Welcome to From The Upper Deck, my blog about RSL and soccer in general. I have a lot of passion for the beautiful game. I am just a fan that likes to sit in the upper deck and take it all in.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Season in Review- Minutes Per Conceded Goal

By Charles Barnard


In part one of my look at the end of year statistics for RSL I took a look at my Minutes per Team Goal (MpTG) stat. In part 2 I want to take a look at the defensive side of the ball. To do this, I look at Minutes per Conceded Goal (MpCG). This is basically the opposite of MpTG. I am looking at how many goals the team gives up while a particular player is on the field and then compare that against how many goals were given up when that player was not on the field.

For a point of reference, RSL as a team gave up a goal every 71 minutes this past season. Here is a look at the RSL defensive players.


PlayerMinGoals MpCGMin not playedGoals MpCGDifference
Wingert25373376.88523687.17-10.29
Beltran23933470.386675133.4-63.02
Schuler21542779.789061275.54.28
Borchers28563679.3320436811.33
Salcedo800810022603172.927.1
Mansally655972.7824053080.17-7.39
Balchan233123328273874.39158.61
Maund432761.7126283282.13-20.41



The number that really jumps out out to me was how well Carlos Salcedo played this past season. Now remember, the first match that he played was when he had to come in off the bench cold in San Jose. The Earthquakes went on to score two times late to get the draw. I think everyone would say Salcedo was put into a difficult position in that match. If you only look at the last 779 minutes that he has played (throwing out that SJ match) his numbers look even better. At that point the team would only be giving up a goal every 130 minutes when he was in the match.

Rich Balchan’s numbers are also impressive. He had a nightmare of a match down in Chivas but besides that he had outstanding numbers during the limited time he played.

On the flip side I was somewhat surprised with Tony Beltran’s numbers. Statistically last year he was RSL’s best defender. This year the team played really well those few games that Beltran did not play.

This season I also kept track of MpCG for all field midfielders and forwards. Here are those numbers.


MpCGMpCG (not on field)
Saborio76.579.6
Plata80.275.5
Findley84.876.53
Garcia8574.76
Sandoval70.3380.9
Jaime130.575.6
Beckerman86.954
Mulholland70.997.55
Morales82.659.29
Grabavoy82.1558.17
Gil85.3173.7
Velasquez55.581.09
Stertzer54.681.97
Grossman59.1184.27

I was very surprised to see how well the numbers were for Sebastian Jaime. He ended up playing 261 minutes and during that time RSL only gave up 2 goals. I am not sure how much of that can be attributed to Jaime, but it has been talked about how good he is on defending set pieces. Perhaps there is more to this number than meets the eye.

It really should come as no surprise that Kyle Beckerman comes out looking really good in these numbers. Also like when we looked at MpTG, this is another area that shows the value of Ned Grabavoy.

One number that did pop out to me was that of Luke Mulholland. The RSL defense was much poorer when Mulholland was on the field compared to when he was off.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Season in Review- Minute Per Team Goal

By Charles Barnard

It has been a little while since posting on here but I am back. Life has somewhat gotten in my way and I have not had the chance to write as much as I would like of late. With the regular season now concluded for RSL it is the perfect time to start really looking at the season ending stats for the team. I also have one more poll to run asking the question “Who should RSL protect in the expansion draft”. Before we start thinking about the expansion draft lets first look at the stats from this season.
The first thing I want to look at is Minutes per Team Goal (MpTG). For those that are unfamiliar with this stat (I came up with it myself) I look at how many goals were scored while a particular player was on the field. The thinking behind this stat is that even though a player might not have scored the goal or got the assist, they still can have a positive effect on goals being scored. After I see how many goals were scored while the player was on the field I then look at how many goals were scored while the player was not on the field. This gives me a general sense on how much a player affected the overall team on the offensive side of the ball.
Here are the complete 2014 MpTG stats for RSL. For comparison sake, RSL as a whole averaged scoring a goal every 56.6 minutes.


PlayerMinGoals MpTG
Saborio11482349.91
Findley764895.5
Plata19274048.18
Sandoval633879.13
Garcia11912059.55
Gil13651780.29
Grabavoy27115153.16
Morales26454558.78
Velasquez222827.75
Stertzer273391
Mulholland19873852.29
Jaime261832.63
Grossman532776
Beckerman25205050.4

Now here are the stats from when the player was not on the field. The final column is the difference between the two.

PlayerMin not playedGoals MpTGDifference
Saborio19123161.6811.76
Findley22964649.91-45.59
Plata11331480.9332.75
Sandoval24274652.76-26.36
Garcia18693454.97-4.58
Gil16953745.81-34.48
Grabavoy3493116.3363.18
Morales415946.11-12.67
Velasquez28384661.733.95
Stertzer27875154.65-36.35
Mulholland10731667.0614.77
Jaime27994463.6130.99
Grossman25284753.79-22.21
Beckerman540413584.6

You will see that Sebastian Velasquez came out on top with the best MpTG. One thing to consider is that Velasquez mostly played in a substitute role. RSL scored 20% of their goals in the final 15 minutes of matches. Because of this, most players that are primarily substitutes could have inflated numbers.
Sebastian Jaime is a perfect example of why I like to look at this stat. Some people are concerned that he did not score one goal this season. But this shows that he did have a very positive effect on the team.
We can gain more information by looking at how well the team played when particular players were not on the field. RSL really struggled offensively when Kyle Beckerman and Ned Grabavoy do not play. Again this shows that players that do not have a lot of traditional offensive stats (goals/assists) still should get credit for the role that they play in the offense.
On the flip side of the coin we have Robbie Findley and Luis Gil. There was a negative effect on the offensive output of the team when these players were on the field. Findley had his struggles on the field (and we will see more of them as I go along with my review) but the player that really concerns me is Gil. The team scored at a much higher rate when Gil did not play. The worrisome thing is that this was the case last year as well.
What are you seeing from these numbers? Is there something that stands out to you?