Houston Dynamo: How good is Will Bruin?

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.

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!

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.

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!