DC United Buck Conventional Wisdom
In a remarkable turnaround year for DC, two stats jump out:
They have conceded the second-highest "shots against per game average" in MLS...and have conceded the second-fewest "goals per game average" in the league.
In 2013 they tallied 16 points all season (3pts for a win, 1 for a draw, 0 for a loss...) whereas this year they chalked up 58 points and more than doubled their offensive output.
Giving up nearly 40% fewer goals helped too! But it's tough to give up fewer goals when nearly leading the league in shots against. Remarkable stuff.
Two possible explanations: terrific team defense that compresses the penalty area space and forces teams to launch from long range...the sometimes excoriated Bill Hamid at GK is improving and becoming the keeper everyone hoped he would (Which is always funny...a guy who "will be" good is blasted for an error in Olympic qualifying as though the process of developing into a top-notch professional is to be an error-free process. Brilliant.) And lastly, lady Luck....sometimes it lasts for a while, for good or for ill. Liverpool rode it last year, and now we're surprised (really?) when a team that gave up that many goals and didn't buy some better defenders this summer is seeming to struggle this year. Interesting thoughts on a lack of defenders in the pro game here. Arsene Wenger quoted within:
"People say we should buy defenders, but there is not a lot on the market and if you look at the other clubs, they had exactly the same problem as we did. Everybody is looking for defenders and everybody couldn't find any."
As for shots from distance, here's some numbers to consider:
This may cover up the really good stuff, but it does reveal some tantalizing information. I sorted the table the link takes you to by distance...that's the average distance a goal was scored from. I have listed here, in descending order of distance, the double-digit scorers in MLS.
The breakdown:
5 guys in double digits averaging more than 22 yards per goal - 59 goals
20 guys scoring 10 or more goals from inside 21 yards - 273 goals
That's 83 % of all goals scored by the best goal scorers from inside 21 yards
Gotta get into the penalty area, or very close to it...
Morales 27 yards / 10 Goals
Espindola 25yds/10 Goals
Nguyen 24yds/17 Goals
Valeri 24yds/11 Goals
Higuain 24yds/11 Goals
Henry-Barnes-Silva 21yds/10-11-11 Goals
Dempsey 20yds/ 15 Goals
Plata 20yds/13 Goals
Donovan-Brown-Defoe-Torres-
Castillo-Bruin-Le Toux 18yds/10-10-12 Goals
Martins-Perez 17yds/17-11 Goals
Dwyer-Wondolowski 16yds/ 22-14 Goals
Zardes 15yds/16 Goals
WrightPhilips 14yds/25 Goals
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