The Value of a Good Forward- Part 2

Back in this post, I took a statistical look at how the team played while each of our forwards were in the match. This post was made after the 2-1 home win against Seattle. RSL has now played six matches since this post and I thought that it might be a good time to take a look at how the forwards are doing now. At this point in the season RSL has scored 11 goals in 11 games played, or scoring a goal every 90 minutes.

Player	Min	Team Goals	Min per Goal
Sabo	537	5	107.40
Findley	328	1	328.00
Plata	498	6	83.00
Sandoval	367	7	52.43
Garcia	267	4	66.75

At this point of the year RSL is a third of the way through their season and these numbers are starting to have a little more weight than they did earlier. There are many interesting things that I see while looking at this table.

First you have to look at Sandoval. So far, he has been on the field for all but four of RSL's goals this season. Now granted, he only has scored once this year. But, in looking at his time on the field he has set up many scoring opportunities for his teammates plus he is third on the team in shots on goal. With a little luck his minutes per goal number would be even lower. 

Garcia is someone else whose minute per goal number could be a lot lower. In his limited time playing so far, he has hit the woodwork on four separate occasions. But his 66.75 minutes per goal stat is still impressive. It just seems when he gets on the pitch things start to happen for the team. The numbers back this up.

In regards to Findley, you have to imagine that once he gets healthy and has more time on the pitch that his minutes per goal number will come down. But in the time that he has played so far the team has not played very well.

Now lets look at the flip side of things. Below is how the team is playing when each forward is not on the field.

Player	Min not played	Team Goals	Min per Goal
Sabo	453	6	75.50
Findley	662	10	66.20
Plata	493	5	98.60
Sandoval	624	4	156.00
Garcia	719	7	102.71

I think one thing really stands out when looking at this table. One of the major concerns this year was going to be all the time that Saborio would miss due to his time away from the team for international duty. Would the team be able to score goals while he was gone? In looking at the stat above, the answer is yes. At least that is how I see it from the upper deck.