He's So Wondo! The continuing chronicle of Chris Wondolowski's career

I agree that Wondo scored more goals on fewer shots in 2010, but otherwise I think he is playing better this year. In 2010 other defenses weren't focusing on him that much, and he was often playing midfield and finding goals by sneaking in on the back post and finishing chances. He would go for long periods of time and not do much (like the NY playoff game), but then find one chance and score.

This year (and last year), defenses are much more aware of the "far post run" and he has to find different ways to get open. He's also holding the ball up and creating with his passing more now than he was doing in 2010 (3 assists already this year), his overall game has improved a lot when he's not scoring. He's creating more scoring chances, but defenses are guarding him much more closely so he is not able to convert at such a high percentage. He's getting fouled more and fouling opponents less (17 Fouls suffered, 12 Fouls committed this year in 1440 min compared to 17 fouls suffered and 26 Fouls committed in 2010 in 2308 minutes), which tells me he has learned to play better defense without fouling, and other teams foul him more when he's in dangerous positions.
I really don't think he's not converting at quite as high a rate as in 2010 because he's "playing worse", it's because other teams are keying in on him and he's forced to take tougher chances.

While other players tend to just stop scoring when defenses key on them, Wondo has been able to SCORE MORE. That's an amazing feat.

 

I don't have much of anything quantitative to offer other than noticing him failing to get lots of good chances on frame, both with his head (forgot which game it was when he popped up 3 pretty good chance headers over the bar) and with his feet. I do notice that his SOG rate is lower this year (and last year) relative to 2010.

And I don't think I'm the only one who sees this. Lots of folks here were talking about how he had been in a "slump" since returning from nats (and before as well IIRC), and yet here he is, winning player of the month. I just think the quality of his goals and his shots, including degree of difficulty, was just higher in 2010. What I think he's actually improved in his finding ways to get chances, even while potentially getting more attention to defenses, which is quite a feat. But I still maintain that his finishing has not reached the level of 2010 either this year or last year.

 

Which is better, his finishing or his penalty kicks?

 

Really, we are going to pull out my posts from 2007 and make me look bad? Fine. I did not see Wondo blowing up like he has. Put me in the same boat as everyone else in MLS.

 

Everyone knew but you, htown. It's just that we all kept it a secret.

 

Aw, sheeeeiiitttt!

 

Ah cmon, it was a general joke that came from.me reading about the sj-houston transfer, i didn't go thru that just to make someone look bad...it just looks funny in retrospect.

 

" . . . Major League Soccer's top scorer with 13 goals on the season . . ."

Evidence of a paint-by-numbers feature, with no knowledgeable editor in sight.

 

Or perhaps evidence of an article written by a non-human computer algorithm with a made-up byline.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/reporter-call-him-al-algorithm-190751150.html

 

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/07/12/opta-spotlight-whos-midseason-favorite-mls-mvp

 

The last great US born local boy MLS goal scorer I recall that comes even close to Wondo was Paul Bravo. When you think about the trades involving both players, everything worked out great for both players but the teams that traded each guy is probably still be ticked off about the outcome. Interestingly, one guy Dom Kinnear was involved with both transactions. Coach Laurie Calloway traded Paul Bravo to the Colorado Rapids for Dom Kinnear in 1997 and he hardly ever ended up playing all that much for San Jose after coming here. Although Dom later became a successful coach, he in turn, trades Wondo for Cam Weaver. Both Wondo and Bravo proved to be invaluable to their clubs. I for one wouldn't trade Wondo for any player on the planet for any amount of money. Not sure about other leagues around the world but for the MLS anyway, Wondo is MVP!

 

Interesting thread in the MLS N&A forum about what Wondo has done in 3 years:

 

Reps and thanks for the link. I re-posted my Wondo for Cam Weaver post again in that thread so maybe someone from the Houston Dynamo coaching staff will read it....for some reason they seem to always somehow like to read my posts!

 

So have you ever listened to Wondo when he's interviewed post game or halftime and he says "Hi to Mr Gattuso"? I found out from twitter that "Mr Gattuso" is his dog From Wondo's twitter picture, it looks like his dog is a bulldog, so "Gattuso" is a pretty good name for it!

From Ryan Cochrane:

The reference to "the diesel" is to Wondo; I remember when he was with the Quakes in 2005 his nickname was "Diesel". Not sure why, but that's what the guys called him in the Reserve matches.

 

When I see you Wondo, I go off my ********ing head
I just can't get enough, I just can't get enough
You ********ed off Houston and came to San Jose instead
I just can't get enough, I just can't enough
and when we play the Galaxy and you're knocking in the goals
well I just can't seem to get enough of
DA DA DA DA DA DA DA
DA DA DA DA DA DA DA
DA DA DA DA DA DA DA
WON DO LOW SKI

 

Sorry, but the stats don't show much difference in his accuracy and scoring rate between 2010 and 2012 (it did drop in 2011). He is taking a lot more shots per 90 minutes in 2012, and scoring more goals per 90 minutes, but his scoring per shot is virtually the same:

2010: 2308 minutes, 18 goals (15 goals from run of play, 3 PK goals), 68 shots, 36 SOG, 1 Assist
2012: 1611 minutes, 17 goals (15 goals from run of play, 2 PK goals), 69 shots, 31 SOG, 4 Assists

While his SOG percentage was a bit higher in 2010, his scoring rate per shot is virtually the same (particularly if you exclude the PK goals). SOG percentage doesn't mean anything to me, goals scored per shot is a better measure of finishing. A SOG could be a crappy, scuffed shot, while a shot that is not a shot on goal could be a great shot that was blocked/cleared by a defender, or one that just missed the frame (yes, a shot that is on frame but blocked by a defender and not the keeper is not considered a SOG, and Wondo has had 2 goals cleared from the goal line this year by defenders, as well as a couple of shots blocked by defenders that were likely to go in).

The big improvement from 2010 to 2012 is that he has more assists, and he has more shots and goals per 90 minutes now. That tells me that he's learned how to be far better and more dangerous so he can create/get more chances per game, and also probably that the team around him is better in 2012 and helping him get more chances. But I don't see a big difference in finishing like you do. His finishing percentage (goals scored per shot taken) is consistent from 2010 to 2012.

As for people talking about some kind of slump after returning from the Nats, I didn't see that and don't understand it. He scored in his first 3 games after returning, how was that a slump?

 

As I said, I don't have much to offer quantitatively other than SOG / shots. As much as I tend towards quantitative analysis, I understand that it doesn't always tell the whole story. And sometimes people invent stats to try to prove something when the relation between that which is intended to be proven and the stat itself may be tenuous at best.

I just have a perception that Wondo was more on fire in terms of finishing in 2010 than he has been since. My perception could be wrong but I doubt I'm the only one, and I wouldn't be surprised if Wondo himself agreed. In 2010 he would talk about being "hot" like a baseball hitter, and how the goal looked "big", etc. This year he usually talks about missed chances. That could be due to increased expectations of himself but I think there's more to it than that.

If we wanted to get a better sense of this "finishing competency" we would probably want to measure the shot quality against the difficulty for each chance or something like that.

Where I think his game has improved is in the number of chances he gets per game. That may partly due to 1) better team and 2) he rarely plays midfield like he often did in 2010.

As for the perceived "slump", 1) it's not just about raw goals scored, but just general play, 2) as I mentioned it was also before nats, not just after, and 3) I don't count PK's unless he created them, and 4) I'm more or less just echoing some perceptions I read on the board, it's not necessarily mine, and certainly not exclusively mine.

 

I saw this article referenced on twitter

It's one of the best pieces I've seen that explains how Wondo plays and why what he is doing is so impressive.

 

By the way, I'm in the camp that Wondo is playing much, much better this year than he did in 2010. I do see JazzyJ's point that one specific aspect of his game, his finishing, may be off a bit from 2010, but so many other aspects of his game are so much better. In 2010 he wasn't being watched by defenses and it was pretty easy for him to get open for guys to send balls into him. He scored pretty much every goal on a one touch finish, off a great cross, pass, or deflection. He was extremely opportunistic.

This year I see him having to work much harder to get open and find scoring chances. I also see him playing a much bigger part in the buildup of plays, dropping into midfield more often to win the ball or make a pass, switch the field to find an open player, that kind of thing. And this year he has to make 3, 4, 5 or more moves to beat a defender on his runs (as described in the article I referenced in my last post). I think he may not finish some chances this year that he finished in 2010 because he has to work so much harder and move so much more to get open, so he's a little off balance or just tired by the time the ball gets to him. In 2010 he scored the vast majority of his goals by ghosting to the far post from an outside midfield or withdrawn forward spot and just sat their waiting for the ball to get there. When it got there, he finished it off.

Anyway, whether you think some specific aspect of his play is better or worse than 2010 isn't the point. The point is that we are watching MLS history being made and we should just enjoy it!

 

he's getting some love in the guardian.co.uk/football homepage. see MLS blog on right?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football