Top Passers in the USL, 2018

The USL regular season has wrapped up, so I decided to dig into the wealth of data available on their site. First up - Passing.

The better passers you have on the team the better your possession. This means you can dictate more of the game. Do what you want to do instead of having it done to you. If that makes any sense.

Along with a couple of charts, I want to get to what it means to have good passers on your team. How I did this - take a few measurements that Opta has pulled out of USL games. Those categories:

1. Total Passes
2. Pass Completion %
3. % Complete in Opposition Half
4. Long Pass % Complete

Here are the top 12 players when you take the rank in each of those categories:

Having the better passers in the league should mean you have a better team. Obviously, that's not always the case, but let's put it to the test real quick.

By my count, there are 527 players that have managed over 900 minutes this year. If we take to top 20% passers (which works out to be about 100 players) and match them up with their team records, we should see a relationship.

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Pos.	City	P	W	L	T	GD	Pts	Top Passers
1	Cincinnati	34	23	3	8	38	77	4
2	Orange County SC	34	20	8	6	30	66	6
3	Louisville City	34	19	6	9	33	66	5
4	Sacramento Republic	34	19	7	8	15	65	3
5	Phoenix Rising	34	19	9	6	25	63	1
6	Real Monarchs	34	19	12	3	8	60	9
8	Reno 1868	34	16	7	11	18	59	6
7	Pittsburgh Riverhounds	34	15	5	14	21	59	2
9	Charleston Battery	34	14	6	14	13	56	3
10	Portland Timbers 2	34	17	13	4	9	55	4
12	Saint Louis	34	14	9	11	6	53	4
11	Swope Park Rangers	34	15	11	8	-1	53	3
13	New York Red Bulls II	34	13	8	13	12	52	0
14	Bethlehem Steel	34	14	12	8	15	50	2
15	San Antonio	34	14	12	8	-3	50	1
17	Nashville SC	34	12	9	13	11	49	4
16	Indy Eleven	34	13	11	10	3	49	1
18	North Carolina FC	34	13	13	8	10	47	7
19	Ottawa Fury	34	13	15	6	-12	45	0
20	OKC Energy	34	12	15	7	-3	43	4
21	Charlotte Independence	34	10	12	12	-13	42	6
22	Tampa Bay Rowdies	34	11	15	8	0	41	5
24	Fresno FC	34	9	13	12	6	39	3
23	Colorado Springs	34	11	17	6	-3	39	2
25	Rio Grande Valley	34	8	12	14	-6	38	2
26	Penn FC	34	9	15	10	-9	37	1
27	LA Galaxy II	34	10	17	7	-7	37	1
28	Atlanta United 2	34	7	17	10	-35	31	7
29	Las Vegas Lights FC	34	8	19	7	-24	31	0
30	Seattle Sounders 2	34	6	21	7	-31	25	2
31	Richmond Kickers	34	6	24	4	-50	22	3
32	Tulsa Roughnecks	34	3	19	12	-41	21	2
33	Toronto II	34	4	24	6	-35	18	2

Great, it works out (mostly).

- Top 5 average 4 players in the top 20% of all passers in the league.
- Middle group has 3
- Bottom averages 2.

Or, to put it another way. Average points earned if you have +5 top passers is 52. If you have 2 or less? Those teams averaged 41 pts. 11 point difference. Find passers everyone.

Below will be a more straightforward look at the top passers in the USL for 2018. Total passes / Overall Completion %.

USL Passing: Total Passes / Passing % Infogram

SPECIAL PLAYER CALLOUTS 

The United Soccer League isn't looked at as a pathway to a higher league. Part of that is exposure, part of that is the way soccer is structured in the United States. That said, here are some players that warrant a closer look.

1. Graham Smith, North Carolina FC. DM, 24 years old Graham is in the top 20% in all my categories. Notably 5th in passing in the opponents half of the field. At 24, he's reaching mid-career without a whole lot of professional experience, but what he's done in his first USL season is impressive.  

2. Boluwatife Akinyode, Nashville, DM, 24 years old Another defensive mid and ranked first in Pass% and % complete in the opposition half. He's been bouncing around the NY Red Bulls system for years, with stops at Bethlehem and NCFC. Currently mired in mid-table nowhere's ville Nashville, he's definitely worth a closer look.  

3. Justin Portillo, Real Monarchs, MF, 26 years old Justin spent quite a bit of time with the Charleston Battery and has struck gold in the USL. the Monarchs have 9 players in the top 20% according to my measurement, he tops the list.

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There are two Graham Smith's in the USL. The other plays off and on for Swope Park as well as MLS Sporting KC. Both are good players, but the NCFC one is better (at least in terms of the 2018 USL season).