Where the Ball Was Won: Using Passing Data as an Indicator of Defensive Pressure Points

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Where the Ball Was Won: Using Passing Data as an Indicator of Defensive Pressure Points

I’m a die-hard San Jose Earthquakes fan. Please don’t leave yet. In case you aren’t paying attention to MLS much this year, the Quakes have been…underperforming, even by their less-than-lofty standards. I was preparing data for an article about the Quakes troubles with defending the opposition Zone 14 (or are you #TeamZone5?) discussing why they have given up a league-high 6 goals there so far this season, when – you may be aware – Matt Doyle (@MattDoyle76) and Bobby Warshaw (@bwarshaw14) publicly blasted the Quakes for the very same issue back on May 27.

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Setting the Table: Week 13

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Setting the Table: Week 13

Welcome to Setting the Table. Each week we take some time to focus on the best chance creators in MLS from the last weekend. If you want to see the best chances that were wasted check out Lowered Expectations. Here we focus on chances that ended with the ball in the back of the net.

Our goals this week very much fit within the popular narrative around counterpressing, or gegenpressing, as it’s often called. While not all of them are examples of the immediate pressure after ceding possession, they emphasize what is at the heart of gegenpressing. That is, that teams are most vulnerable immediately after a change in possession. Three of this week’s top five assists according to expected goals come on thre passes or fewer after a team won the ball off an opponent. Chris Mueller’s assist to Christian Higuita is a prime example of this.

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Lowered Expectations: Week 13

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Lowered Expectations: Week 13

Welcome to Lowered Expectations, the week thirteen edition! Each week, we go about posting chalkboards and GIFs of the weekend’s best open-play shot attempts which did not quite live up to expectations (and rarely do we update this paragraph). We look at each one and not only evaluate the results, but also the process leading to them.

#5 - Maximiliano Urruti, FC Dallas, 20th minute, 0.500 expected goals
Assisted by: Michael Barrios
Passes in sequence: 5

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Techera Scores, Montreal Can't Stop Others from Scoring, and Other LITTLE THINGS FROM WEEK 13

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Techera Scores, Montreal Can't Stop Others from Scoring, and Other LITTLE THINGS FROM WEEK 13

Cristian Techera at the back post

As coherent and competent as they have looked this year, the New England Revolution returned to their old tropes in Week 13. Their high-flying draw with the Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday was a merger of two eras: the Jay Heaps-led, defensive mistake-filled one and the current Brad Friedel one, in which they have found a definite style (the gegenpress!) and are successfully masking their ongoing defensive issues.

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Expected Narratives: Seeing Reds

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Expected Narratives: Seeing Reds

xN is our weekly look at what you can expect to read, write, and discuss about Major League Soccer this week. We take a look at each prospective narrative and rate it based on its strength and whether or not it has any actual merit.

Last week, I asserted that if Toronto failed to secure three points this week that the talk of the league would be whether or not last year’s all conquering heroes would even manage to make the playoffs this season. Unsurprisingly, they failed to acquire those three points, surprisingly nobody is really talking about it all that much. Well, since I’m CNO (Chief Narrative Officer) of this league now (self appointed, the term is lifelong meaning it remains until such a time as I die or get bored. Smart money on the latter.), I’m going to go ahead and make it a narrative because a) it’s important and b) I can’t really think of another thing to write about this week. I mean I guess we could cover VAR again, but NAH.

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Houston Dynamo: Doing More with Less

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Houston Dynamo: Doing More with Less

The battle for a Western Conference playoff spot is an absolute dog fight. After Sporting Kansas City, who are currently sitting on top of the West, there is only a four point gap between second place and ninth place. LAFC, Portland, FC Dallas, Houston, Vancouver, LA Galaxy, Minnesota, and Real Salt Lake are all currently sitting together, cramped right in the middle. Out of all those teams, there is one particular organization doing some especially impressive things - on and off the field. In this week’s team breakdown, we are going to take a look at the Houston Dynamo. Houston has managed to do more with less than anybody else in Major League Soccer and people have started to take notice, especially after a very impressive result at home against New York City FC (believe it or not, this article was planned even before that 3-1 win). So, now that eyes are opening across the MLS landscape, we are going take a comprehensive look at just what exactly the Dynamo are doing well and how exactly they are doing it. In order to do so, we are going to start off the field and work our way on to it. Let’s start with the second half of the title.

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Setting the Table: Week 12

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Setting the Table: Week 12

Welcome to Setting the Table, this week featuring a whole lot of Houston vs Chicago. Each week we take some time to focus on the best chance creators in MLS from the last weekend. If you want to see the best chances that were wasted check out Lowered Expectations. Here we focus on chances that ended with the ball in the back of the net.

#5 Nemanja Nikolic to Diego Campos, Chicago Fire, 16th minute, 0.369 expected goals
Passes in sequence: 2

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Lowered Expectations: Week 12

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Lowered Expectations: Week 12

Welcome to Lowered Expectations, the week 12 edition! Each week, we go about posting chalkboards and GIFs of the weekend’s best open-play shot attempts which did not quite live up to expectations (and rarely do we update this paragraph). We look at each one and not only evaluate the results, but also the process leading to them.

#5 - Tosaint Ricketts, Toronto FC, 63rd minute, 0.295 expected goals
Assisted by: Victor Vasquez
Passes in sequence: 4

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Expected Narratives: Atlanta Doth PRO-test Too Much

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Expected Narratives: Atlanta Doth PRO-test Too Much

xN is our weekly look at what you can expect to read, write, and discuss about Major League Soccer this week. We take a look at each prospective narrative and rate it based on its strength and whether or not it has any actual merit.

Officiating controversy? Naturally. Following Atlanta’s 3-1 loss to the New York Red Bulls, Atlanta players and coaches had nothing but pointed criticisms at Mark Geiger’s officiating. Geiger, who oversaw their 2-0 loss to Sporting Kansas City, was the video review official for Atlanta’s latest “bad feelings” match on Sunday. Were there incidents? Oh indeed there were incidents. To wit: Josef Martinez had a goal disallowed against Sporting Kansas City due to being waived offside (he was offside according to the letter of the law, which is a confusing law, but that’s a different subject entirely) and then had a goal disallowed after video review again on Sunday after he was judged to have fouled Tim Parker in the buildup (it sure looked like he did, but again there’s no way to be sure unless we let the official do something crazy like look at a video of the incident). I digress, but here we are again and although I don’t want this column to turn in to me becoming Simon Borg (THAT’S AN EASY RED CARD FOR ME FOLKS!) I’ve seen more than a few dozen (WHY ARE THE REFS AGAINST ATLANTA?) takes so let’s address the dumbest narrative we’ve done yet.

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Little Things from Week 12

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Little Things from Week 12

This week’s Little Things include: the LA Galaxy’s impressive ceiling, Ryan Telfer’s debut, and the importance of confidence for a goalkeeper.

The Correct Way to Use Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Much of Monday’s 1-0 LA Galaxy win in Montreal was rendered irrelevant for the purposes of evaluating the Galaxy’s attack due to Zlatan’s 41st minute sending off. Before the red, though, they very occasionally looked competent — with no help from their horrendous and well-publicized defensive awfulness, of course, and only when Romain Alessandrini was trying things.

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