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We're just about at the half-way mark of the 2016 campaign with Dallas sitting comfortably in the standings in second place overall, tied with Colorado with 28 points (Colorado has 2 games in hand). And despite having played more games than most clubs, FC Dallas' points per game rate is third best in the league at 1.75.
That's all fine and all, but is this club doing better than they were previously? Is Fabian Castillo on a decline? What about Mauro Diaz? Who have been the club's top performers so far? I look into a few of these things with a quick statistical breakdown below.
Record by Year
Wins | Losses | Draws | Points | |
2014 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 21 |
2015 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 23 |
2016 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 28 |
It's certainly interesting to note that each year, this club has performed better than the previous under Oscar Pareja's helm through the first 16 matches. Obviously, this isn't a total apples to apples comparison since the schedule is unbalanced, but it is what we have for now.
Home Record by Year
Wins | Losses | Draws | Points | |
2014 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 19 |
2015 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 13 |
2016 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 18 |
Road Record by Year
Wins | Losses | Draws | Points | |
2014 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
2015 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 9 |
2016 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 10 |
FC Dallas continues to hold strong within the confines of Toyota Stadium, but the biggest improvements have been with their road performances over the years. I'm sure there are moments where that doesn't feel like the case, but Dallas being able to pick up 3 wins and a draw is huge in this league.
Statistical Leaders
Here the team's leaders in some major statistical categories:
Goal Scorer:
and
Assists:
Key Passes:
Completed Passes (min 800 minutes):
Take-Ons (min 800 minutes):
Tackles (min 800 minutes):
Interceptions (min 800 minutes):
Offensive Weapons
Of all the weapons this team possesses, Mauro Diaz and Fabian Castillo have been the most consistent mainstays on this club in terms of their role and usage. (Tesho Akindele has been around for the past three years too, but his role has shifted quite a lot from starter, to sub and from second striker to lone striker... making his statistics a bit difficult to compare.)
Diaz and Castillo are not always in the same position or used in the same way, but for a bulk of their minutes, they're usually occupying the same CAM and LW spots respectively with the same task of attack, attack, attack. Here's how the two have fared this year compared to the last two seasons.
Mauro Diaz | GP | Min | Goals | Shots | Assists | Key Passes |
2014 | 8 | 646 | 3 | 14 | 2 | 16 |
2015 | 12 | 959 | 2 | 20 | 3 | 19 |
2016 | 11 | 874 | 2 | 20 | 4 | 27 |
Fabian Castillo | GP | Min | Goals | Shots | Assists | Key Passes |
2014 | 16 | 1395 | 4 | 41 | 1 | 6 |
2015 | 15 | 1283 | 5 | 39 | 4 | 12 |
2016 | 16 | 1264 | 3 | 33 | 3 | 16 |
So what do you guys think of all this? Is there anything that surprises you? Which stat do you feel is misleading and not telling the full story?