Tuesday, November 1, 2011

You Play, Team Wins

Kevin Burns, Tommy Heinemann, Joshua Gardner and Eddie Gaven.

These are the guys who played above team averages when starting. Burns was a little surprising to me as the team had a negative goal diff with him starting (-0.07). Tommy had the best goal differential (+0.33, team was -0.09).

I've put the full stat compile HERE that includes goals, % starts, pts earned while starting, and all that good stuff.

Below is the nitty gritty. Average Points earned by Crew Players whilst starting. () show total games started.

3.00 : Andy Gruenebaum (2)
2.25 : Justin Meram (4)
1.67 : Bernardo Anor (6)

1.67 : Kevin Burns (15)
1.50 : Andy Iro (2)
1.50 : Jeff Cunningham (4)

1.50 : Tom Heinemann (12)
1.50 : Joshua Gardner (22)
1.48 : Eddie Gaven (27)
1.38 : Dejan Rusmir (13)
1.38 : Emmanuel Ekpo (29)
1.38 : Julius James(32)
1.34 : Sebastián Miranda (35)
1.33 : Chad Marshall (33)
1.29 : Emilio Renteria (14)
1.24 : Will Hesmer (33)
1.24 : Robbie Rogers (25)
1.23 : Andrés Mendoza (26)

1.17 : Danny O´Rourke (6)
1.17 : Rich Balchan (18)
1.00 : Eric Gehrig (4)
0.94 : Dilly Duka (17)
0.80 : Shaun Francis (5)
0.00 : Tony Tchani (1)


Men playing more then 10 games got bold lettering. I consider this to be one of the more important KPIs for a player on a team. And with contracts coming up I want to be sure there isn't another Brian Carroll moment. Meaning; I rate Brian Carroll as the best Crew player of all time and he got away.

Call it the good luck charm. Call it the albatross number. It is just one way to look at it but, essentially, it means; Team wins when you start.

Or in the case of Dilly Duka, team loses.

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Things are never clean cut. Maybe a player was subbed out and his sub went on to win the game or perhaps a start then a quick injury. It happens, but over the course of 10-35 games it washes out.

I also looked at total appearances and not just starts. Dramatic changes, for example; Heinemann was inserted in more then a handful of goal down games late in the year.

Last note; during the Crew's abysmal final third of the season Gardner and Burns were out of the starting line up.

Brian Carroll has won 4 Supporter's Shields, 2 MLS Cups and 2 Conf Championships in his 8 years playing.

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