
As you might have noticed, we played a little differently against NCFC. Part of that was from the early goals, hitting those long balls over the top that their defense made a mess of. The red cards also changed things. So it could be for a number of reasons, but we had a few facets that you normally don’t see in a game that we win happen.
Firstly, we had the highest passing accuracy that we have had all year in a game, 81.5%. Our average for the year is 73%, so it was a good deal higher. It was only our second time connecting above 80% of our passes this league season, the other being the 0-0 home draw with Charlotte. We also had our second highest number of passes and second highest possession in a game, just after the Greenville home loss.
And that tells you what is normally the case with us, that we don’t want a lot of passes or a lot of possession. This was our sixth game this season with over 50% possession, also the first win when we reach that stat. Our pass total of 481 that game is much larger than the our average of 341.75 passes a game. We also out-passed NCFC by 135 passes. This was the 4th time we’ve hit over 400 passes and the 6th time we’ve had more passes than an opponent this season… it’s also the 1st time we’ve won when doing so. The early goals and the red cards played a part, but it definitely was interesting seeing the team succeed in a style that we normally don’t do well playing.
Up by a Player, but What About a Goal?
So… we have a lot of red cards against us this year. Those two from Saturday put us at 8 total reds against us this season. That’s double the next teams’ amount! As shown in the table below:
Now, what do we do with the time that we are playing with more players? Well… a little, but not as much as we might hope. This line of questioning was spurred with Luke asking during the game if Noe’s second goal from Saturday was our first goal up a man this season. It’s not, but it is the first in normal time.
We’ve scored 3 goals in the 106 minutes we have been up a person this season after a red card. The first was the penalty against Fuego at home in extra time , the second Chavany’s Goal of the Month winner against Chattanooga (also in extra time), and the third was Noe’s this past game. We’ve also let in a goal while up a man, an own goal against Tormenta in our second meeting in Statesboro this year. (Not to mention that the only blemish from this last game was letting in a goal in the 26 minutes we were up two players).
I also looked into the opposite. We’ve had 2 reds this year, what happened in that time? Well, in those 73 minutes we were down a man, we only allowed one (own) goal (the first game against Tucson). And then in the second game against Tucson we went down to 10 v 10, where both teams scored once in those 37 minutes. So we haven’t let in much when down a player, but also haven’t scored much when up a player, which to be fair has been the tale of most of our season when 11 v 11 as well.
Memorable Other Milestones
Kevin’s goal was indeed incredible, in only his 8th game for the club as well. I wanted to highlight a few other milestones below, but here is the full appearance/goal/assist table if you are curious:
Congrats to Noe on his 10th total goal for the team, only the 3rd player to hit that mark for us! JP is close to hitting that number as well, with 9 total goals. Conor on the other hand, is close to hitting double digit assists. That would make him the second player to that mark after Devin Boyce, who currently holds our record with 11.
Doyle has however now hit 50 league appearances for us, 55 in total, and all of those appearances being in a row. A 55 game streak where he has at least played a little in every single game since he signed for us, an incredible accomplishment for the captain. Emir also just hit 50 total appearances for us, while JP and Shido have now tied for most total appearances at 63 each. Hoping that some more of these milestones continue to be reached this year as we now look to the last third of the regular season.
Who Gives A Hoot? 