We might be called "Away From The Numbers", but we do love to devour a good stat or two here at AFTN Towers.
With a bit of time to kill we started to have a look at the Castrol Index for this 2012 MLS season and it makes for some interesting reading.
We didn't really pay too much attention to it last year to be honest, but that was more down to the dreadful season that the Caps were having rather than lack of interest. We didn't need to be depressed more than we already were as to just how bad some of our players were!
There's been some fanfare this year around Castrol updating the index weekly for the 2012 season as opposed to monthly. With the latest update coming this morning, we thought it was worth a more regular look.
It's both confusing and captivating for stattos everywhere.
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You have to be of a certain anal mindset to get enjoyment from such things, well that's us in a nutshell!
Some of it has you nodding your head in agreement, whilst other parts of it just makes no sense at all. Much like the MLS Power Rankings if truth be told.
A prime example, to us at least, of how some of it just doesn't add up came in week one. Chris Wondolowski scored the match winning goal in San Jose's 1-0 win over New England, but this only saw him in the 92nd spot of the table. Huh?
It's more about passing accuracy and overall team contribution than just goals scored, or so we're told. Looking at some of the Whitecaps stats, that doesn't seem to fully add up, but more on that later.
For those that don't know much about the Castrol Index, and even those of you that do, just how does it all work?
We're not even going to try and explain that one ourselves, so here's the official blurb:
<i>"Castrol's team of performance analysts will use the latest technology to objectively analyze every match in the MLS season, logging an average of 1800 player movements per match.
The Castrol Index tracks every move on the field and assesses whether it has a positive or negative impact on a team's ability to score or concede a goal and a key factor for all areas of performance in the Castrol Index is which zone on the pitch the action takes place."</i>
For an even better clarification, here's the official video:
<center> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/FpPt8rOJXJw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>
The Castrol Index was first introduced during the 2008 Euros and soon became a mainstay in the English Premiership, Spain’s La Liga, Italy’s Serie A and the UEFA Champions League. It then made it's mark on the global scene at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
At the end of the day, does it actually mean a lot more than just being a glorified 'Player of the Season' award?
Football is a team game after all, and unless you have a well oiled complete starting eleven, individual talent counts for very little.
The winner of last year's Castrol Index was Chris Wondolowski. He may have finished top of the heap and banged in a lot of goals, but his San Jose Earthquakes finished 14th overall in the MLS standings and missed the playoffs by eight points.
Only Omar Gonzalez finished in the top ten placings for MLS Cup winners Los Angeles Galaxy, and he finished fourth.
You could bring Messi to a team in Major League Soccer, and he might win the Castrol Index, but unless the rest of the quality is there in his team, then it's not going to guarantee them making the playoffs.
You just have to look at how much New York struggled last season, scraping in on the last playoff spot despite some of the talent in their side. Thierry Henry even finished third in the 2011 Castrol Index.
One of the aspects that I do find interesting with the whole Index is that it's not just all about the goalscorers or the big name stars of the team. You need to make a huge contribution to your overall team to make an impact, and that's a good message to get across to young players the world over.
Seven of last year's Top Ten were defenders, and apart from Thierry Henry, many MLS fans would be hard pushed to pick the other nine players out of a line-up.
So if we take it all with a pinch of salt, how are the Whitecaps players doing in the latest rankings?
The Caps had two players in the Top Ten at the end of week one (Joe Cannon and Camilo). Since then, despite all the clean sheets, only Cannon has featured in the Top Ten and he has remained there every week, currently sitting in 8th position.
The Whitecaps only have four players in the whole Top 100, with only Jay DeMerit making it there from our back four. It all seems a bit crazy, or maybe our players aren't as good as we thought they were.
Sebastien Le Toux is 145th and Eric Hassli, despite the general consensus being that he is contributing so much to other areas of the team than in the scoring department, is 202nd. Even Matt Watson features higher than him!
When you start to look at all those aspects of it, it all seems to become a little bit ridiculous. It's tempting to say farcical, but hey technology can't lie!
You can check out the full standings of all the Whitecaps <a href="http://www.mlssoccer.com/castrol/index?teamId=1708'>http://www.mlssoccer.com/castrol/index?teamId=1708" target="_blank">HERE</a>.
Want to follow where your favourite player is in the rankings? Or see how our opposition players are shaping up? Then you can view the full Index every week <a href=" http://www.mlssoccer.com/castrol/index" target="_blank">HERE</a>.
It might not mean much in the grand scheme of things, and some of it seems to be just stuff and nonsense, but it's certainly an interesting bit of fun to while away some time on a rainy afternoon.
Or maybe I just need to step away from the laptop a bit more often.
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