here<\/a>). The key point is that all Union players called up for international matches during the November international break will have time, within reason, to recover from their efforts for their home countries\u2019 senior teams.<\/p>\nDefensive midfielder Danley Jean Jacques has been called for Haiti\u2019s two matches against the United States.
\nGoalkeeper Andre Blake has been called for Jamaica\u2019s two matches against Mexico.
\nCenter back Neil Pierre has been called for the United States\u2019 two matches against Haiti.
\nAttacking midfielder Cavan Sullivan has been called for the United States\u2019 two matches against Haiti.<\/p>\n
During the break the Philadelphia Union will have 14 days between matches. Therefore it seems a good time to report some statistics from the just completed regular season. First, we mention the first the team as a whole. We then move to individual player achievements within the whole of Major League Soccer. We finish with statistics within the team itself.<\/p>\n
Statistics: Philadelphia in the league<\/p>\n
As far as we have been able to determine, the Philadelphia Union led the entire of Major League Soccer in the statistic called \u201cexpected goals.\u201d We do not know how the statistic is calculated, and we only think we know what it may actually mean. Our best guess is the over-all quality of all its scoring chances aggregated together. Colloquially we would characterize XG as \u201cshould have scored ,\u201d but that seems a bit unforgiving as a way to describe it.<\/p>\n
League leaders<\/p>\n
Three club players are among the league\u2019s leaders. They are Bruno Damiani, Nathan Harriel, and Milan Iloski.<\/p>\n
Damiani led the league in the raw number of aerial duels won with 219. His success rate in those duels was 48.4%.<\/p>\n
Harriel is one of 28 players league-wide who started all 34 regular season matches. There are somewhere between 850 and 900 total players in the league at a rough estimate.\u00a0
\nHe is 10th in the league in total minutes played having not played only 27 of the 3,060 minutes available. (In theory stoppage time extra minutes make up minutes that were lost or unplayable during the match\u2019s official 90 minutes, so only 90 minutes are credited per game.)<\/p>\n
Iloski is fifth in the league in goals scored with 19.
\nHe is second in the league in shots taken with 122.
\nHe is fourth in the league in shots on target with 49.<\/p>\n
We apologize that our statistical technique and computer skill do not allow us to isolate the two halves of the season into separate bodies of data. Such data sets would be useful to identify what might be called \u201cthe Richter effect,\u201d both within the team for its overall season and against the rest of the league since it resumed play after the World Cup.<\/p>\n
Season leaders within the club<\/p>\n
We provide seven vertical charts below.<\/p>\n
Goals<\/p>\n
Assists
\nKey Passes
\nShots on Target<\/p>\n
Iloski \u2014 19
\nC Sullivan \u2014 14
\nIloski \u2014 53<\/p>\n
Iloski \u2014 49<\/p>\n
Damiani \u2014 13<\/p>\n
Westfield \u2014 11
\nWagner \u2014 50
\nC Sullivan \u2014 31<\/p>\n
C Sullivan \u2014 9
\nQ Sullivan \u2014 8
\nC Sullivan \u2014 42<\/p>\n
Damiani \u2014 25<\/p>\n
Pierre \u2014 5<\/p>\n
Iloski \u2014 7
\nWestfield \u2014 41
\nQ Sullivan \u2014 15<\/p>\n
Jean Jacques \u2014 4
\nVassilev \u2014 7
\nDamiani \u2014 35<\/p>\n
Vassilev \u2014 10<\/p>\n
Vassilev \u2014 4<\/p>\n
Wagner \u2014 6
\nLukic \u2014 31<\/p>\n
Harriel \u2014 8<\/p>\n
Total Minutes<\/p>\n
Appearances<\/p>\n
Starts<\/p>\n
Harriel \u2014 3,033<\/p>\n
Harriel \u2014 34
\nHarriel \u2014 34<\/p>\n
Blake \u2014 2,835
\nDamiani \u2014 33<\/p>\n
Blake \u2014 32<\/p>\n
Damiani \u2014 2,595<\/p>\n
Vassilev \u2014 33
\nDamiani \u2014 31<\/p>\n
Jean Jacques \u2014 2,574
\nBlake \u2014 32<\/p>\n
Iloski \u2014 30<\/p>\n
Iloski \u2014 2,543<\/p>\n
Lukic \u2014 32<\/p>\n
Lukic \u2014 29<\/p>\n
Lukic \u2013 2,459`<\/p>\n
Iloski \u2013 31
\nVassilev \u2013 29<\/p>\n
Jean Jacques \u2013 29<\/p>\n
Comments<\/p>\n
Kai Wagner did what he did in literally half a season. Double his assists and key passes for the roughest of estimates of what he might have done had he played the full 34 games.<\/p>\n
Neil Pierre did the same, but we doubt he would have doubled his goals as there was an element of surprise initially until warnings went around the league. Now he draws multiple defenders on set pieces.<\/p>\n
Cavan Sullivan did most of what he did after the World Cup break, after Richter had \u201cgiven him the keys\u201d to run the offense to borrow a phrase Jim Curtin used long ago.<\/p>\n
Had Milan Iloski not suffered injury at the end of the season he might have made 34 appearances with 32 or 33 starts.<\/p>\n
Two non-statistical observations<\/p>\n
First, it is extremely risky to set forth an hypothesis using a data set of two games. Were this paper one of mathematics, such behavior would be the height of intellectual irresponsibility.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That said, qualitatively by eyeball it seemed to us that Quinn Sullivan has established himself as the number three striker in coach Richter\u2019s system of play. He integrates smoothly with Iloski and\/or Damiani and provides more of an offensive threat than does Alladoh, Anello, or Jakupovic. And he defends from striker with great effectiveness.<\/p>\n
The experiment needs further repetitions before conclusions can be drawn. But early results suggest the experiment should continue.<\/p>\n
Second, Bruno Damiani is conforming to the pattern of many other players imported from foreign leagues to MLS in both the pattern and length of time it has taken him to realize success.\u00a0 The pattern has been especially true for players imported into Philadelphia. He has not become successful until 18 months after his arrival.<\/p>\n
His example suggests that all must be patient with both Ezekiel Alladoh and Augustin Anello.<\/p>\n
Usual professional conditioning levels are generally not sufficient upon arrival to enable success playing Philadelphia\u2019s system particularly for attackers. Equally or perhaps more important, exploiting chaos faster than opponents require instant, instinctive recognition and adaptation to opportunities as they arise. Developing that takes time. Remember why Daniel Gazdag chose to arrive in Philly immediately after he had signed. He knew he needed to get started right away on the assimilation process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo Kevin Barrett Major League Soccer has announced the Philadelphia Union\u2019s playoff schedule for its first round, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-328140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}