DC Postmatch

MOTM

  • Villa

    Votes: 36 58.1%
  • Maxi

    Votes: 10 16.1%
  • Wallace

    Votes: 18 29.0%
  • Backline/SJ

    Votes: 7 11.3%
  • Harrison

    Votes: 1 1.6%
  • Ring

    Votes: 9 14.5%

  • Total voters
    62
  • Poll closed .
That first half was easily the best performance that I have seen NYCFC give. From defence, through midfield and to the front our game was of a very high standard. It didn't surprise me that we saw a drop in performance in the second half, as the fitness levels are not there yet. With a few more games under our belt, I expect to see a much more polished performance over the entire 90 minutes.
 
I am a little surprised, yeah. Maxi's goal was an example of excellent professional attacking on both his part and Villa's, and worthy of praise (and maybe that's why it's nominated... a better worked attack than many you see in MLS), but Villa beating Hamid from an insanely tight angle was a much more spectacular goal which you'd think the voting crowd would respond to more.

And I may be right... Maxi's goal only has 5% of the vote right now.

If the video showed the beginning of the play with Villa intercepting the pass, it would do better. Not win, but do better.
 
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Heh, I was just about to post this myself. Parchman certainly liked what he saw on Sunday.

"NYCFC piled pass on pass on pass Sunday, ultimately working in 593 at a 79 percent clip largely built brick on brick out of the back. Quite frankly, D.C. United looked powerless, and in more ways than one. You have to understand how difficult that passing number is to achieve on the narrowest field in the league. Imagine being the fastest driver in the world on a slightly longer track than the one used by all your competitors. NYCFC uses space better than anyone in MLS, and they have less of it than anyone else. Perhaps Vieira is more Dutch than he knows."​

The bit I've emphasized there feels like a bold statement after only two matches, but I'll take it.
 
Heh, I was just about to post this myself. Parchman certainly liked what he saw on Sunday.

"NYCFC piled pass on pass on pass Sunday, ultimately working in 593 at a 79 percent clip largely built brick on brick out of the back. Quite frankly, D.C. United looked powerless, and in more ways than one. You have to understand how difficult that passing number is to achieve on the narrowest field in the league. Imagine being the fastest driver in the world on a slightly longer track than the one used by all your competitors. NYCFC uses space better than anyone in MLS, and they have less of it than anyone else. Perhaps Vieira is more Dutch than he knows."​

The bit I've emphasized there feels like a bold statement after only two matches, but I'll take it.
Guy had a stroke on Twitter last week because of Tab Ramos. I am glad we got him out of it.
 
Perhaps Vieira is more Dutch than he knows."

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Thanks for posting PV's postgame press conference.

I found it interesting that he essentially admitted to instructing Maxi to drop deep to pick up the ball when we're building possession from the back. That was something discussed after the Orlando match as a possible deviation from Vieira's game plan by Maxi but it turns out that this is a tactical decision made by the manager. I think it's been working well and we'll continue to see Maxi supporting the back line and Pirlo when playing from the back. His shiftiness and control on the ball is a real asset back there.

Also, PV mentioned that the team would have Monday off and return to training on Tuesday as I assume is normal operating procedure. However, with the enormous storm coming into the area tonight/tomorrow I wonder if they changed that plan and had the players come in today to get in a training session.
 
Did anyone notice this?
  • Oversized scarf: There will be an Etihad/NYCFC co-branded oversized scarf during the pre-match game presentation prompting fans raise their scarves just moments before the match.
 
http://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017/03/13/what-expected-goals-can-tell-us-about-week-2-mls

Take a look at the xG values from Week 2 and draw your own conclusions on each team's performance over the weekend thanks to data provided by Opta. Two important notes: penalties have a value of .78 and own goals are not factored into the values.

Game Result Home xG Away xG
Chicago Fire vs. Real Salt Lake 2-0 0.60 1.23
New York Red Bulls vs. Colorado Rapids 1-0 1.28 0.18
Philadelphia Union vs. Toronto FC 2-2 2.00 1.56
Montreal Impact vs. Seattle Sounders 2-2 1.27 2.04
Houston Dynamo vs. Columbus Crew SC 3-1 1.02 2.18
Sporting Kansas City vs. FC Dallas 0-0 0.91 0.70
San Jose Earthquakes vs. Vancouver Whitecaps FC 3-2 1.38 0.46
New York City FC vs. D.C. United 4-0 1.08 0.71
Minnesota United FC vs. Atlanta United FC 1-6 1.70 2.14
LA Galaxy vs. Portland Timbers 0-1 0.71 2.20

According to Opta's xG model we significantly overperformed in our home opener (1.08 xG), as opposed to underperforming against Orlando (1.58 xG). This is likely due to several factors including our improved attacking tandem, our structured-pressing (which, when effective, has a tendency of improving the probability of shot success from otherwise lower value positions as the opposition defense is usually discombulated), and poor opposition defending in general (I loved Villa's second goal, especially as it was right in front of where we were seated in 230, but it was as much down to his immense skill as to the defender and goalkeeper making a mess of it—just think what you would be writing if Nyarko has scored that against Chanot and Johnson).

That said, if we can continue to effectively implement that structured-press and keep our newly forming attacking diamond healthy for most of the season we should continue to confound the expected goals metrics.

SIDE NOTE: I spent a good 10 minutes formatting the above quote table for readability (and it shows in the edit window as I type this) but the forum is in a "best laid plans" mood it seems, so be sure to click the link for clarity.
 
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http://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017/03/13/what-expected-goals-can-tell-us-about-week-2-mls



According to Opta's xG model we significantly overperformed in our home opener (1.08 xG), as opposed to underperforming against Orlando (1.58 xG). This is likely due to several factors including our improved attacking tandem, our structure pressing (which, when effective, has a tendency of improving the probability of shot success from otherwise lower value positions as the opposition defense is usually discombulated), and poor opposition defending in general (I loved Villa's second goal, especially as it was right in front of where we were seated in 230, but it was as much down to his immense skill as to the defender and goalkeeper making a mess of it—just think what you would be righting if Nyarko has scored that against Chanot and Johnson).

That said, if we can continue to effectively implement that structured-press and keep our newly forming attacking diamond healthy for most of the season we should continue to confound the expected goals metrics.

SIDE NOTE: I spent a good 10 minutes formatting the above quote table for readability (and it shows in the edit window as I type this) but the forum is in a "best laid plans" mood it seems, so be sure to click the link for clarity.
Love how they can conclude we overperformed to a very specific degree after two games. I mean, yeah, it'd be crazy to think we're good for a 4-0 result every home game, but the sample size is so small that any metrics are going to vastly off. Kinda like that armchair twit that guaranteed we wouldn't make the playoffs last year.
 
Love how they can conclude we overperformed to a very specific degree after two games. I mean, yeah, it'd be crazy to think we're good for a 4-0 result every home game, but the sample size is so small that any metrics are going to vastly off. Kinda like that armchair twit that guaranteed we wouldn't make the playoffs last year.
Expected Goals is based on individual shot position relative to goal in conjunction with Opta's model based on "successful shots" which is built from apparently hundreds of thousands of recorded shot positions. It's a probabilistic model already based on a huge universe which is supposedly updated with statistics from all of the top leagues each year. You do not need many matches in a season to be played for it to be valid (although some would argue how accurate it is given some recent widespread changes in tactics, playing equipment like balls and boots, and improvements in overall player skill levels). It is only meant to be a means for benchmarking/assessment and is used by most every team with the resources to get past their paywall these days (including all of CFG's clubs). It's not meant to be a true predictor—there are other metrics for that.

I generally use it as "the best available right now" baseline for how we performed, along with a few other KPMs I think help build a picture of the quality of our play.
 
Expected Goals is based on individual shot position relative to goal in conjunction with Opta's model based on "successful shots" which is built from apparently hundreds of thousands of record shot positions. It's probabilistic model already based on a huge universe which supposedly updated with statistics from all of the major leagues each year. You do not need many matches in a season to be played our for it to be valid (although some would argue how accurate it is given some recent widespread changes in tactics, playing equipement like balls and boots, and improvements in overall player skill levels). It is only meant to be a means for benchmarking/assessment and is used by most every team with the resources to get past their paywall these days (including all of CFG's clubs). It's not meant to be a true predictor—there are other metrics for that.
Are you a salesperson for the company? Because that sounded like a marketing pitch. :)

I don't doubt there are analytic models out there, but they all cannot account for the x-factor variable(s) of the individual players (what's their fitness, are they distracted by the fans/weather, did they have a good constitutional that morning, are they having WaG issues,etc) during the free-form run of play.

I'm not trying to rag on you, but advanced stats for soccer are rather silly and self serving.
 
Expected Goals is based on individual shot position relative to goal in conjunction with Opta's model based on "successful shots" which is built from apparently hundreds of thousands of recorded shot positions. It's a probabilistic model already based on a huge universe which is supposedly updated with statistics from all of the top leagues each year. You do not need many matches in a season to be played for it to be valid (although some would argue how accurate it is given some recent widespread changes in tactics, playing equipment like balls and boots, and improvements in overall player skill levels). It is only meant to be a means for benchmarking/assessment and is used by most every team with the resources to get past their paywall these days (including all of CFG's clubs). It's not meant to be a true predictor—there are other metrics for that.

I generally use it as "the best available right now" baseline for how we performed, along with a few other KPMs I think help build a picture of the quality of our play.
Are you a salesperson for the company? Because that sounded like a marketing pitch. :)

I actually read the description of xG as rather critical, from someone who thought it had some limited utility but wanted to highlight the limitations.
 
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