Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Just the Facts

Part of the fun of being a fan of any sport is being able to analyze what your favorite team did well and what can be improved on. In a lot of sports, opinions can be based around detailed statistical breakdowns - like a hitters batting average with runners in scoring position for instance. That didn't used to be the case with soccer, but now you can see - in remarkable detail - how the players fared against Cuba on Saturday night thanks to ProZone.

Some highlights of the statistical analysis:

  • Not only did midfielder Michael Bradley attempt the most passes with 89 (not surprising for a center mid), he also completed 97% of them. Impressive stuff from the 21-year-old. Brian Ching also completed 97% of his 38 attempts.
  • Central defender and Sierra Mist Man of the Match Oguchi Onyewu won nine headers and intercepted 19 passes on the night. What more could you ask for from your center back than 19 interceptions?

You can see it all for yourself, including video clips of every shot, here.

6 comments:

Daisy Chick said...

That is so pimp! Maybe people will start shutting up about how "poor" our boys are doing.

Rob Celletti said...

Yeah, I TOTALLY agree with you, daisy chick.

Plus, stuff like this might make the game more interesting to those stats-centric American sports fans.

MarkT said...

The stats are great, but in order to understand what they are telling us, can you please provide definitions for each quantity? For example, from the GUA match, if the USA completed 139 of 198 passes, how is it that GUA intercepted 101 passes when the number of incomplete USA passes was only 59? And assuming a clearance is an intercepted pass in your own penalty area (or final third?), how is it that Maurice Edu had 1 clearance but 0 interceptions, etc.?

Anonymous said...

Any feel as to who will be in the Starting XI tonight?

Krista said...

Please no matter what people are gonna complain about our team. Its the nature of the beast. Pretty cool stuff tho. :)

Frank Macomber said...

People can provide stats to prove anything. 14% of all people know that.