Houston, we have 3 points

Well, it definitely feels nice to come away with 3 points from that 2 game stretch... we may have gotten it backwards, of course, but a road win in Houston was huge. Collin making up for his late game lapse against Seattle in a big way. I'd love to make the trek down there some year, and much love to all the SKC fans who did, looked and sounded great.

Let's check the player ratings, shall we?

As I said, no surprise there, big game for Collin with the game winning goal and the clean sheet. Seth gets credit for the clean sheet and assist as well. Plus Collin is a fantasy stud. Mancrush. Etc.

Boom. Headshot.

WORTH IT!

So all aboard the "omg omg salary numbers!" train now, huh?

Well, because I love spreadsheets, let's take a look at one. Here's an estimate of player value, based on current "fantasy points" (i.e. collected Opta stats, each assigned values, like 5 points for a goal, 3 points for an assist, 4 points for a defender keeping a clean sheet, 0.33 points for a key pass, etc.), adjusted for games played, and then compared to the log of a player salary (under the assumption that it takes a ten fold increase in pay for a two fold increase in play, i.e. a guy making $1,000,000 is twice as good as a guy making $100,000).

Perhaps not surprisingly, Graham Zusi is one of the best values in MLS right now, though not THE best. That honor goes to Matt Hedges, making $64,000 while anchoring the FC Dallas defense. Aurelien Collin also comes in as the 3rd best value in the league, which I found a little surprising, but maybe it's not that much of a stretch.

Here's the table of the first bunch of players. Click to embiggen.

It's harder to say who the worst value in MLS is, as things like injuries/loans/etc. knock some guys to the bottom who may not have had a chance yet.

All said, it's early in the season, but I think it's interesting to see how some guys seem to be performing above their pay grade so far.

Croque-monsieur, anyone?

I'm not crazy about most french food, but man do they make good sandwhichs. Good defenders too, apparantly. Does anyone want to argue that Collin wasn't the best player for the month of April? Probably. There's always gonna be an argument for Zusi, but Collin's game winning goal and clean sheet in New York, and another clean sheet against DC more or less sealed it.

Here's how player ratings for April looked. Lots of defenders in there. Two clean sheets and a 1.25 GGA is none too shabby. Zusi sneaking in there as well, and was great to see Chance finally score (twice!), even if the goals were ultimatly for naught...

So raise a glass of wine for the Frenchman. I've gotta think he'll be another MLS All-Star this season, and with the game in Kansas City, that's sure to be awesome.

Tis a funny game

You know, this was the second home game this year that was really far from enjoyable, except this time we actually got a good result from it. It's an odd game like that. One goal can totally skew one's perspective. I imagine had DC held us to a 0-0 draw their fans would be thrilled. A few seconds of lapse and it's time for Ben Olsen's head.

I'm not saying any veiw is right or wrong. I'm just saying.

I'm also saying this is one time when I actually disagree more than usual with my ratings system. I thought Aurelien Collin had a pretty poor game, both defensively and in distribution, but aparantly the people over at the MLS Fantasy game disagree, because he apparently had some excellent defensive work with no mistakes...

Any way, here's the player ratings. Soony may seem low but it's important to remember that playing time actually is a facotr, so notching an above average rating while only playing seven minutes is pretty exceptional.

You can see SKC had the edge in overall average rating, and I think that showed. Unlike Chicago, DC actually seemed to come to play, and a little more quality from Pajoy could have made it a very different game. How bout that Beiler though, huh? Acquisition of the season at this point, surely...

But, yeah, Collin with Man of the Match. Not sure I'd give it to him objectively, but who am I to argue with numbers?