Lowered Expectations: Week 13
/By Harrison Crow (@harrison_crow)
Welcome to Lowered Expectations, the week thirteen edition! Each week, we go about posting chalkboards and GIFs of the weekend’s best open-play shot attempts which did not quite live up to expectations (and rarely do we update this paragraph). We look at each one and not only evaluate the results, but also the process leading to them.
#5 - Maximiliano Urruti, FC Dallas, 20th minute, 0.500 expected goals
Assisted by: Michael Barrios
Passes in sequence: 5
This “switch” and cross by Maynor Figueroa is great, but some poor defending here by Auro gives Michael Barrios position to receive the ball. Sure, he pressures Barrios out of bounds, but not before Barrios is able to cross it into the box.
The cross back to Maximiliano Urruti is a bit high and headers are more difficult to put on target, statistically speaking. But you can see what Urruti was looking to do by putting the shot in top left corner over the outstretched hand of Alex Bono.
It might have been a better play to put the ball back to the right corner but I think the shot attempt has more to do with where the ball was and realistically what Maxi could do with it.
#4 -Cristian Roldan, Seattle Sounders FC, 34th minute, 0.500 expected goals
Assisted by: N/A
Number of passes in sequence: 3
The shot itself by Cristian Roldan isn’t great. He falls back on his heels, which rockets the ball over the crossbar. I get he’s trying to chip it over Rimando’s head, who is able to cut off a great amount of the goal mouth immediately in front of Roldan, but even a quarter of a second look up would have exposed the right side of the goal. It would have still been a difficult shot, especially with Roldan being off balance, but it would have been a better decision and been more likely to lead to a goal.
One thing I completely missed the first time I watched this (and was pointed out to me by my cohort in crime Ian Lamberson) was how the Sounders, at the 33rd minute, were high pressing. What??? Yeah. Something I hadn't noticed is they’ve been pressing off and on this season. The press in this situation creates a key turnover and after a few passes the Rave Green create not one but two very good opportunities.
Seattle Defensive Actions | Seattle Passes | Opponent Passes | Seattle Passes per Defensive Action | Seattle Possession | Opponent Possession | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
54 | 633 | 430 | 11.72 | 0.6 | 0.4 | |
50 | 488 | 567 | 9.76 | 0.46 | 0.54 | |
61 | 510 | 562 | 8.36 | 0.48 | 0.52 | |
71 | 480 | 677 | 6.76 | 0.41 | 0.59 | |
46 | 558 | 536 | 12.13 | 0.51 | 0.49 | |
51 | 515 | 529 | 10.1 | 0.49 | 0.51 | |
22 | 699 | 381 | 31.77 | 0.65 | 0.35 | |
79 | 353 | 700 | 4.47 | 0.34 | 0.66 | |
47 | 502 | 505 | 10.68 | 0.5 | 0.5 | |
41 | 454 | 524 | 11.07 | 0.46 | 0.54 |