This week's offering has a bit of history added to the weekly numerals: Even Lamar Hunt Isn't Going To "Cost Cut" Andrulis: Check the dates on those "Fire Andrulis" threads. *CLB 7-0-2 at home in the last 9. One loss in last 21! *NE 4 wins at home *CHI 4-0-1 in last 5 at home, 0-6-3 in last 9 roadies. *SJ, COL, and MET have combined winless streaks totaling 22 games. You would think at some point they have to play eachother with someone winning. *COL 5 road losses *Met 3 home ties *KC 3 road ties *A tip of the cap to RSL who has earned a modest 1 game home win streak. They have still never been defeated at home. They might want to look at a way to schedule the 'Pids every week. Get the ball on net: 55.6% - Metros' Shots On Goal %age. KC also at 54.2. Both are MLS leaders. Both teams are undefeated. 29.6% - Chivas' SOG. That's dead last by a wide margin in MLS. The rest of MLS is at or above 40%. If you are going to be the worst defense in MLS, you had better at least get the ball on net when presented with an opportunity. Ouch: 8 - Number of points CHI has earned in their last 8 league games. Glaring for one of the winningest teams in MLS. More on that in weeks to come. 8 - Number of SOG for Chivas through 3 games - Also the number of Goals Allowed. Poor on both ends, Goats indeed! 62% - Number of Metros' board posters that have posted at one time or another, "Wolyniec sucks". Also roughly the number of scoresheets upon which Wolyniec gets his name. Not A Promising Start To A Career 2.667 - Gusan's CHV GAA. It's early and I don't mean to pick on Chivas, but this is worth mentioning. Only Zach Thornton and Bo Oshoniyi have overcome a first year GAA anywhere near this to make more than a short career out of MLS. The incomplete list of the unlucky and not quite good enough? Causey, Grafer, Snitko, Salzweidel, Napoleon, Lagerwey, Winner, Brown, etc. A Good Start, Not A Great Start 30 - Number of assists Landon Donovan has earned in MLS. Paired with his 34 goals and he is now the 25th member and most recent of the club Preki founded, the 30/30 club. LD did it in 4 seasons and 1 game. LD is also first of the class of '01 or sooner to do it. Not bad. Put into some perspective, LD isn't even remotely the fastest to do it. Welton, Mathis, Serna, and Kreis all did it in less than 4 seasons. Moreno J., Jones, and Cerritos did it in less than 3. Finally, the lefty Preki had exactly 30 goals and 30 assists at the end of the '97 season. That would be only 2 full seasons if you're scoring at home. Mitigating the comparison is that MLS is of a higher standard today. It's notable that LD recently admitted in a TV interview that he was often guilty of not being able to get up for every game. He continued saying to so so was, "hard sometimes". For whatever it's worth, most fans of this league know that was not and is not a problem for any of the guys I listed above. 5 - Points scored in LD's only appearance for the Galaxy. Throwaway stats of the week 4 - Number of winless teams and number of unbeaten teams in MLS. 10 - Number of "units" I lost betting SJ to continue their streak of 6 ties. The odds were 3.2:1 for a draw, meaning that Barrett's sublime work on the goalline cost me 32 "units". -WC
Thank you for all the fun facts again. This stat above would be better to track by how many games rather than seasons, it took to accomplish. Some players like Kries, Serna, Welton et al rarely/never had to miss games for international play, and it would also help offset those who played during the 28 game seasons vs those who played during the 32 game seasons. Andy
Great stuff, thanks. FWIW, I respectfully disagree on Mathis, J. Moreno or Cerritos not having any trouble getting up for games. Agree on Jones & Preki, and the other guys I couldn't really say.