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Rapids 2009 post season - How the goals were scored
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The Rapids 2009 campaign ended a few weeks earlier than Gary Smith, Steve Guppy and Jeff Plush had intended.
While other teams are preparing for the playoffs the Rapids get to spend the coming weeks winding up operations.
The proverb, "success has many fathers, while failure is an orphan," predicts that nobody within the Rapids will be stepping forward to shoulder the blame for the season. That's just as well, as this season's quick end was the product of many fathers. Fate played a hand by saddling the team with injuries. Depth issues hurt the team. The lack of a viable plan "B" saw the team struggle down the stretch. A season long inability to keep the ball out of the net certainly did not help.
Season post-mortem's are typically an opportunity for press, fans, insiders, and watchers to vent aboutpet issues that have festered all season long. The lack of reflection on this point is typically reflected in the resulting shallow analysis.
Fortunately, this is the time of year is when the, Climbing the Ladder Blog, begins to dump statistics on M.L.S. fans. Predictably many people will deny their relevance, unless the stats support their view, but the information is interesting nonetheless.
Today's post on the blog provides some interesting information about how goals were scored this season.
The break-down of the Rapids goals was as follows:
- 42 goals - the third highest in MLS
- 25 scored off the right foot - 60% of total
- 10 scored off the left foot - 24% of total
- 7 headers - 17% of total
- 23 goals from open play - 55% of total
- 6 scored off of crosses - 14% of total
- 4 rebound goals - 10% of total
- 1 scored off a corner kick - 2% of total
- 5 penalties - 12% of total
- 2 free kicks - 5% of total
- 1 own goal (courtesy of the opponent) - 2% of total
- 10 from the goal box - 24%
- 25 within the penalty box - 60%
- 7 from outside the penalty box - 17%
The Rapids beat the averages in several areas. First the Rapids were above the average in goal scoring. That fact alone meant that the Rapids tended to be above the average in several other categories, in particular in the area from where the goals were scored.
What's interesting is where the Rapids were below average. Many people tend to look at Conor Casey's size, his bald head, and the number of headers he attempts and conclude the Rapids score off crosses.
The reality is that the Rapids were just average in scoring off of headers, and below average in scoring off of crosses and corner kicks. That does not quite square with the assumption, open play and rebounds were where the Rapids really did their damage this season.
That the Rapids did not score a lot off of corners and crosses might have been down to the quality of crossing or the attention big Casey gets in the box. It seems unlikely that it is down to the number of crosses as the team seldom seemed shy about tossing the ball into the mixer. The Rapids did not live off the cross this season, and may have blundered by using the tactic too often.
The Rapids did die as a result of crosses though. For most of the league the average percent of goals against scored off of headers was 19%. Of the 38 goals the Rapids gave up this season 32% were a result of headers scored by the opposition.
The stats seem to suggest that the Rapids might consider sending fewer hopeful balls towards Casey's pate and more to his feet. They also suggest that it would be a good idea for the team to spend time in training making sure the team knows how to defend the same tactic.
