A few Manchester United footballers got together for an informal goal challenge during the tail end of the Premier League season to see who had the best goal accuracy. Wayne Rooney, Nani, Chris Smalling, Javier Hernandez and Edwin van der Sar...
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Limp-wristed gentleman bemuses Americans Gary Neville was given the honour of throwing the first pitch at a Chicago White Sox baseball game as he promotes Manchester United's forthcoming American tour. Unfortunately, it turns out that Nev's throwing accuracy is on par with his shooting. And his throwing action is on par with a Graham Norton [.

Ever since I started calculating shot to goal ratios as well as conversion and accuracy ratios of teams' offensive (and defensive) production, I've been concerned that these ratios do not tell the full story of what happens on the field. Conversion, you may remember, is the ratio of goals to shots on target - that is, how many of the high quality chances teams generated actually resulted in goals: how good teams are at finishing.

Ever since I started calculating shot to goal ratios as well as conversion and accuracy ratios of teams' offensive (and defensive) production, I've been concerned that these ratios do not tell the full story of what happens on the field. Conversion, you may remember, is the ratio of goals to shots on target - that is, how many of the high quality chances teams generated actually resulted in goals: how good teams are at finishing.

The Role of Shots in Goal Scoring

One of the factors that distinguishes soccer from nearly every sport is the relative rarity of scoring events. This has significant implications in many different contexts, including tactical decisions, player evaluation, tournament organization, and so on. And in particular it has implications for statistical analysis of the game.

Check out my post on the New York Times Goal blog here. Enjoy!

This goal is so sensationally good it's hard to comprehend as the angle which that ball needed to take required an unfathomable amount of accuracy, weight and trajectory, as despite the keeper being a buffoon for coming so far off his line, the goal was so very nearly saved.

This is arguably the best own-half goal these eyes have ever seen if just for that reason: how often do they come so close to being saved?

Here's another analysis of shot creation in the Premier League. This time, I'm looking into the creation of accurate shots from one specific kind of situation: open play.
From the earlier analyses, we already know the following basic facts from the first half of this year's EPL season, based on data from the Opta/Guardian chalkboards.

Goals don't just happen - they are made. Both on offense and defense, teams control how they deploy their resources (speak: players) on the pitch, and they make tactical choices about how to attack and defend. Some rely more on fast breaks, while others try to create or avoid chances from open play. So this means that goals are created and allowed.

The Union won an important road point in their 1–1 draw with the defending MLS champion Colorado Rapids on Saturday. It's probably safe to say that many Union fans, myself included, thought Philadelphia had a real shot at a win. Danny Mwanga said after the game that the dodgy PK call served as a motivator for the team.

Why didn't the Union earn three points at home against Real Salt Lake? Peter Nowak told reporters after the game that "We talked in the locker room about pushing for a second goal. That was my point to the guys...We gave [Real Salt Lake] a chance to come back and in one shot, that's it, the game is over.

Featured image: Paul Rudderow

When I was gathering the season stats for all of the Philadelphia Union players to share with the PSP writers for our forthcoming 2011 season review series I realized no passing stats were available, either for the club or for individual players. Actually, that's not precisely true; you can find passing percentages for the team on a game-by-game basis by clicking on the Stat tab for each game's MatchCenter page at MLSsoccer.

Cani he kick it? Yes, he can! Cani's favourite hobby used to be throwing plastic bottles. But last week he discovered that he was actually a terrible shot, having missed Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho from point-blank range. This week he decided to try his hand at football instead. And it turns out his accuracy [.

It was only 24 hours ago when I logged onto my Twitter to be greeted with the message ‘How do you feel about Bent going to Villa Claire?'

WTF? Darren Bent going to Villa? OUR Darren Bent? It may as well have read ‘how do you feel about molesting small children Claire?!'

I didn't see it coming and it sure as hell looked like I was the only one who didn't.

There has been lots of talk this year that Manchester United aren't playing the most beautiful or inspiring football, but that they owe their table position instead to playing well week in and week out. Really well, mind you, at least according to some of the metrics I've looked at, but they're not necessarily no.

MLSsoccer.com BETA (now with Opta)

Project Ramos represents the continuing evolution of MLSsoccer.com with improvements in many areas, including:

1) Improved homepage navigation, with direct links to our most popular content sections at the bottom of every page and new content sections so that you can see all articles in a particular series on one page.

Sports parent alert?

What would seemingly be the product of the maniacal machinations of the PR department deep down seems anything but, and it's quite frightening.

That one year old 'phenom' who can put his toys away, basically? He just signed a ten year deal with VVV Venlo.

Image from http://www.ussoccer.com

I know, I know...it's called football. I'm with you all on that, but sometimes doesn't a spot of alliteration just sound good despite it's accuracy to the sport that we love? Ok, you're right...that was inexcusable and I apologize.

You may have read my post last week about my buddy and I planning our trip to the World Cup in 2014.

The Rajko Lekic transfer saga was sort of the launching pad for this blog. As I was feverishly sifting through badly-translated Danish transfer rumors and posting hour-by-hour updates on his trial and the ensuing negotiations, I reached some of the greatest peaks in visitors and views that I've yet experienced in the short time I have been running The Bent Musket.

Former Liverpool striker David Hodgson believes Kenny Dalglish is the sort of father figure who can bring the best out of Jordan Henderson.
Hodgson, who played for the Reds 49 times in the early 80s, arrived at Anfield from a north-east club as an England U21 international, just as Henderson has.

Spain's Adrian. Showing promise in a number of areas. Image: Getty Images/Zimbio.

Ok, we've managed to work out that there's no quarter final stage in this tourney. Which may or may not help the accuracy of our reporting. Apparently, the top two teams from each of the two groups progress directly through to the semi-final stage, making the final group matches being held this weekend kind of important.

By Walter Broeckx Who was the best passing team? Who had the most accuracy in shooting on goal? How many shots where on goal? How many of those ended up at the back of the net? We just keep on finding answers for your questions. If it comes to passing the ball around you all [...]

Spain's u-21′s continued the Countries domination of International soccer as they beat Switzerland 2-0 in last nights Final in Aahus Denmark.

Thiago scored a 40 yard free-kick one which showed his great vision and accuracy with the shot, Anders Herrera scored the opener when he headed home from close range five minutes before half-time, before Thiago's cracker settled the tie with just under ten minutes on the clock.

Out of favour Tottenham striker Giovani Dos Santos once again proved his worth for Mexico after he helped his country overcome the United States 4-2 in the CONCAF Gold Cup final.

Trailing 2-0 after a poor start, Mexico rallied back with aplomb and a double strike by Pablo Barrera either side of by a goal by midfielder Jose Guardado put the Mexicans back in control at the at the Rose Bowl.

By Chris Wright

In which Chile midfielder Jorge Valdivia takes out Uruguay's Alvaro Gonzalez's quickly and efficiently by punting a free-kick directly into his dangly bits with dead-eye accuracy...

The kind of sickening, dull thud that only chaps can truly understand the eye-watering gravity of.

By Chris Wright

In which Chile midfielder Jorge Valdivia takes out Uruguay's Alvaro Gonzalez's quickly and efficiently by punting a free-kick directly into his dangly bits with dead-eye accuracy...

The kind of sickening, dull thud that only chaps can truly understand the eye-watering gravity of.

In the next installment of "what happened last season in the Premier League?", here are season totals on teams' defensive prowess. Much has been made of Arsenal's inability to defend well and its need to improve defense during this transfer window. But the numbers tell a slightly different story - at least in part.

In Chicago on Wednesday night, it was another ugly showing by the Union.

In 90 minutes of play, the Union managed one shot on goal. Fortunately, Veljko Paunovic made no mistake with the shot. Recording three shots on goal in six appearances, he has now scored two goals.

With a little time away from the emotions of the match, it is perhaps easier to accept that a point on the road is a good thing (even if three points are what should be expected when the Union plays one of its games in hand against a last place team).

Nike's latest release comes in the form of a completely redesigned boot for the modern day striker the T90 Laser IV. You are going to see top players like Wayne Rooney and Wesley Sneijder sporting this new range in the coming weeks.

Focused on adapting to the technical demands and movement of a highly mobile striker the new T90 Laser IV is 20% lighter than the previous version and features a streamlined silhouette that provides enhanced fit and feel on the ball.

Photo: Earl Gardner

The Union midfield has been called one of the weaker parts of the team this season. What does the data suggest though? Specifically, I wanted to answer two questions about the midfield: How does the midfield fare in terms of passing percentages? And are better midfield passing percentages associated with Union wins?

Editor's note: The MLS partnership with Opta Sports has resulted in richer ways to understand the performance of the Philadelphia Union and its players through statistical analysis. PSP's efforts to collect and share match statistics have been enhanced by the deeper analysis offered by Ford Bohrmann.

A new year and a chance to leave behind the less than impressive away form so far this season. We managed to come away with a 2-1 win against West Brom in the first match of the new year. Only our second away win this season. Couple of impressions:

1. Gary Neville no longer inspires any kind of confidence.

I have occasionally written about defensive production in terms of how many goals, shots, or shots on goal teams allow in a match. One of the best of these measures, so far as I can tell, is whether a team allows their opponents to place accurate shots on goal. If you think about it, allowing an opponent to shoot is one thing - anyone can sling the ball in the general direction of the other side - but only accurate shots have a chance of actually crossing the goal line.

The Nike Elites are finally available! We know you've been waiting for them so here's a quick overview of the newest Nike Elite cleats. T90 Laser Elite III Ideal for when it comes to power and accuracy, the new Nike Total 90 Laser III Elite features a carbon fiber sole plate and Electric Green colorway.

Has added the goals to the number 10 again

By that I mean the scoreline. Had our players been more lethal, they could have easily shattered the Premiership record for highest number of goals in a game. The statistics tells us that we had 24 shots on goal and 63% of the possession. Only 10 of those were on target, yet we only managed to make Wigan pick out the ball from the next 3 times.

In case you were wondering how your favorite league compares on various metrics with the other big leagues of soccer, below is a quick graph of accuracy ratios (defined as the ratio of shots on target to all shots taken) across the Bundesliga, EPL, La Liga, and Serie A as of the end of the calendar year (roughly halfway through the season).

Following up on my post about shot creation versus shot conversion as measures of offensive production (see also the On Football post), here's a quick and dirty analysis of Premier League teams' ability to degrade opponents' shot frequency (measured by shots allowed) and shot accuracy (the ratio of shots on target to shots allowed).

Several levels of failure.

[The Spoiler]

• Blame it on the post, man. (Fisted Away)
• Crossing the pond. (Left Back In The Changing Room)
• Women and Polish football. (IBWM)
• Pondering the insanity. (The DA)
• Good, sound lesson. (WSC)
• Game over.

Of the players in the current England squad, it makes sense that he should be captain for tonight's game against Denmark. But why is he playing in this match in the first place? Why is he even in the squad? We know what Lampard offers for England: a pale imitation of the player he is at club level, and at the moment he isn't even performing for Chelsea.

Manchester United's Berbatov leads the scoring charts but Manchester City's Tevez is the better all-round player.

Carlos Tevez has been involved in more goals than any other player in the Premier League this season, having scored 18 times and delivered five assists.

Tevez may trail Berbatov by one goal in the scoring department, but it's the Argentine who is more of a threat in all departments of the game.