Many thanks to Curly and Strugar for their suggestions on where I might find stats on corner kicks. I am now more confused than ever because the three sites I have used don’t even agree on their stats!
In fact, the ESPN Soccernet site had Chicago winning 3-1 at Dallas with just 2 shots on goal. One of the goals was a penalty, so perhaps they don’t count that as a shot on goal. I can think of one or two players that might make sense for, come to think of it, but anyway, I guess so long as I stick to one site, any small differences will even themselves out.
So I was looking at this weekends MLS schedule, and one game that sticks out is FC Dallas v Chivas USA. Last weekend, Dallas dominated against Chicago, but lost, while Chivas were outplayed by Colorado, yet won. The prices are not yet firmed up on Betfair, (and I don’t see the games on BETDAQ at all), but the early signs are that Dallas will be available at better than evens, a bet that looks worth taking to me. The game is in-running too, so should they go ahead, the option to green-up is always available.
Hahaha, what a confussion with stats now... You know one of those magnificient Murphy's laws: if a result of calculation needs to be a straight line, then calculate only two points of that line! :)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, hope to cope with the stats! Cheers! :ok
Now I'm not the biggest follower of the MLS, because quite frankly watching it with the sound on makes me want to chew my ears off; However, (and I haven't checked this out, but I'm sure a look at the league tables from previous years would support me) no team should be below evens in the MLS. Any team can lose to any other team any day of the week, and they often do! Now ofcourse this is true in the championship, but given there are only 15 teams in the MLS it becomes rather more apparent. For instance last year the LA Galaxy had the two best players in the league (Beckham and Donovan) and still came joint last - go figure. I'm sure there's money to be made in the apparent randomness of results - I'm just not sure how, and hopefully you'll tell us all here.
ReplyDeleteCurly.
Lies, damn lies ... and statistics.
ReplyDeleteAint it da troof, aint it da troof!
PhilipH
No kidding - look at the FC Dallas v Chicago game. MLS Stats has Dallas with 20 shots, 1 on target, whereas ESPN has 10 shots, 0 on target. There's a big difference between 10 shots and 20!! As for Chicago, MLS has 11(6) and ESPN has 5(2). At least if I lose money, I have someone to blame.
ReplyDeleteCurly - like you, I have no interest in watching any of these games, it's just a statistical exercise, which is already proving a challenge. 20 shots or 10?!! Surely the standard isn't so poor that it's debatebale whether a kick was a shot or a pass is it?