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It’s all about mathematics, more specifically goal tallies
and goal difference. No don’t stop reading it’s not that advanced. Everyone
knows how important goals are and this week Byline Banter will explain how
goals can tell you everything and nothing about a season, as always categorised
under words that start with B!
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Brilliance
Put your diehard allegiance and blind hatred aside and think
of the most exciting team to watch. If you said anything other than Melbourne
Victory you’re watching football for the wrong reasons or you just can’t switch
off your dislike for them, probably the second one in most cases. Irrespective
of the emotions they bring out - and with respect to Sydney FC - this season
the Victory are playing the most attractive football in the competition.
Victory have scored the most goals so far this season with
their tally standing at 18. Which is three more than league leaders Perth Glory
and Wellington Phoenix who have the second most on 15. Now that
may not sound like a big difference but it most certainly is. Nine of Wellington’s
goals have come from just two matches including a 4-1 win over the Newcastle Jets
in Round Three and a 5-1 demolishing of Melbourne City last weekend.
As for the Glory in all bar one of their matches they’ve
scored two or less goals with their only three goal haul coming thanks to an
Andy Keough hat-trick. In many situations two goals will win you a match but
the weird statistic for the Glory is that nearly half of their goals have come
from set pieces, which includes a couple of screaming free kicks. Can this type
of scoring hold up all season? Time will tell.
But
Don’t let off your flares yet Victory supporters because that’s
only half the story. Like Wellington, Victory have also had four and five goal
wins this season knocking off the Western Sydney Wanderers 4-1 back in Round
One and Melbourne City where also their whipping boys with a 5-2 win in the
first Melbourne Derby. Meaning that half of Victory’s goals have come from just
a quarter of their matches.
While that kind of stat doesn’t paint a flattering picture,
Kevin Muscat’s men they have used their remaining goals wisely. They are still
undefeated this season and their only scoreless match fittingly coming against
Sydney FC in Round Six.
As for City if you scratch those 10 goals they conceded at
the hands of Victory and Phoenix that gives them a total of nine goals conceded
to weigh against the 12 goals they’ve scored. Which goes to explain why the
team sitting on a -7 goal difference – worst in the league – isn’t at the foot
of the table.
Boring
No not this week’s column, teams that aren’t scoring goals. The
first half of the Newcastle Jets vs Central Coast Mariners match last Sunday has
to the most boring half of football anyone has ever endured. 45 minutes
of watching Tony Abbott defending pre-election promises would have been a
better use of your time. There hasn’t been that many people playing with the
mobile phones since the iPhone 6 was released.
At any rate the Jets, Mariners, Wanderers and Brisbane Roar
have all so far have notched up 10 goals or fewer this season which goes to
explain why they’re four of five bottom teams. And if it wasn’t for City
leaking worse than Fukushima they would all be out of the playoffs at this
point.
Brief
So what do all these number mean? Goal tallies and goal difference
can go a long way to explain what is happening in a season but nor does it
explain everything. May as well stop looking at these columns until they make a
difference at play-off time. They’ll probably get cut soon anyway, Abbott cuts
everything else.
Bemusement
On a completely unrelated topic why is it that as our
domestic league gets stronger our ability as a national outfit deteriorates?
Could it be the amount of the imported players? Interesting, no?
Get involved with the observation of the
week by tweeting what catches your eye to@TheFootballSack and using #bylinebanter.