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With most of fan's focus on the end of the 36 game home unbeaten streak, something that caught my eye last night seems to just fly under the radar on the stat sheet from the Sporting Kansas City win over Houston last night.
Fouls.
Not a particular foul, but sheer quantity of fouls committed by the Sporting Kansas City club.
I shared a number of statistics on Twitter this morning relating to fouls committed against and for the Dynamo on the 2013 season, but wanted to open the discussion to our readers as well to get your thoughts.
On Sunday night, on their way to a historic 1-0 defeat of the Dynamo, Sporting Kansas City committed 25 fouls. Houston finished the match with 10.
I started thinking about the last time I saw a foul total of that magnitude, and I couldn't remember. So that's when I went back to each of the previous ten league games for Houston to get a feel for the amount of fouls in the current Dynamo season.
Here's a breakdown of the Dynamo games with fouls committed for each club.
|
Date |
Opponent |
Opponent Fouls |
Dynamo Fouls |
Total Fouls |
|
3/2/13 |
16 |
16 |
32 |
|
|
3/17/13 |
9 |
15 |
24 |
|
|
3/23/13 |
Vancouver |
4 |
14 |
18 |
|
3/30/13 |
9 |
9 |
18 |
|
|
4/6/13 |
10 |
11 |
21 |
|
|
4/14/13 |
9 |
12 |
21 |
|
|
4/20/13 |
13 |
11 |
24 |
|
|
4/28/13 |
16 |
7 |
23 |
|
|
5/5/13 |
2 |
8 |
10 |
|
|
5/8/13 |
D.C. United |
8 |
11 |
19 |
|
5/12/13 |
Sporting KC |
25 |
10 |
35 |
As you can see, Sporting Kansas City's total of 25 fouls against Houston is the highest total of an opponent on the year, eclipsing the 16 by D.C. United and Colorado.
In fact, if you add up the fouls committed by Colorado, Los Angeles, and D.C. United (the previous three games), all three clubs combined for 26 fouls - one more than Sporting committed in a single match. Pretty physical game, right?
There may have been plenty of fouls, but only four yellow cards were issued - and two of those went to players wearing orange. It was an all around affair, but Peterson Joseph (5), Oriol Rosell (4), and Seth Sinovic, Aurelien Collin, and Jacob Perterson (all with 3 each) the leading offenders.
Whether the fouls committed were part of a tactical plan, sloppy or tired play, or due to the ever-growing rivalry and general dislike for each other, the amount was noticeable.
Our friends at Total MLS pointed out that Sporting Kansas City also sits at the top of the league in fouls committed this season, sitting on a 15.5 fouls per game (186 total) average through their 12 matches. Houston averages 11.3 per match.
What are your thoughts on the total amount of fouls committed last night? Is this tactical, fatigue related, or straight up bullying? I'm hoping to hear from Sporting KC fans as well - no sour grapes here, just a bit astonished by the quantity of fouls. With that being said, keep it classy Houston!