yo dawg i heard you like xG race charts & pass networks

Pass Network and Expected Goal (xG) Race Charts are nifty data visuals that summarize games from a high level. Pass Networks show the average position of players (thus truer team shapes) while xG Race Charts show the flow of games by number and quality of chances created.

I’m gonna drop these each week as soon as all data visuals are uploaded, which hopefully is earlier than Wednesdays. Anyway, these are always fun and can highlight a number of dope things (welcome back Mal) and yikesy things (Fran Alonso, Spirit).

So, here they go.

kc current 5-4 portland thorns

The wildest game of the weekend unsurprisingly looks so in the race chart. Kansas City dominated the first half, and despite still tacking on goals in the second, Portland was catching up.

Gonna wildly speculate that KC’s final pass network was impacted by Debinha’s injury, and with her leading the press they were straight up terrorizing the Thorns backline. The pass network also shows the LaBonta/Hutton/DiBernardo vs Moultrie/Coffey/Fleming midfield battle royale.

rahsing louisville 2-2 orlando pride

It clearly took the Pride a while to get going, but also extremely interesting to see how much they closed the gap, and ultimately equalized, after Kylie Strom’s 62nd minute red card dismissal for a second yellow (a ridiculous decision imo).

I love this pass network, it’s so chaotic. Louisville’s midfield was super deep, relying on counters and DeMelo drawing fouls to push them up the pitch. Meanwhile, Orlando threw a bunch of players forward but still not really near the box. A focal point like the incoming Barbra Banda will help, but in the meantime this is hilarious.

nc courage 5-1 houston dash

Welcome to the NWSL, Fran Alonso. It was probably never going to go well for a first-time coach in the NWSL going up against one of the few teams with coaching stability and a sharp attacking style of play. Still, Alonso made curious decisions that certainly resulted in things getting even worse.

Like, my guy, what exactly was the plan with this XI and formation? The NWSL is not an easy league to coach in so there’s fairly steep learning curve, but Alonso’s next game is going to tell us a lot about what he has or hasn’t learned.

utah royals 0-2 chicago red stars

This game is why I like the xG race charts so much. While watching it didn’t seem like Chicago were ever out of control for long stretches, but that was likely informed by familiarity with an in-form Alyssa Naeher and the way Lorne Donaldson wants his teams to play. But it took a a goal against the run of play and a highlight reel of saves from Naeher to keep the shutout.

The barely connected passing lines are straight up LorneBall. His teams defend first to make it extremely difficult for the opposition to gain traction in the middle of the pitch (which can be seen in the sparse passing lines to and from Utah midfielders).

Naeher had a terrific game and Mal Swanson carried the bulk of the attack, one of those things is probably more reliable than the other, so it will be interesting to see how Donaldson continues to tweak and strengthen his midfield [insert chants for Leilanni Nesbeth].

seattle reign 1-0 washington spirit

Oh my gracious. Yikes. Heavens. Mercy. Deary me.

This game was kind of funny because it was the Spirit being haunted by a variation of the formation they used last year (442). There was a lot of talk about the Spirit’s coaching hires which signaled a shift in how they were going to play, and Laura Harvey said ‘ok cool well we’ll see’ then Harved the shit out of them.

The pen in the first 15 seconds was a gift to their intended gameplan, but even so, the Spirit had their own struggles. Krueger at CB was not the best utilization of her, and unfortunately it took an injury to rookie Kate Wiesner on her debut to get Krueger back at fullback.

Their midfield was squeezed and they didn’t have the wide dribbly players to force Seattle’s midfield to expand. Instead, they largely kept doing the same things, which could pay off later as a learning opportunity. But in the meantime, I say again: yikes.

angel city 0-1 bay fc

Gotta feel for Angel City. Getting zero goals from 2.42xG is tough, and you can see how much more of the game they dominated after halftime. Soccer be soccering sometimes y’all.

Brand new teams playing with one another for the first time always require patience and time to build cohesion and familiarity, so I’m not worried about Bay FC. In fact, you sign a player like Asisat Oshoala to do exactly what she did (turn opposition mistakes into goals), and it ultimately won them a game they kinda had no business winning.

But I gotta shoutout 17-year-old Kennedy Fuller. She was at the U17 Concacaf W Championship in February, signed for Angel City this month, was in the first starting XI, and balled tf out. From midfield, Fuller was responsible for 1.42 of Angel City’s overall 2.42xG, with 1.04 from shots, and .38 from key passes.

Ok sorry my plan was to keep this to pass networks and race charts but Bay FC keeper Lysianne Proulx balled so mf’n hard that I gotta share this.

GSAA is goals saved above average, which measures performance against a baseline of stats that represent an average goalkeeper. In her debut Proulx saved 1.99 post shot expected goals (PSxG). Post shot speaks to the placement and quality of the strike, that the number is that high is absurd, and shows that she made some absolutely unreal stops.

Only two of the seven shots that required saving came from (just) outside of the box, with the rest being at the penalty spot or below. There are also two massive PSxG chances, one .60 and another .83(!!). And it didn’t matter. No goals were scored on Lysianne Proulx that day.

It’s one game but Proulx’s absurd debut performance, chaotic interpretation of a keeper kit, and face tatt has her high on my list of favorite keepers already.

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