[microbrew]

Is this the only regular column out there?

This weeks column seems to focus primarily on what seems to be trivia to me.

http://www.mlsnet.com/content/03/analyze0905.html

[mpruitt]

This is fairly interesting.

"So much for the notion of playing for a tie on the road. Actually, that trend isn't as extreme as you might think. With the score tied in the 60th minute or later during eight years of MLS history, home teams have out-shot visitors by only a 59/41 ratio. I say only�Enot just because the axiom would seem to suggest a higher margin, but also because home teams out-shoot road teams by 55/45 at other times. The increase is rather small."

However, interesting it's kind of where basic statistics fall a bit short. Shots on goal aren't going to tell the whole story of how a team is playing.

[beineke]

Ordinarily, the home team gets 22% more shots than the visitor. But after the 60th minute of a tied game, this advantage jumps to 44%.

All I've done is write Hirdt's numbers a different way, but I think it sounds a lot more impressive when it's written as 44% vs. 22%.

And IMO, this size of gap is a pretty big deal...