Crunching the Numbers- Seattle

Wearing my RSL tie at the
wedding reception

Weddings are such wonderful events and happy occasions. My Sister-in-Law's wedding reception was Friday night and thus I was spared the misery of watching RSL fall to Seattle 2-0. From what I was later told, if I was to miss seeing a match this was a good one to miss. I was still trying to represent RSL the best way I could by wearing my RSL tie.

Before I jump into the numbers I just have to say this. Everyone knows that I love stats, but scorelines like the one for this match are the worst. There is rarely anything positive to come come out of a match like this statistically. Unfortunately, there are a lot of negative stats to look at. I am not trying to be a downer, but it is what it is.

• RSL has scored 52 goals on the season. Their scoring rate has now fallen to a goal every 50.19 minutes. 
• The team has now conceded 37 goals on the season. This comes out to giving up a goal every 70.54 minutes. 
• RSL has given up 2 or more goals in 8 of their last 11 matches. 
• In those last 11 matches, RSL is giving up a goal ever 47.14 minutes.
• Prior to the last 11 matches, RSL was only giving up a goal every 101.25 minutes.
• The team has now given up 25 goals on the road compared to 12 goals at home. 
• Robbie Findley and Joao Plata have now played 562 minutes together. This is the most among any of the striker partnerships this season. During that time RSL has scored 8 times or a goal every 70.25 minutes.  That rate is the third worst among all striker partnerships. 
• Nat Borchers and Carlos Salcedo have now played 900 minutes together. During that time, RSL has given up 12 goals or a goal every 75.00 minutes. 

I am not a big fan of the Findley/Plata striker partnership. The team doesn't seem to play as well when they are out there together and the numbers back that up. I was somewhat surprised that they have played the most out of any of our forward pairings. Interestingly enough, the strike pair that have played the second most together is Findley and Alvaro Saborio (398 minutes). When they play together the team is scoring at a rate of a goal every 79.60 minutes which is the worst among all strike pairs.

The collapse of the RSL defense is really surprising. I knew that there were struggles on the defensive side of the ball, but I didn't realize how bad it was until I really started looking at the numbers. RSL has now given up more goals that it's previous four years. The opponents scoring rate of 70.25 is the worst since the 2007 season. 

The shocking thing is the past 11 matches. Giving up a goal every 47.14 is horrible. There is no other way around it. Prior to these past 11 matches we were on pace to have the second best defense in team history. So that leads to the question of what happened?  What has changed these past 11 matches? I am not sure, but I will be looking into it.

What do you think? Do you have any thoughts on what has happened to the defense over the past 11 matches?