Notes: Reserves win; misleading stats; kit sales

Notes: Reserves win; misleading stats; kit sales

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

After a three-day hiatus following that slightly painful lead-in to the weekend and pursuant international break, it's time once again to take a look at some interesting little tidbits of nonsense from the previous week, as well as to let our eyes glaze over with some statistics. Come now, it'll be fun.

Reserves

Hey, will you look at that! Our reserves won a match. That's always nice to see. Emiliano Bonfigli (not Sebastian Velasquez, as SKC reported) apparently converted a penalty, and I know at least a few of our players took shots. These non-broadcasted, distant, mid-day reserves matches are difficult to follow, you know.

Statistical notes

If you ever needed proof that statistics can be misleading (though still fun), I've compiled some fun stuff here. This, of course, doesn't mean that these statistics are particularly meaningless, but take that as you will.

  • San Jose Earthquakes are second-worst in the league in effective head clearance percentages, with only 46.8 percent of their headed clearances being effective.
  • Real Salt Lake win the lowest number of aerial duels in MLS, with 8.1 won per match. They also lose the second-fewest number of aerial duels, with 8.3 per match. What does it mean? Well, maybe we face fewer long balls than we think. Or maybe we just keep better possession. I don't know. Numbers are hard.
  • RSL is the third-most accurate team with long balls (Houston Dynamo #1, Sporting KC #2) at 64 percent accuracy. Interestingly, our long balls come largely in the first half — 58 percent of our accurate long balls. Huh.
  • That last stat makes me chuckle, because 64 percent accuracy is pretty good, and it's not too far off from Toronto FC's overall passing accuracy — 71 percent. Those seven percentage points are fewer than the difference in overall passing accuracy between RSL and Toronto FC (81 percent and 71 percent). Funny.

Kit sales

Our one and only dreadlocked American captain, Kyle Beckerman, is on the list of 25 best-selling player kits in MLS. He's sitting at number 22, and I suspect it might be because all of Salt Lake City has a Beckerman kit. Or, you know, some number somewhat close to all. Small market woes, I suppose. It would be dreadfully interesting if someone were to compare those numbers with salaries. Perhaps that's a mission for me.

Read more: http://www.mlssoccer.com/blog/mls-insider/2012/09/11/top-selling-jerseys-mls