Boom! The Hyundai A-League is back with a bang and Round 2 delivered some big results and big stories. But what do the numbers reveal?
Boom! The Hyundai A-League is back with a bang and Round 2 delivered some big results and big stories. But what do the numbers reveal?
Adelaide United v Western Sydney Wanderers
When Reds boss John Kosmina said he believes Western Sydney would be competitive this season, he was spot on.
Shots on goal: Adelaide 4 / Wanderers 3
Tackles: Adelaide 37 / Wanderers 36; effective: 82% / 69%
Completed passes: Adelaide 351 / Wanderers 306; accuracy: 85% / 80%
Despite Adelaide-s head-start on their pre-season preparations, due to their AFC Asian Champions League run, the hastily assembled Wanderers all but matched Adelaide on all fronts last Friday night, with only Jeronimo Neumann’s lone goal ultimately proving the difference.
Tony Popovic-s side may not have scored yet but following their opening draw with Central Coast, such stability is a positive sign for the new club.
Sydney FC v Newcastle Jets
What a game this was. Big crowds, big names and plenty of goals. But Sydney FC weren-t competitive enough in the first half and their slow start cost them.
Shots on goal: Sydney 4 / Newcastle 9
Tackles: Sydney 10 / Newcastle 14; effective: 67% / 82%
Completed passes: Sydney 229 / Newcastle 198; accuracy: 75% / 73%
Crosses: Sydney 16 / Newcastle 12
These numbers suggest that the Jets were more aggressive than their hosts; they tackled harder and more effectively and had more than double the number of shots on goal.
It-s also worth noting that Sydney had more crosses than the Jets; does this mean Ian Crook-s side were less willing to pass the ball through the middle of the park, or was this the only line of distribution left open to Alessandro Del Piero when he received the ball ahead of the opponent-s box and found a compact defensive line ahead of him?
Brisbane Roar v Melbourne Victory
A stunning performance from Brisbane and a confused performance by Victory turned this big game into a rout, and a fascinating snapshot at two sides at different stages of evolution.
Completed passes: Roar 303 / Victory 347; accuracy: 81% / 83%
Possession: Roar 49% / Victory 51%
Shots: Roar 16 / Victory 9; on target: 5 / 2
Tackles: Roar 22 / Victory 24; effective: 79% / 67%
Fouls conceded: Roar 17 / Victory 23
Crosses: Roar 27 / Victory 8
Corners: Roar 9 / Victory 4
Perhaps the most tells stats here are the completed passes and possession; Victory made more than their hosts, yet Brisbane still dominated.
Ange Postecoglou has his new team moving the ball well enough but they clearly weren-t able to achieve any penetration, despite having slightly more possession across the 90 minutes.
Victory-s tackling efficiency (defined as “an intervention that is the main reason the player with the ball loses possession, whether or not the tackler ends up with the ball”) and fouls conceded also suggest that they need to work harder to make their challenges count. In effect, those failed challenges would have left the Victory player on the back foot and Roar still with the ball.
The large discrepancy between the sides- crosses and corners also give you some indication just how much time they spent in each other-s half, a bombardment that shows how much attacking pressure Brisbane were able to put on the Victory defence.
Central Coast Mariners v Perth Glory
The Sunday game at Bluetongue Stadium wasn-t exactly “champagne football” but there are some interesting points to be drawn.
Firstly, there are Glory-s four yellow cards (Thwaite, Burns, Mehmet and Miller) to the Mariners- two (Zwaanswijk and Bojic).
Completed passes: Mariners 316 / 246; accuracy: 79% / 71%
Crosses: Mariners 9 / Glory 18
Fouls conceded: Mariners 15 / Glory 15
Tackles: Mariners 14 / Glory 35; effective: 74% / 80%
That last stat is perhaps the most telling; Glory made by far the most tackles of any team in Round 2, the large majority of which were considered effective, and yet they conceded the same amount of fouls as their hosts.
This shows just how hard Perth are to play against, and backs up the argument that although they-re physical, Ian Ferguson-s are not necessarily dirty.
They also had double the number of crosses, illustrating how Ferguson-s side use their width and the power of their forwards.
