While you can't judge a player after one game, you can start to get an idea of a team after five. In a very raw form, here are our main stats for the past five games:
If you're confused about the categories you can go here for some help, specifically the "Game Stats" section.
From left to right we have the respective team, their possession stats, followed by passing and shooting numbers. The last two columns are game dominance and GG rating, which isn't too tied to a team's performance but just seemed interesting to throw in.
I graphed all of five performances in each category. The results were eye-gougingly:
Just from looking at the graph you can tell that the third game, the large dip in the middle, was the weakest performance (Belgium), while the second and fourth were much better performances (Costa Rica, Honduras).
On the right you have the legend to tell you what each line is, although those are slightly misleading as I weighted each line so the graph would be tighter and not have lines 50 pts apart.
Some bends that go against the grain are the drops in passing and possession threats for USA from Mexico (game 1) to Costa Rica (game 2). Also, while lines bend down from Honduras (game 4) to Ecuador (game 5) others flatten out and a few rise. Why this happened could be for a variety of reasons, all of which I'm sure your explanation would be as good as mine. (You're welcome.) The large picture here is finding out the overall game play of America through these five games. The two low games are likely due to Mexico's legitimacy as a team and the jetlag America experienced while traveling 6000+ miles to play Belgium. And despite getting desired results, USA played well against Costa Rica, Honduras, and Ecuador. On to their opponents...
These are the five opposing squads' stats. Outside of Belgium's ridiculously high shooting points (they had thirteen shots) and Costa Rica and Ecuador's low shooting points (six and nine) there's not too much of note. Looking back at the player ratings, the defenders scored well so I'm thinking the lack of offense just heightened the Belgian attack.
On to Accumulated Player Ratings! (Again, check the stat-defs for explanation.)
+23 - Howard - (31…27/4…450')
+17.5 - Shea - (39.5…28.5/11…345')
+14.5 - Cherundolo - (32.5…23.5/9…315')
+13.5 - Dempsey - (28.5…21/7.5…270')
+12.5 - Chandler - (36.5…24.5/12…346')
+10.5 - Bocanegra - (42.5…26.5/16…432')
+10 - Altidore - (25…17.5/7.5…236')
+9.5 - Agudelo - (18.5…13.5/4…154')
+8 - Onyewu - (14…11/3…135')
+8 - Bradley - (16…12/4…142')
+8 - Donovan - (21…14.5/6.5…180')
+8 - Edu - (29…18.5/10.5…290')
+7.5 - Torres - (26.6…17/9.5…250')
+7.5 - Beckerman - (30.5…19/11.5…315')
+4.5 - Goodson - (9.5…7/2.5…90')
+4 - Williams - (13…8.5/4.5…130')
+3.5 - Rogers - (14.5…9/5.5…129')
+3 - Beasley - (8…5.5/2.5…70')
+2.5 - Jones - (6.5…4.5/2…60')
+1.5 - Spector - (5.5…3.5/2…59')
+1 - Clark - (1…1/0…6')
+0.5 - Kljestan - (2.5…1.5/1…24')
+0 - Larentowicz - (1…0.5/0.5…14')
-0.5 - Fiscal - (20.5…10/10.5…225')
-0.5 - Buddle - (6.5…3/3.5…85')
-0.5 - Ream - (2.5…1/1.5…18')
-6.5 - Castillo - (17.5…5/11.5…180')
Maybe more importantly, +/- per 90 minutes:
+/- per 90...name - (min...games)
+5.6 - Agudelo - (154…5)
+5.3 - Onyewu - (135…2)
+5.1 - Bradley - (142…3)
+4.6 - Howard - (450…5)
+4.6 - Shea - (345…5)
+4.5 - Dempsey - (270…3)
+4.1 - Cherundolo - (315…4)
+4 - Donovan - (180…2)
+3.8 - Altidore - (236…4)
+3.3 - Chandler - (346…4)
+2.8 - Williams - (130…2)
+2.7 - Torres - (250…3)
+2.5 - Edu - (290…4)
+2.4 - Rogers - (129…3)
+2.2 - Bocanegra - (432…5)
+2.1 - Beckerman - (315…4)
-0.2 - Fiscal - (225…3)
-3.3 - Castillo - (180…2)
**Players who have not played more than 90 minutes**
+15 - Clark - (6…1)
+4.5 - Goodson - (90…1)
+3.9 - Beasley - (70…2)
+3.8 - Jones - (60…1)
+2.3 - Spector - (59…2)
+1.9 - Kljestan - (24…1)
+0 - Larentowicz - (14…1)
-0.5 - Buddle - (85…2)
-2.5 - Ream - (18…1)
Howard is a standout and for good reason. Critics will hound Klinsmann for the lack of scoring but giving up five goals in five games with an ever changing defense is fairly impressive. There's nothing to surprising here if you have followed the team (although Clark's +15.0 per 90 minutes is something we can only hope he continues once he gets more than six minutes of playing time).
Project 2010 is doing something pretty neat where they average out several player ratings from multiple sources. While their name is a little dated, the initiative to pull off such a task is heart-warming for soccer statisticians (fyi: "soccer statisticians" is not a real thing).
Comparing my ratings with their findings...
Their ratings:
Howard - 0.756
Dempsey - 0.755
Donovan - 0.701
Cherundolo - 0.701
Bradley - 0.696
Shea - 0.69
Bocanegra - 0.672
Agudelo - 0.663
Altidore - 0.656
Chandler - 0.643
Edu - 0.622
Onyewu - 0.602
Torres - 0.585
Beckerman - 0.569
Rogers - 0.556
Williams - 0.532
Fiscal - 0.511
Castillo - 0.478
Weighted Rating Differences:
5.604 - Castillo
2.717 - Fiscal
1.123 - Bocanegra
0.660 - Beckerman
0.581 - Edu
0.297 - Rogers
0.182 - Torres
-0.08 - Chandler
-0.14 - Williams
-0.54 - Donovan
-0.58 - Altidore
-0.68 - Cherundolo
-0.78 - Dempsey
-0.87 - Howard
-1.16 - Shea
-1.64 - Bradley
-2.28 - Agudelo
-2.36 - Onyewu
I excluded the players who had played less than 90 minutes (looking at you, Clark!). Also, their ratings go back to right after the end of the World Cup while mine only cover the last five games. Still, I am more in favor of Onyewu, Agudelo, Bradley and Shea while I dislike Castillo, Fiscal, and Bocanegra more than the rest of the soccer society.
No comments:
Post a Comment