Just arrived in MN. Looking forward to seeing the new stadium. Going with my daughter, her BF, my nephew, his wife, and my niece.
Also here, going with my daughter, one of my grandsons and his best friend. Hoping for a good game in a beautiful stadium.
Exactly what I've been telling people. They keep asking if SKC is still in it, and I can only say it's just because everyone else keeps losing too.
Allianz is a lovely stadium but access and parking is a nightmare. We Ubered both ways. Much better than driving. Roadron seats were nice. Up high on the goal line. Great view of the entire field.
According to the Audi numbers, we romped in Minnesota. So, because I couldn't bring myself to think that mattered, I did a big picture compilation look at our last five games. I didn't go into detail because even I can't imagine that much depressing, but over the last five games of the season, SKC averaged 3333 Audi points per game. That's above the league average, which is odd in a 1-0-4 run that includes getting curb stomped against LA. This would seem to indicate that we outplayed our results, though I would like to see the xG to see if that makes sense. Still, individually, we were a mess. I'm only doing averages for players, and I left out Smith because I forgot about him until it was too late. Obviously, not everyone played every game, so I only averaged for what they played. Remember, an average MLS Audi performance is about 220 to 235. So per Audi: The good. Barath, 631, only two games? Crap, I might have missed one. Still, if I didn’t, that’s an elite level performance for an average in MLS. Russell, 586. He played 3, two very well, and one poorly by Audi. He was very Russell to close out the season. Busio, 460. That’s an average well above the MLS average and verging on the elite. Melia. 463.6. There is a lot of chatter about how he’s slipped a bit, but this firmly into the above average for MLS category. The pretty good. Felipe, 286.2. I had expected him to be among our top three. Solidly above average. Salloi, 263. It has to be pointed out that this score comes without goals. That means something in both a good and a bad sense. Still, he indicates he was doing his job well enough. The meh: Hurtado, 225. Dead solid average. He got a run of games and showed himself to be what he is, an average option. The bad: Espinoza, 170. For the last several years, when we were good or bad or indifferent, you could just about bank on Roger averaging about 300. Game in, game out, he was consistent. The four games he played included one that was his old typical self, and three that were consistently poor. Nemeth, 142.3. Yeah. Not really a surprise. Poor and not balanced off with goals. Ilie, 141.8. Disappointing. Previously, he could be counted on to be around 300. The ugly: Zusi, 114.8. He’s been so good for so long, and I had hopes he would remain among the top three rbs in MLS this season, so this is a bit sad. I do think it’s reflective, though. His games all stayed in the underwater range. Martens, 112. Not good. Bad, in fact. Medranda, 36. I know, didn’t play as much, etc, but still sigh. Another tear shed, really. Besler, 19.75. That's two good games, two crap games (red meant no fifth). For a CB though, that's kind of worrying. Consistency matters. I don’t know if this is worthwhile. I don’t think it’s a guide for the offseason, though maybe these numbers are a factor. How players performed this close season matters, I’d think. Esp since they had a shot at the playoffs if they’d had four wins instead of one. Still, for what it is worth…
I'm not going back further now, but here's the xG for last night..... if we only had a guy who could actually finish... #MINvSKC xG. Sporting's season ended appropriately. pic.twitter.com/QyxkhFBFkH— Ben Baer (@BenBaer89) September 26, 2019
That would be nice. IIRC, you get like 300 points for a goal, so if either Nemeth or Hurtado were scoring, they be into the above average category. Of course, the fact that they aren't means the Audi stats don't tell us much about a striker that we didn't already know.
At the airport waiting to fly back to KC. Sporting is on the same flight. Talked briefly with Vermes and I mentioned the teams expected goals stat and he said that Sporting has 2 of the bottom 5-10 players (don’t remember what number he used) on the actual goals to expected goals ratio in the league. We know Daniel must be there. Who is the other, Gerso? Not that we have anybody stellar in that regard.