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Houston Dynamo: How good is Will Bruin?

This week we take a closer look at Will Bruin with a comparison to the top scoring forwards for each team. How does he rank when compared to players like Marco Di Vaio, Camilo Sanvezzo or Robbie Keane?

We love him here in Houston, but how does he stack up to the rest of the league's top forwards?
We love him here in Houston, but how does he stack up to the rest of the league's top forwards?
Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Statistics by themselves do not tell the entire story, but they do tell a story. It is that story which Francisco and I are trying to tell, in order that all of us may get a clearer picture at what may be going on with the team. The story is not always pretty sunshine and roses. Sometimes it is more like rain and thorns, but I digress.

This week, Francisco has updated the +/- to include Away and Home comparisons, and also has done a ton more legwork in helping to paint a clearer picture about our beloved Dancing Bear. Author's note: even if Bruin will not continue to use the Dancing Bear name, we here at Dynamo Theory will forever refer to him as Dancing Bear as it is our duty to ensure the Dancing Bear never goes away. We love our Dancing Bear.

Overall

Home

Away




Hall-2790(+2)

Hall-1350(+10)

Hall-1440(-8)

Sarkodie-2678(+2)

Sarkodie-1247(+9)

Sarkodie-1431(-7)

Boswell-2560(+4)

Boswell-1300(+12)

Boswell-1260(-8)

Bruin-2335(+1)

Bruin-1117(+7)

Bruin-1218(-6)

Ashe-2315(+4)

Ashe-1260(+12)

Ashe-1055(-8)

Barnes-2305(-2)

Barnes-1078(+8)

Barnes-1227(-10)

Rico-2248(+6)

Rico-1180(+11)

Rico-1068(-5)

Taylor-2052(+11)

Taylor-955(+15)

Taylor-1097(-4)

Moffat-1947(+2)

Moffat-898(+7)

Moffat-1049(-5)

Davis-1940(+3)

Davis-1001(+9)

Davis-939(-6)

Garcia-1719(+11)

Garcia-990(+11)

Garcia-729(even)

Driver-1598(-4)

Driver-631(-1)

Driver-967(-3)

Creavalle-1383(-2)

Creavalle-681(+6)

Creavalle-702(-8)

Brunner-709(-3)

Brunner-395(-1)

Brunner-314(-2)

Weaver-689(+2)

Weaver-294(+1)

Weaver-395(+1)

JJ-428(-4)

JJ-140(-2)

JJ-288(-2)

Ching-232(+1)

Ching-88(even)

Ching-144(+1)

Cummings-163(+1)

Cummings-97(+2)

Cummings-66(-1)

Chabala-158(-4)

Chabale-80(-2)

Chabala-78(-2)

Camargo-108(-1)

Camargo-14(even)

Camargo-94(-1)

Lopez-88(-4)

Lopez-60(-2)

Lopez-28(-2)

Arena-70(even)

Arena-0(even)

Arena-70(even)

Ownby-52(-1)

Ownby-30(-1)

Ownby-22(even)

Carrasco-25(+1)

Carrasco-7(+1)

Carrasco-18(even)

Dixon-19(-1)

Dixon-7(even)

Dixon-12(-1)

The table above is sorted top to bottom by minutes played, and in parenthesis is the +/- for each player. This has been adjusted to represent Friday's match against Montreal Impact, wherein the Starting XI all improved by +1 and nobody else moved.

One of the most glaring pieces of information I glean from the table is we are clearly superior at home, but struggle away. This is not news to anyone who has followed the team this season, but is interesting to see it statistically align with what we had all known to be the case. A large portion of the stretch where we were without Brad Davis, Boniek Garcia and Jermaine Taylor is also reflected in this breakdown as the majority of those games were away from BBVA Compass Stadium.

Ok so we have the +/-, but what happens when we take Dancing Bear and compare him to the top scorers from each team? Glad you asked!

Top Scorers Per Club(Ranked by SS Standings)









Player(Club)

Minutes

Goals

Assists

Shots

SOG

G/90min

SC%









Tim Cahill(Red Bulls)

2093

10

4

53

20

0.43

18.9

Alvaro Saborio(RSL)

1166

11

2

45

19

0.85

24.4

Claudio Bieler(SKC)

2097

10

4

70

27

0.43

14.3

Eddie Johnson(Sounders)

1647

9

2

50

27

0.49

18

Darlington Nagbe(Timbers)

2595

9

4

56

23

0.31

16.1

Robbie Keane(Galaxy)

1770

15

11

59

26

0.76

25.4

Deshorn Brown(Rapids)

2009

9

4

90

29

0.4

10

Will Bruin(Dynamo)

2335

8

7

85

25

0.31

9.4

Marco Di Vaio(Impact)

2386

19

2

101

50

0.72

18.8

Conor Casey(Union)

1931

10

5

56

23

0.47

17.9

Chris Wondolowski(Quakes)

2340

9

3

90

37

0.35

10

Mike Magee(Fire)

1639

12

3

67

32

0.66

17.9

Diego Fagundez(Revs)

2166

12

6

48

27

0.5

25

Camilo Sanvezzo(Whitecaps)

2152

18

5

107

47

0.75

16.8

Dominic Oduro(Crew)

2675

12

3

85

32

0.4

14.1

Blas Perez(FCD)

1884

11

2

51

27

0.53

21.6

Erick Torres(Chivas)

1169

7

1

35

16

0.54

20

Robert Earnshaw(TFC)

1722

7

0

62

19

0.37

11.3

Dwayne DeRosario(DCU)

1486

3

2

53

22

0.18

5.7

Dancing Bear isn't a prolific goal scorer, that much is evident. What he is, however, is a distributing monster of a forward. He isn't that target man we all kind of expected him to be in the 4-4-2, but has instead been able to parlay his top of the formation presence into a very balanced stat line.

What is most notable is Bruin ranks second among the top scoring forwards for assists, and that is nothing to sneeze at, folks. He is creating chances not only for himself, but for those around him and doing so at a pace which only Marco Di Vaio, Robbie Keane, Camilo Sanvezzo and Diego Fagundez are ahead.

Those four forwards ahead of Dancing Bear, nobody on this blog would argue they are some of the best players Major League Soccer have to offer. So perhaps all the criticism for Will Bruin might be a bit unwarranted, but I leave that up for you all to decide.

Finally, Francisco added something into the stat breakdowns this week which I was not anticipating. He broke down scoring production per team by position, and there is one striking piece of information to be culled.

Scoring Production by Position









Club

Goals

Fwd

%

Mid

%

Def

%









Chicago Fire

39

9

23.08

27

69.23

3

7.69

Chivas USA

27

16

59.26

9

33.33

2

7.41

Colorado Rapids

40

22

55

15

37.5

3

7.5

Columbus Crew

39

16

41.03

18

46.15

5

12.82

DC United

19

10

52.63

9

47.37

0

0

FC Dallas

41

15

36.59

19

46.34

7

17.07

Houston Dynamo

38

19

50

19

50

0

0

LA Galaxy

50

33

66

15

30

2

4

Montreal Impact

48

22

45.84

19

39.58

7

14.58

New England Revolution

43

24

55.81

18

41.86

1

2.33

New York Red Bulls

48

19

39.59

25

52.08

4

8.33

Philadelphia Union

39

27

69.23

9

23.08

3

7.69

Portland Timbers

47

29

61.7

16

34.04

2

4.26

Real Salt Lake

54

28

51.85

25

46.3

1

1.85

San Jose Earthquakes

31

21

67.74

7

22.58

3

9.68

Seattle Sounders

37

25

67.57

10

27.03

2

5.4

Sporting Kansas City

43

31

72.09

4

9.3

8

18.61

Toronto FC

27

14

51.85

8

29.63

5

18.52

Vancouver Whitecaps

44

35

79.55

5

11.36

4

9.09

Of the 19 teams in Major League Soccer, only two have zero goals from their defenders, DC United and Houston Dynamo. Set pieces used to be the bread and butter of the team, but as of late in league matches they can't buy a goal off a set piece. At least not from their defenders.

So what do you make of all of this, dear readers?

Are there any stats you'd like pulled for next week? Feel free to leave your comments and we'll be happy to work what we can.

Also, huge thank you once again to Francisco who continues to pump out stats like only the Stat Man can!