If a body meets a body, and those two bodies happen to play effective possession and passing soccer, such an affair might be considering scintillating. With Real Salt Lake arriving in Houston to take on the Dynamo, the two sides, neither of which are lacking in personality on the pitch, are sitting atop some interesting statistical tables.
These two teams, while both insisting on high rates of possession and passing, exemplify the diversity of styles of play. RSL are the forceful, hard-tackling side, while the Dynamo may look to move the ball around a bit more.
Passing and possession
Houston Dynamo have perhaps been found lacking in cutting thrust at times (evidenced by their 9 draws and 7 losses), which is surprising given their domineering possession, which sits at a lofty 56.6 percent on average. To further make things interesting, their possession average goes up even more when they win (57.5 percent) and down when they lose (54.1 percent) but they always remain quite high up there.
RSL is currently sitting at 53.8 percent on average, with greater possession averages clocking up during losses (55 percent) than wins (53 percent). Given the nature of possession (when one side has it, the other does not), one of these two sides will come out with a lower-than-average possession percentage.
Houston is also the safest-passing side in the league, with 82 percent of their passes finding their target and an average pass count of 478 per match. RSL isn't too far behind, with 81 percent pass accuracy and 441 passes per match.
While this doesn't speak heavily to a claim about the efficacy of such techniques, the fact that the amount of passing on average doesn't change much between wins and losses speaks to a certain dogged commitment to a style. Houston is flying under the radar a bit for this, while RSL has that particular approach bandied about both positively and negatively.
Fouls and bookings
The Dynamo, for all their possession, are one of the least-fouling sides in the league — third from the bottom with 10.7 per match. RSL is sitting a bit higher at 13 per match on average. But that's all made a bit more fascinating by yellow cards issued: Houston have — by some number — seen the fewest yellow cards this season, with 23 being shown. As a point of counterbalance, RSL has seen 51 this season; San Jose, 50; and Vancouver, 57.
This leaves the Dynamo at 12.6 fouls averaged per yellow card shown. Whether this is owing to better tackling technique (although the tackle-won percentage isn't significantly higher than RSL's — 82 percent to 80 percent) or some other factor is hard to easily say. RSL's reverse of that, with 7.2 fouls per yellow card issued, will certainly be a consideration for Jason Kreis.
Absences and returns
Any hope for a boost in form pushed along by RSL's starting contingent will have gone out the window by now, with Kyle Beckerman, Will Johnson and Alvaro Saborio absent through international duty, and Chris Wingert out with yellow card accumulation. It will likely be another one of those depth-tests.
It could also lead to some shifts in the defense, with Chris Schuler inching closer to a full return, Kenny Mansally recovering quickly, and Jamison Olave working his way back. Though Olave seems likely to rest in a bid for full fitness following the long break, the lanky Schuler may well be handed a start on the left defensive flank.
Along with contributing to RealSaltLake.com, Matt Montgomery runs the almost-daily RSL blog Under the Crossbar. Follow Matt on Twitter @TheCrossbarRSL.
