M^3 (May Man of the Month)

I debated whether or not I wanted to do this now or after the USOC match tonight, but I think I'll drop it now and not consider the USOC match since there's generally no stats to cull from it and at this stage it might get a little lopsided. Plus lots of guys are out on international duty and such and it may not be fair.

Here's the inter-team player ratings for May. Note that this isn't baselined against other players or other teams, just how much each poayer played in May and what their contributions were (statistically speaking). So a guy rated below five wasn't neccessarily bad, just had below average contribution to team success this month.

With that said, here we go.

Ike Opara nearly steals it from Zusi, but Graham comes out on top, playing in 427 minutes and notching a goal and two assists and generally playing exceptionally well, earning an unsuurprising callup for the USMNT. Congrats, Graham. I really need to get a better photo...

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.

Corny March Joke.

I don't really want to think of any clever "marching" puns, or April Fool's Day jokes, but I did want to take a minute and break down the first five games and toss out a player of the month nod. If you've been paying any attention it should be pretty obvious who it is for Kansas City, but let's look anyway.

Here're the numbers.

So, despite the good effort that the defense has turned in the last three games, Zusi dominates the stats with two goals an assist and some great attacking and defensive play. All that while missing a week with the USMNT getting results in Denver and Mexico. He's had a helluva a month. If you see him out somewhere, buy him a beer or three. The man has definitely earned it.

SKC-Union Player Ratings

So soon? So soon.

I'd say I'd add some major thoughts to this post, but I only really have three. The first is, for the first 20 minutes, SKC looked awful, unorganized, and uncommunicative. Coming out of preseason maybe I shouldn't be that worried, but Philadelphia should have had at least one or two more goals in the first thirty minutes, and that would have put the game out of reach. We came out looking like Toronto. We can't look like Toronto.

The second thought was that I was glad to see the response, especially the second half adjustments.

The third was, I thought Nagamura had a helluva game, even if it didn't show up in the stats.

That said, these are stats based player ratings, and given that, there's one clear Man of the Match. Here's how the numbers worked out. Same system as last year.

No surprise there. Man of the match to Zusi, who notched a goal and assist. Rosell also with a great game, and hard to say anything bad about LeToux. Philly fans will be thrilled to have him back.

So hats off to Mr. Zusi, who has probably sealed a spot on the USMNT roster if he can keep up putting up games like that.

And the award goes to...

Okay, that wasn't too bad. Took a few minutes and tabulated year long player ratings so I could dish out some yummy digital awards. Let's just make the announcements before we hit the actual numbers, shall we?

Here's your 2012 SKC Team Award Table of Glorifying Tableness

ZUEEESSSSSS. People have been calling this his breakout year given his increased role with the USMNT, but I think most SKC fans will tell you he broke out last year, and this is his standard operating level. Which is awesome.

One of the big factors in Zusi's place at the top is that, while SKCs defense has been brillient, it's largely a team effort, with a monster back line and a great keeper. The offense, on the other hand, was hit or miss all year long, but largely relied on service from Zusi, who looks likely to end up as the MLS assists leader this year with 15. He also bagged 5 goals of his own, which isn't too shabby.

Tied on defense were the Nielsen/Besler tandem. I know Collin plays it sexy, and let's face it, he is, but Besler has been a workhorse this year and every bit as effective as Collin while logging almost 300 more minutes. And though we didn't really score on long throws towards the end of the season, his canon arms played a big part in a couple early season goals and kept defenses checking another options whenever SKC wins a throw in the attacking half.

Nielsen played a great season as well, commanding and controlling the back line which gave him a much better sense of positioning in his net, which I think is his strong suit. He doesn't have the reflexes that Hartman had, but his instincts and footwork were solid and his place at the top of the all time MLS GAA average board (4,000+ minutes) is well earned. You could even take that up to 8,000+ minutes and he'd still be #1. That's really a great accomplishment for some one who was thinking about retirement 3 years ago.

Honestly, I've been really impressed with this team as a whole. I think people were worrying about depth at the start of the season, but everytime some one has gone done due to injury, illness, or earning the wrath of the Vermes bench-hammer, some one has always been there to pop in. Even more encouraging is just how young this team is. Things have already been a success in my book for 2012, and 2013 seems like it could start off very well as well.

Of course 2012 is still unfinished. Onward until dawn for the 2012 MLS Cup. It should be thrilling.

Oh, right, I forgot about numbers.

Here's numbers! I will note that in these ratings players are ranked only against other SKC players. I'll have probably "better" numbers at the end of the season when I tabulate ratings for ALL MLS players. Won't that be fun?

MASSIVEly late...

Okay, okay, I'll admit I wasn't even going to do player ratings for the Columbus game, but I had a few extra minutes this morning and the bitterness of the draw has sort of went away, so here we go.

Columbus Crew
Andy Gruenebuam	5.3
Sebastian Miranda	4.4
Josh Williams	4.4
Chad Marshall	5.8
Nemanja Vukovic	3.9
Julius James	4.8
Eddie Gaven	7.2
Milovan Mirosevic	4.4
Chris Birchall	4.4
Dilly Duka	3.9
Jairo Arrieta	3.9
Federico Higuain	4.4
Emilio Renteria	5.3
Justin Meram	4.4
Team Average	4.7
Sporting Kansas City
Jimmy Nielsen	5.3
Seth Sinovic	5.3
Matt Besler	5.8
Chance Myers	4.8
Lawrence Olum	5.8
Roger Espinoza	5.3
Graham Zusi	7.7
Julio Cesar	4.8
Paolo Nagamura	4.4
Jacob Peterson	3.9
Kei Kamara	4.4
CJ Sapong	6.7
Team Average	5.3

Once again Zusi earns man of the match honors, and I think it's safe to say he's been having the best stretch of playing time in his career over the last month or two. Well earned Zeus, let's keep it up.



It's Zusi's world

It's about that time of year again... that is to say, October. Which can mean only one thing. No, not that my birthday's coming up (though it is, yay for presents!), it's time to figure out who SKC's best player in September was.

Going into this I thought for sure it'd be Besler until Zusi had a monster of a game on Friday. It was pretty close, but when the dust settled, it was clear that Zusi had had the better month and earns top honors from... me. Which means maybe not a lot, but I've got to think he'd be touched and flattered and such.

Zusi played 449 minutes and recorded two goals and two aissts, and SKC didn't lose in the month. Hard to say our defense doesn't deserve the credit, but Graham helped spark an offense that had been sputtering and his game against Chicago couldn't have been bigger, or better.

Here's the full player ratings for September. Interesting, SKC used only 17 players, with Collin missing a bunch of games. We all know PV doesn't like subs, but he really seems to like the lineup he has on hand going into the post season, so let's hope he doesn't ride them too hard.

Hats off to Graham, let's hope he can keep the offense moving forwards as we enter crunch time.



A little late...

I started looking at the calender to see if it was time to do the September player of the month and realized I had skipped August... Stupid lousy work.

Considering that it's not that hard to do, and that I don't have to do player of the month until the week after next, here's what we missed in August.

Again, I'd note that a "poor" looking rating likely reflects player playing time and not actual performance. The system I use rewards playing time as well as good performance. "True" ratings will come at the end of the year, when I have numbers for the entire league to compare to.

For those we don't remember, in August, Zusi had a goal and two assists in four games. Not too shaby, all things considered.



It happened, it happened

So that was definitely an interesting game. Not that entertaining for a neutral, I would imagine, and probably really poor if you're a Monreal fan, but... well.. interesting.

I actually don't really agree with either PK call, but I don't entirely disagree with them either. Each one was maybe 50/50, so getting one in our favor isn't too bad. What was bad was how poor we were playing after going down a goal, and how well we played after scoring one. It looked be another typical SKC loss, where we dominate the stat line but lose the most important part, but once Kamara had the ball in the back of the net it all turned around.

And for the record, I totally called Peterson playing well last month. Jacob Peterson, that is. Not Peterson Jopseh. Though he hasn't played poorly either...

Anyways, I was surprised to see that it finally happened, a player on a non-winning team scored high enough to warrrent man of the match. So here we go...

Montreal Impact
Donovan Ricketts	4.6
Zarek Valentin	4.6
Shavar Thomas	4.6
Felipe	5.8
Patrice Bernier	6.9
Davy Arnaud	4.3
Justin Mapp	4.9
Collen Warner	4.6
Sanna Nysassi	4.3
Jeb Brovsky	4.9
Hassan Camara	5.8
Justin Braun	4.0
Eduardo Sebrango	4.6
Marco di Vaio	4.6
Team Average	4.9
Sporting Kansas City
Jimmy Nielsen	5.2
Aurelien Collin	5.2
Seth Sinovic	4.3
Chance Myers	4.9
Matt Besler	5.2
Graham Zusi	6.3
Roger Espinzoa	6.0
Paolo Nagamura	5.2
Jacob Peterson	5.8
Peterson Joseph	4.3
Kei Kamara	6.0
CJ Sapong	4.6
Teal Bunbury	4.3
Soony Saad	4.3
Team Average	5.1

So, there you go. Even though SKC looked to be the much better team by the score line, it was only a slightly better outing player by player. Montreal actually had the better share of possesion by the end of the match, and the stats were, more or less, even. So Graham Zusi with SKCs best performance, but Petrice Bernier gets man of the match and earns a spot as one of the players Kansas City no longer wants to see lining up against us.

Fire sale?

So I've gotta say, I wasn't thrilled with that last match. The big issue being it looks like we're bypassing our best players, namely Graham Zusi and Kei Kamara. I think that was a very winnable game against a conference rival, and while I don't fault the defence for the goal, the offence really needs to find it's feet again.

Here's some player ratings for the match.

Chicago Fire
Sean Johnson	6.8
Austin Berry	6.5
Jalil Anibaba	5.7
Dan Gargan	6.5
Arne Friederich	6.5
Hunter Jumper	3.9
Marco Papa	6.5
Patrick Nyarko	4.7
Logan Pause	5.0
Pavel Pardo	4.7
Rafael Robayo	3.9
Dominic Oduru	4.3
Chris Rolfe	6.5
Sporting Kansas City
Jimmy Nielsen	4.7
Aurelien Collin	4.7
Chance Myers	5.0
Seth Sinovic	4.7
Matt Besler	4.7
Lawrence Olum	3.9
Graham Zusi	6.5
Roger Espinzoa	5.0
Julio Cesar	4.3
Peterson Joseph	3.9
Kei Kamara	3.9
CJ Sapong	4.3
Teal Bunbury	4.3
Soony Saad	3.9

I think it'll be interesting to see what kind of lineup Vermes runs out these next two games. While I think a post season spot is still more or less assured, I'm starting to wonder if the Open Cup will be our best chance at hardware this year...

Anyway, Sean Johnson with man of the match, and I don't think you can deny that. He had two or three big saves that kept Chicago in the game. Zusi had a monster game as well though. Almost got the rare player-on-the-losing-team-was-the-best title.