Marginal Goal Analysis - Los Angeles Galaxy

Since my latest projection has Los Angeles winning the MLS Cup, I thought that it was time to do a marginal goal analysis for the Galaxy.  Here are the results for players with significant playing time through their 21 MLS matches:

Player	Primary Position	Minutes	GS	GA	GS90	GA90	GD90	MGS90	MGA90	MGD90
Todd Dunivant	D	1890	27	16	1.286	0.762	0.524	-0.006	-0.008	0.003
Sean Franklin	D	1664	24	15	1.298	0.811	0.487	0.007	0.041	-0.035
Juninho	M	1638	22	13	1.209	0.714	0.495	-0.083	-0.056	-0.027
Omar Gonzalez	D	1609	24	11	1.342	0.615	0.727	0.051	-0.155	0.206
A.J. DeLaGarza	D	1547	22	14	1.280	0.814	0.465	-0.011	0.044	-0.056
David Beckham	M	1338	20	11	1.345	0.740	0.605	0.054	-0.030	0.084
Juan Pablo Angel	F	1312	18	13	1.235	0.892	0.343	-0.057	0.122	-0.178
Mike Magee	M	1205	20	8	1.494	0.598	0.896	0.202	-0.172	0.375
Chris Birchall	M	1203	16	12	1.197	0.898	0.299	-0.094	0.128	-0.222
Chad Barrett	F	1182	16	11	1.218	0.838	0.381	-0.073	0.068	-0.141
Landon Donovan	F	1154	18	7	1.404	0.546	0.858	0.112	-0.224	0.337
Miguel López	M	896	14	4	1.406	0.402	1.004	0.115	-0.368	0.483

Miguel Lòpez has the highest MGD90 and MGA90 scores of any player I've rated so far.  When he's on the field, the Galaxy shuts down their opponents.  He also has been an effective contributor to their offense.  Sticking out like a sore thumb is Chris Birchall's stat line.  When he is on the field, the Galaxy are at their least effective both at scoring goals and preventing goals.  I think that giving more midfield playing time to Lòpez and more bench time to Birchall will make the Galaxy a stronger team.  Birchall may be getting more bench time anyway after this vicious tackle.

Of the three teams I have rated (Real Salt Lake and New York the others), only LA has three players (Lòpez, Mike Magee and Landon Donovan) with MGD90's above 0.300.  I'm especially pleased to see the high rating for Donovan who is generally considered the best player in the MLS.  To me this is validation that marginal goals are an effective way to measure a player's contribution to his team.



MLS Weekend Wrap Up and Midweek Predictions

To quote another famous writer, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" for the MLS this weekend.  The best of times were on Saturday night which featured a showdown between two of the best teams in the league, Los Angeles and New York.  Each team is led by a superstar, Landon Donovan for LA and Thierry Henry for New York. Both Henry (video) and Donovan (video) scored in the match which ended up in a 1-1 draw. 

The worst of times featured a serious injury to Real Salt Lake midfielder Javier Morales.  Hopefully the casual fans who tuned in for the LA/New York match didn't also watch the three 0-0 draws that were played earlier in the day.

There are three midweek games on Wednesday.  Here are my predictions for the trio:

Philadelphia 1 Los Angeles 0
FC Dallas 3 Toronto FC 1
Vancouver 2 San Jose 2

After the jump I will review my predictions from last weekend.