Accuracy Is Precisely the Point
If Tiger Woods putted as badly as Major League Soccer players strike the ball, golf would have been set back decades.
If Peyton Manning’s arm exhibited the same lack of accuracy as MLS forwards and midfielders, the NFL would never have come calling.
And if Chivas USA and the Galaxy don’t start doing something about it, they both might as well take up golf. Or even that other kind of football.
On Saturday night, the teams combined for 30 shots in a game at the Home Depot Center that the Galaxy eventually won, 2-0.
Sixteen of them were off target.
The ball flew high. The ball flew wide. For most of the match, the ball flew everywhere but where it is supposed to -- into the net. Or at least into the hands of the goalkeeper.
This was to be expected from Chivas USA, which came into the match averaging a league-low nine shots per game. Of the 93 shots it has taken in its existence, only 31 (or 33%) have been on target.
The Galaxy fares better. The team is ranked second in the league behind FC Dallas, but its shooting accuracy is still below 50%, with only 68 of 138 shots taken requiring a save.
It isn’t this way in Europe, at least not in the top leagues. There, players not only strike the ball with much greater power but also with a lot more accuracy.
Billy McNicol, the Scotland-born assistant coach of the Galaxy, believes he knows why.
“I think the fans overseas are a little bit more demanding in terms of getting the ultimate purpose of play, which is scoring goals,” he said shortly before Saturday’s kickoff.
“I think over here there tends to be a little bit more of [players waiting to] pick the right place. That’s not all wrong, given the climatic conditions they have here, and [the emphasis on the youth level of] teaching kids how to enjoy the game.
“However, at the high levels over there, the purpose is to beat the opponent.
“I also think the European long-ball game, the direct game, is also seen as a negative, which is sad because ... I think modern soccer allows you to mix it up. But for years we all suffered from the stigma of, ‘The British just thump it and chase it.’ Well, the British don’t do that. Liverpool showed they can knock it around” while winning the European Champions League.
“Over here, they think it’s still OK to enjoy the ball, whereas the British fans, in particular, love that end-to-end stuff,” McNicol added. “They come every Saturday to be entertained, and the way you entertain them is to rattle it into that box and try to find goals.”
Both teams rattled it all right Saturday, but whether the announced 20,916 fans on hand were entertained is debatable. Consider this:
For the Galaxy, Peter Vagenas, Paulo Nagamura, Todd Dunivant, Guillermo Ramirez, Jovan Kirovski and Naldo all contrived to miss the net during the 90 minutes. Defender Pablo Chinchilla showed how it should be done with a well-taken header off a Kirovski corner kick for his first MLS goal, and Vagenas made up for his miss with a second-half goal.
For Chivas USA, the miscues came from Francisco Mendoza, Isaac Romo, Ezra Hendrickson and Ramon Ramirez, the latter twice sending free kicks over the crossbar.
No one made up for those misses.
“If you don’t take shots, you’re never going to score,” McNicol said.
True enough, but a little more time spent in learning how to put a round ball on a rectangular frame might come in useful.
Not only in Los Angeles, but leaguewide.
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Target practice
The leaders for the Galaxy and Chivas USA in shooting accuracy, with total shots, shots on goal, and percentage (ranked by shots taken):
*--* GALAXY Player Shots SOG Pct. Guillermo Ramirez 33 16 485 Jovan Kirovski 27 11 407 Chris Albright 15 6 400 Landon Donovan 14 10 714 Cobi Jones 11 5 455 CHIVAS USA Player Shots SOG Pct. Thiago Martins 20 8 400 Hector Cuadros 16 5 313 Ramon Ramirez 11 2 182 Isaac Romo 8 3 375 Douglas Sequeira 6 1 167 Matt Taylor 6 1 167
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Note: The Galaxy is .493 as a team (68 of 138); Chivas USA is .333 (31 of 93)
