Crunching the Numbers- Chicago

By Charles Barnard

Saturday night was like Deja Vu all over again, well sort of. Only this time it much better. RSL came back from a 2-0 deficit in the second half to score 3 times to pull out the victory against Chicago. The team remains undefeated on the season. In fact, RSL has only lost one match since their loss in the US Open Cup final.

Joao Plata continues to lead the RSL attack. As we will see below his stats are pretty unbelievable this season. Especially when you consider that he has only played in half of the total minutes that the team has played this season. Let's dive into the numbers to see how good he really has been this year.

• RSL has scored 16 goals on the season or a goal every 50.6 minutes. If the team continues at this pace they will surpass the club record for goals scored in a season that they set last year. 
• The team has given up 10 goals on the season or a goal every 81 minutes. 
• RSL has now scored 5 goals after the 75th minutes. This equates to 31% of their goals on the season. The team has also given up 5 goals after the 75th minute. 
• Plata has played 394 minutes this season. In that time RSL is scoring a goal every 35 minutes. In the 416 minutes that he has not played, the team is scoring every 83 minutes.
• 75% of the shots that Plata has taken this season has been on goal. 31% of the shots he has taken has hit the back of the net. 
• Plata is creating a scoring chance (shot or pass leading to a shot) every 12 minutes that he plays. 
• Sebastian Velazquez has played 88 minutes this season. During that time RSL has scored 5 times or a goal every 17.6 minutes.
• Chris Schuler has played in 16 matches since coming back from injury towards the end of last season. In those matches RSL has a record of 8-1-7. 
• RSL has not given up a goal in the 111 minutes that Abdoulie Mansally has played this season.

What Plata has done this season has been incredible. He had a respectable season last year but his numbers this year are blowing last year's numbers out of the water. Watch for a spotlight on Plata later this week where I really compare this season's numbers to last.

It is amazing to think that RSL only has one loss with Schuler in the lineup in their last 16 games. For comparison sake, the previous 15 matches that RSL played without Schuler they went 6-6-3. The numbers speak for themselves on how important Schuler is to the team. 

I was surprised to see the stat on Mansally above. He has always been good getting into the attack. The common perception though is that he is not as strong on the defensive side of the ball. But the defense has been good in the limited time he has played this season. With a very strong performance in Chicago with a very good performance in the reserve game prior to that, perhaps Mansally should get more chances for playing time.