Football used to be so simple！
Tokyo, December 6, 2006: When it comes to the end of the season, certain facts cannot be disputed.
Such as: Urawa Reds are the best team in Japan. After 34 games, the table cannot lie. Washington and Magno Alves were the best scorers, with 26 goals each.
But when it comes to other rankings, I must say I do not pay too much attention.
Such as: assists, and a couple I read the other day in a football publication, "goast" ranking and "goalkeeper earned run average.”
Goasts and earned run averages? Is this football or baseball? More of those two later.
Regarding assists, I am sorry but I just don't rate this statistic because it relies on the scorer, not the player who gets the assist、so it is not a true reflection.
For example, a midfield player dribbles past five players, plays a wonderful pass to his striker, and the striker misses. No goal and therefore no assist.
On the other hand, a player makes a short pass across the field to a teammate, who lashes the ball into the top corner of the net from 30 metres. A great goal, and the player who passed the ball five metres to the scorer is credited with an assist.
This is why I think an assist ranking is unfair, as it depends on the goal scored, not on the creative talents of a player. I am not saying players who lead assist rankings are not talented; of course they are, but their ranking depends on the people who score the goals, not on themselves.
The "goast" ranking includes goals and assists, therefore “goast”, which is quite clever! I have seen this before in ice hockey, but never in football, and, like assists themselves, from a British perspective it is a very North American concept.
Out of interest, Juninho and Washington led the goast ranking with 31 points (20 goals and 11 assists for the Frontale man, and 26 goals plus five assists for the big Brazilian).
And so to goalkeeper earned run average. This is the number of goals conceded by a keeper, in relation to matches played. Interesting, but way too American for my liking!
Oh, football used to be so simple! Urawa Reds 3 Gamba Osaka 2. That is the only statistic I need to know.
ends
The comments to this entry are closed.
Comments