Someone posted during the game in the in-match thread that Colorado had taken 5 PKs before tonight, and the Quakes only 1. It got me curious as to how many PKs the rest of the teams have taken. Looked it up on the MLS stats page: Chicago: 3/5 (attempted 5, made 3) Chivas: 4/4 Colorado: 5/6 Columbus: 1/4 Dallas: 3/3 DC United: 5/5 KC: 1/2 LA: 3/3 Metros: 4/5 New England: 1/1 RSL: 2/2 San Jose: 1/1 The Quakes opponents have been awarded 3 PKs this year, and have made 2 of them. So, every team except New England has more PK chances than San Jose. And many of them have many more chances.....considering that the Quakes lead the league (by a lot) in Fouls Suffered, it doesn't really make sense that they should have the fewest PKs. You'd actually think they should have the most PKs.... There have been 40 PKs awarded so far this year; all of last year only 49 were awarded. Not sure if this shows that the Quakes are just unlucky in their draw of officials, in how the ball bounces, or if it shows a pattern of unfairness.....you can draw your own conclusions.
If you are a defender, and you have to defend against Cerritos and Moreno - you don't have to foul them in the box. Just let them play and they will screw up the chance on their own.
Even if that's true, we can all remember several times when there could have been a PK awarded to San Jose. Sounded like there was one tonight; there was a handball at Dallas that sounded like it should have been called; there was the foul on DeRosario in the box in a game a few weeks ago; and there were a couple of other plays that I can't specifically remember right now. Now, I'm sure every team and their fans can come up with a similar list of possible PKs that could have been awarded.....it's just interesting how the numbers work out.
its always hard to tell with MLS blind refs, but i don't think its a conspiracy. There have been at least 3 handballs in the opponents box that were not called this year, plus a blatant pull down of moreno in the box by RSL that got Moreno a card, and a few more questionable calls against the Quakes. On the other hand there were at least two handballs by us in the box and a few non calls on some heavy tackles by our D's. All in all this stuff tends to even out over a season, but still wondering how the Rapids managed 6 PKs, maybe they have Greg Luganis on their team, aka professional diver. I haven't looked , but if you add in disallowed goals to this picture i betcha the odds look even more stacked against the Quakes. What can i say, they hate us but we stay competitive Is there anywhere that You can see who was fouled to get the penalty? Might be interesting to see who gets the MLS Greg Luganis Award of the year.
Only by looking at each individual game report. The summary stats only show who took the PK, not who was fouled.
It tells me that teams are trying to beat on our midfielders to throw off the timing of our team's game, which is so geared around passing. It's always Mullan or DeRo getting clobbered before they have a chance to start really running at the defense. I agree with you....sure wish a few more of those fouls resulted in PKs.
Just shows that we're not a bunch of floppers! We were eating dinner and listening to the game last night....listening to Shrader describe the events leading up to the PK and the late decision by the ref made me want to throw my plate! (Our Beagle woulda' loved that!)
all good points, however, sometimes you just have to look at this from a logic factual perspective. And that logic factual perspective is the STATS LIST. We just don't have as many PKs. period. why? Is this similar to why the Quakes were shut out from the All-Star Game? Is it similar to why suddenly Lalas left suddenly? the list continues.....
Sorry, losgatosfan. I've been spreading it around like Pimpbot 5000 for weeks, and I still can't give you any rep.
I just like that the refs actually have the balls to call them.......in years past, they let defenders get away with murder in the box.
At this point I'd say the sample size is too small and the variation too narrow to support a conspiracy theory. Besides 1/3 of the teams have only 1 or 2 PK's awarded. But if it turns out that all teams wind up with close to 10 and the Quakes still have 1, it's time to start asking questions.
Excellent point. However, Moreno is also getting the crap beat out of him, he leads the team in fouls suffered (58). Mullan is second (48), and then there are several guys who have about 30 (Clark, Robinson, Davis, DeRosario, Cerritos). Again, just because they are getting fouled that much doesn't mean that the Quakes are also getting fouled in the box, as you say the time to take the fouls is before the pass is made into the box. Just makes you wonder.....I really don't think there is a "conspiracy", but I do think that the Quakes may just have bad luck in the way the calls have gone this year. Also may show some lack of respect for the Quakes offensive players, they are not protected as much as guys on other teams, either by PKs being called or Yellow Cards being given.
I wonder what our stats were from last year and years previous...because the referees on QUAKES games have done an excellent job of being simply inconsistent, partial & just plain horrible.
OK, so you got me curious.....here are the PK stats for the past 5 years, and this year: Code: 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 TOTAL Chicago Fire 3/5 4/5 7/9 2/4 4/6 5/10 25/39 Colorado Rapids 4/5 2/3 5/6 6/6 2/2 4/7 22/29 Columbus Crew 1/4 8/8 3/3 3/3 1/1 3/3 19/23 Dallas Burn 3/3 2/2 4/6 3/3 3/3 1/1 16/18 D.C. United 5/5 1/2 8/8 1/4 3/5 3/4 21/28 Kansas City Wizards 1/2 3/5 5/6 4/6 3/3 0/0 16/22 Los Angeles Galaxy 3/3 4/5 7/8 3/5 5/7 6/7 28/35 MetroStars 4/5 8/8 4/7 6/9 1/3 9/10 32/42 New England Revolution 1/1 4/6 2/3 3/4 7/9 5/6 22/29 San Jose Earthquakes 1/1 3/5 2/2 2/3 2/3 5/5 15/19 Chivas 4/4 4/4 RSL 2/2 2/2 Miami Fusion 2/3 4/5 6/8 Tampa Bay Mutiny 4/6 3/8 7/14 League Total 32/40 39/49 47/58 33/47 37/51 48/53 235/312 Now I'm wondering about the "bad luck" of the Quakes And I think I've proven that the Metros are the "Superclub of the MLS", at least when it comes to being awarded PKs. Other observations: The number of PKs awarded each year is pretty consistent, with a bit of a spike in 2003. It looks like the pace this year is significantly up, however. The league has gotten worse at converting kicks, the best year out of the last 6 was 2000. The Metros, LA and Chicago do have significantly more PKs awarded to them than other clubs. Until this year, Columbus had made very PK they took over this stretch....but they sure stink this year!
I have a few thoughts. 1. I just don't find any logical reason on why LA, NY and Chicago get much more PKs awarded. I don't believe they have faster players or dribblers that defenders must foul them. Nor their style gives them any advantage. SJ has enough firepower to cause trouble but our PKs awarded are so limited. Imagine LA, NY and Chicago having only half of those PKs awarded...what would the standing become? 2. Dallas and SJ have the least amount of PKs awarded. Dallas was the worst team. You could say they played really bad and had no firepower. But what about SJ? 3. Continued from #2, the positive side is we don't need such favor and we still do well. 2 MLS Cups in fact. How can you not love this team?
Gee aren't these the three largest media markets. I'd like to see this taken one step further and compare PKs awarded against goals scored. But I'm too lazy to do it.
It's hard to tell what to think, but the statistics sure do make you think that the "golden teams" are being favored. After watching the Chivas/NE game tonight, there was one PK that definitely should have been awarded to Chivas in the first half (foul), and a second one that probably should have been awarded to the Revs in the second half (hand ball). But, neither was awarded and you could argue it evened out. PKs are so punitive, in that they are almost always turned into a goal, that poor decisions on awarding them can really change the outcome of a game. You could argue there are very few ways a bad ref can really directly affect the outcome of a game, but awarding (or not awarding) a PK is certainly one of them. (OK, another way is to call offsides on a game winning goal in the final 2 minutes of a game.....)
Another potential explanation besides the conspiracy theories is that the Quakes in the Yallop / Kinnear era could possibly have more integrity about the game, so less likely to dive in the box, thereby resulting in fewer PK's awarded. Cerritos is certainly not a diver from what I've seen of him, LandyCakes, well, he didn't dive when he played for the Quakes , DeRosario, doesn't dive, Graziano, didn't see him play much.
Interestingly, tonight's (Metrotards) Quakes game is being officiated by Baldomero Toledo - the only referee to award the Quakes a penalty kick yet this year (against the Revulsion in the first game of the season)...
Here are stats for penalty's called against this year (in order of when they got the first penalty called against them): New England 5 Chivas 3 Chicago 4 DC 5 RSL 3 San Jose 3 Colorado 5 Dallas 2 LA 3 KC 1 Metros 5 Columbus 1 So it does not really look like there is favoritism among the superteams, as the teams that get lots of calls (Metros, DC, Colorado, Chicago) also get lots of calls against them. The team that really gets the benefit is KC (4 for, 1 against), and the team that is really getting screwed is New England (1 for, 5 against).