Bakary Soumare Watch

(I meant to post this to start the season, but it didn't happen. Edits have been made accordingly.)

As you all know, our favorite player, Bakary Soumare, has been with this team for a long time. His time with the Fire has been described as "interminable" and "far too many games" (note: quotes may have been made up). What you might not know is that Bakary is on the verge of has broken into the top 20 Fire Players all-time, by minutes played and appearances. Yes, as of the beginning of the season, Bakary Soumare sits at 6869 minutes played, 196 behind Dema Kovalenko; and 85 appearances, 5 behind Kovalenko.

Should Bakary play each and every minute of our 2014 season (lol, like he can avoid fouling that much), he will end the season in 14th in terms of minutes played (just ahead of Peter Nowak), and 13th in appearances (again ahead of Nowak).

This thread is a place to commemorate each and every one of Bakary's special games.

 

In Game 6, vs. Montreal, Soumare went 90 minutes. Dan Kelly was quoted as saying "Soumare was out of position again, and you know, Hurtado can't just keep coming over to cover for him". The only Soumare note in the game thread was that he is "rubbing off on Hurtado" and " got kicked in the chest". According to OPTA, he had 37 successful passes (3 to Magee, 3 to Quincy), and 8 unsuccessful passes; and only committed two fouls.

whoscored.com gave him a 7.0 for the game, 5th (EDIT: 7th, sorry I can't count) out of Fire starters.

Soumare remains in 19th on the minutes played list, at 7409; he is 319 minutes from passing Carlos Bocanegra for 18th on the list. Soumare also moves into sole possession of 20th place on the list of appearances, at 91, 1 behind Nate Jaqua.

 

In Game 7, against the other worst owned team in MLS, Bakary Soumare went 90 minutes. Between friends in town, and not having NBCSN, I didn't get to see the match on TV, so no good Dan Kelly Robbie Russell quotes (yet). From the 3rd minute color commentary, Baky is unhappy with the string of ties.

From the gamethread - @milicz optimism led him to captain Soumare on his fantasy team? Takes some balls, man. Other Soumare notes - he passes the ball out of bounds to a close teammate, he juggles the ball out of bounds. Also mentioned was the Soumare foul on the goalie during Larentowicz header in the 58th, perhaps satisfying the bloodlust called for earlier in the game thread. But let us not forget "It looks like Amarikwa has been giving shooting lessons to Soumare" and "Soumare hit a freaking fantastic volley", so definitely not all bad.

According to OPTA, he had 37 successful passes (AGAIN!) - 4 to Shipp, 4 to Magee, 3 to Quincy - more of an offensive threat this time - but 15 unsuccessful passes (what a scrub); and only committed one fouls. whoscored.com gave him a 7.1 for the game, 3rd amongst Fire starters (behind Shipp and Nyarko).

Soumare moves into a tie with Nate Jaqua for 19th on the list of appearances, at 92. He is 4 appearances away from tying Jalil Anibaba for 18th on the list. Soumare remains in 19th on the minutes played list, at 7499; he is 229 minutes from passing Carlos Bocanegra for 18th on the list.

 

Neither of them worth two craps.

 

Okay, I like Jon Busch, but I like SJ more. Marco Pappa still sucks, even if he has the occasional good week.

Also - with Wednesday's minutes, Bakary Soumare has passed Carlos Bocanegra for 18th all-time in minutes played, up to 7769. He is now 449 minutes behind Demarcus Beasley for 17th. He is also one appearance away from tying Jalil Anibaba for 18th in appearances.

Bakary Soumare achieved a 7.25 rating on whoscored.com for the Rapids, good for 3rd among Fire starters behind Hurtado and Johnson. I don't know how many passes he completed or to whom, because they took that away from the New New MLS MatchCenter. He only committed one foul though, and took a hard shot to the head from a Hurtado clearance.

 

For all the disappointment of a loss to Seattle, Bakary Soumare showed up surprisingly well. He held back Hurtado after the red card, and did a pretty darn good job of keeping the defense intact from that point forward. The only goal that was scored after that was clearly Pineda's man. He successfully completed 29 passes, with 12 unsuccessful, and only committed two fouls. whoscored.com gave him a 6.8 good for fourth best of Fire starters (after Shipp, Amarikwa, and Gonzalo).

With this game, Baky has tied Jalil Anibaba for 18th with 96 appearances all-time. He is two appearances behind Demarcus Beasley in 17th.

 

It has been almost two months, so time for another Soumare watch update!

Bakary Soumare went the full 90 during the Wednesday shitshow. I didn't watch that, so no quotes, and I don't want to even dig through the gamewatch thread. According to whoscored.com, everyone except Lovel and Ward played awful, but Soumare played a better brand of awful than everyone except Watson.

With those 90 minutes Soumare has now played 8,244 minutes for the Chicago Fire, passing Demarcus Beasley (8,218) for 17th all-time. He is 187 minutes behind Marco Pappa for 16th all-time. Those 90 minute also put Soumare up to 101 appearances, tying him for 16th all-time with Justin Mapp. He is now 2 behind Evan Whitfield for 15th all-time.

Additionally, over the course of the season, Bakary Soumare has performed 2nd-best among all Fire players, according to whoscored.com. Only Harry Shipp has done better.
(The Castrol Index rates him 7th among Fire players, but it also rates Alex as 3rd best behind Quincy and Mike, which is much less believable than Soumare being 2nd behind Harry).

 

I'll look into this. There may be some clerical errors in my database.