Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Record at Home

The Wizards dropped two more points at home last Saturday night when they drew with the Galaxy 1-1. Compared to last year, the Wizards are struggling at home this year. The Wizards are 3-3-3 at home this season, earning them 1.33 points per game when they play at Community America through 9 games. Compared to the rest of the league at home, the Wizards are tied for the 3rd worst points per home game (PPHG) record so far this season, with Dallas and San Jose. Only New York (1 point per game at home) and surprisingly, Chicago (1.25 points per home game, but 5-1-4 on the road) have a worse record at home. Below is the current PPHG for each team along with their points and the number of home games they've played.


points Played PPHG
New York 9 9 1
Chicago 10 8 1.25
SJ 12 9 1.33
Dallas 12 9 1.33
KC 12 9 1.33
LA 13 9 1.44
Toronto 18 11 1.64
RSL 18 9 2
Houston 18 9 2
Seattle 22 11 2
Colorado 18 9 2
New England 14 7 2
Chivas 19 9 2.11
DC 19 9 2.11
Columbus 22 10 2.2



Coach Onalfo has preached in weekly press conferences that he wants the team to average 2 points at home this season and 1 on the road. So far the team isn't even close to that total, and would actually need to win their remaining home games this season to average 2 points per home game this season.

The question is, why are the Wizards not doing as well this season as they did last year at CAB? There are probably a couple reasons. The first reason probably has to do with most teams now having played a game at CAB and knowing more of what to expect when they come to KC. The other issue has to do with how the team plays. From interviews that Thad and I have done with players they say that their style of play isn't really suited to the field dimensions at CAB.

My question in response to that, is why is the team not playing a style that is conducive to the place where you play most of your games? You would think that Onalfo would have created a game plan and style of play that would allow the Wizards to exploit their smaller field when playing teams that are used to a bigger field. The strategy worked well for the original San Jose Earthquakes when they played at Spartan Stadium. Sure, it's probably not as attractive a style of play, but it gets the results.

8 comments:

Reepicheep said...

Worthy question. This is the kind of thing that baffles me about Onalfo.

Anonymous said...

Did something change with the styling of your site? The text is very small now on a 1600x1200 screen.

Mike said...

It happened because of the pasting in of that table, I've been working on trying to fix it.

Mike said...

I've got it looking bigger at least for the moment. This will unfortunately be an issue until this posts gets off the "front page". I'll continue to mess with it to see if I can get it back to "normal".

PVFC said...

The lack of width has been bugging me a lot this year. It seems that they could add 3 yards to the outfield side and just make it a tight corner down by the C Lopez Time Warner Banner. Is the field short as well?

Dallas FC game a must win Saturday? I think so, we have to get 3 off teams that appear even worse than we are at this point to have any chance of getting to the playoffs.

Anonymous said...

Dude, blaming the field? Or excusing our lack of play bc of the field? Home field advantage should be from playing and training at your own field, you have a playbook adapted to your field, bc you're used to the weather, you have the fans on your side and the other team has travelled and is more tired than your team.
It's basically the lack of play and a lousy system.
In smaller pitches, you have to crowd the midfield and use FWs that can move well inside the box, shoot in uncomfortable positions. Bigger fields dictate faster wings and fwds and a mid that can make long or short passes.
Onalfo uses the same system (or non-system) and basically the same formation in any stadium and against any team.
But with

Mike said...

I'm not blaming the field. I'm blaming the chosen tactics because of the field size. You're description of what to do on a smaller field is exactly what KC should be doing, but they continue to try to use the wings, which at times baffles me.

Anonymous said...

Good to know we're on the same page. But then, it all goes back to coaching and the play system. Hopefully Onalfo figures those things out and starts to adjust the formation and tactics to the opposition and field we're playing in, and not just go with the same every game. It's either now or forget about the season.