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MLS advanced statistics: A constantly updated database on shot and goal types

Wondering how your favorite MLS team creates chances and how frequently they should be scoring? Look no further.

By Michael Caley
USA TODAY Sports

The following sortable tables contain advanced statistics for the 2015 Major League Soccer season. They are updated at semi-regular intervals. For definitions, see the Glossary below.

All data provided by Opta.


English Premier League Advanced Statistics

Major League Soccer 2015 Statistics

Updated through matches of June 8.

For definitions, see the Glossary below.

Attack S DZ S W S SoB DZ% %Cr %TB Slow Med Fast
Orlando City SC 160 66 20 74 41.3% 43.9% 5.8% 24 78 10
FC Dallas 141 49 44 48 34.8% 26.5% 8.6% 22 54 23
Houston Dynamo 166 50 30 86 30.1% 50.0% 1.3% 28 56 21
Vancouver Whitecaps 223 68 56 99 30.5% 41.2% 2.4% 26 101 34
Portland Timbers 213 74 48 91 34.7% 39.2% 0.8% 37 83 32
D.C. United 156 59 31 66 37.8% 54.2% 2.2% 28 51 19
Philadelphia Union 173 72 37 64 41.6% 48.6% 0.9% 36 76 15
LA Galaxy 167 63 36 68 37.7% 41.3% 3.0% 29 85 9
Sporting Kansas City 179 73 29 77 40.8% 49.3% 3.9% 21 83 18
Seattle Sounders FC 141 59 29 53 41.8% 42.4% 10.2% 24 45 25
New York City FC 178 53 40 85 29.8% 28.3% 6.5% 32 90 20
San Jose Earthquakes 155 62 33 60 40.0% 46.8% 2.1% 26 59 13
Columbus Crew SC 198 75 38 85 37.9% 66.7% 2.7% 28 99 23
Toronto FC 155 50 23 82 32.3% 38.0% 12.3% 23 71 23
Real Salt Lake 146 48 27 71 32.9% 58.3% 5.3% 18 62 12
Montreal Impact 116 32 37 47 27.6% 40.6% 2.9% 17 47 15
Colorado Rapids 200 56 40 104 28.0% 39.3% 4.2% 24 92 21
Chicago Fire 197 70 56 71 35.5% 54.3% 2.4% 31 73 21
New York Red Bulls 182 72 31 79 39.6% 38.9% 4.9% 36 61 21
New England Revolution 164 74 34 56 45.1% 41.9% 5.6% 29 56 28

Defense S DZ S W S SoB DZ% %Cr %TB Slow Med Fast
Orlando City SC 153 55 34 64 35.9% 41.8% 3.4% 22 58 24
FC Dallas 163 43 31 89 26.4% 53.5% 5.4% 35 69 18
Houston Dynamo 155 57 29 69 36.8% 49.1% 3.5% 31 72 18
Vancouver Whitecaps 176 56 37 83 31.8% 37.5% 4.3% 31 76 14
Portland Timbers 192 59 31 102 30.7% 37.3% 6.7% 28 79 27
D.C. United 203 92 35 76 45.3% 50.0% 3.1% 34 80 18
Philadelphia Union 185 74 42 69 40.0% 45.9% 5.2% 29 80 21
LA Galaxy 158 49 41 68 31.0% 36.7% 6.7% 18 54 31
Sporting Kansas City 129 56 27 46 43.4% 39.3% 3.6% 23 47 19
Seattle Sounders FC 207 54 33 120 26.1% 50.0% 3.4% 31 102 20
New York City FC 202 77 49 76 38.1% 39.0% 4.8% 29 82 29
San Jose Earthquakes 166 62 31 73 37.3% 50.0% 6.5% 24 68 19
Columbus Crew SC 171 70 35 66 40.9% 38.6% 5.7% 25 80 17
Toronto FC 162 46 40 76 28.4% 56.5% 4.7% 29 61 23
Real Salt Lake 193 82 42 69 42.5% 48.8% 2.4% 30 79 18
Montreal Impact 146 52 25 69 35.6% 48.1% 1.3% 21 66 15
Colorado Rapids 195 57 48 90 29.2% 40.4% 3.8% 42 68 22
Chicago Fire 139 57 27 55 41.0% 29.8% 4.8% 18 63 14
New York Red Bulls 149 52 26 71 34.9% 53.8% 2.6% 17 62 17
New England Revolution 166 75 25 66 45.2% 53.3% 3.0% 22 76 19

Fancy TSR DZR DZR (N/C) xG xGA xGR GR
Orlando City SC 0.511 0.545 0.536 15.2 15.9 0.489 0.500
FC Dallas 0.464 0.533 0.643 16.8 16.1 0.510 0.486
Houston Dynamo 0.517 0.467 0.463 14.5 14.9 0.494 0.526
Vancouver Whitecaps 0.559 0.548 0.533 19.3 16.6 0.538 0.545
Portland Timbers 0.526 0.556 0.549 19.9 18.3 0.521 0.516
D.C. United 0.435 0.391 0.370 16.5 20.3 0.448 0.576
Philadelphia Union 0.483 0.493 0.481 17.2 21.5 0.445 0.419
LA Galaxy 0.514 0.563 0.544 15.2 18.5 0.451 0.455
Sporting Kansas City 0.581 0.566 0.521 19.2 14.4 0.572 0.595
Seattle Sounders FC 0.405 0.522 0.557 20.7 14.0 0.597 0.645
New York City FC 0.468 0.408 0.447 16.1 22.8 0.414 0.400
San Jose Earthquakes 0.483 0.500 0.516 15.7 16.3 0.492 0.483
Columbus Crew SC 0.537 0.517 0.368 18.1 18.5 0.495 0.488
Toronto FC 0.489 0.521 0.608 17.5 14.3 0.550 0.543
Real Salt Lake 0.431 0.369 0.323 12.3 19.9 0.382 0.419
Montreal Impact 0.443 0.381 0.413 11.5 13.2 0.466 0.464
Colorado Rapids 0.506 0.496 0.500 15.9 15.8 0.502 0.480
Chicago Fire 0.586 0.551 0.444 18.5 15.5 0.544 0.459
New York Red Bulls 0.550 0.581 0.647 19.7 16.4 0.547 0.500
New England Revolution 0.497 0.497 0.551 22.1 19.0 0.537 0.500

Glossary

The shot locations are based on my Shot Matrix shot locations, the map is displayed to the right. Penalties are not included in shots.

Shot_matrix4DZS: Shots from the danger zone, which is zones 1-3, the close and central areas of the box.

WS: Shots from the wide areas of the 18-yard-box, zones 4-5.

SoB: Shots from outside the 18-yard-box, zones 6-8.

%Cross: Percentage of shots from the danger zone assisted by crosses.

%TB: Percentage of shots from zones 1-5 assisted by through-balls.

Fast: Total open-play shots produced from fast attacking moves (>5 yd/s).

Med: Total open-play shots produced from medium-speed moves (1-5 yd/s).

Slow: Total open-play shots produced from slow attacking moves (

TSR: Total Shots Ratio, ratio of shots taken to shots allowed.

DZR: Danger Zone Ratio, ratio of shots taken from the Danger Zone to shots allowed from the danger zone.

DZR N/C: Danger Zone Ratio, but with shots assisted by crosses removed.

xG: Expected goals scored or conceded based on shot type, assist type and shot location, speed of attack and a few more factors. For the explanation of the components of xG, see my full open-method expected goals methodology.

A disclaimer on xG: These are not meant to be definitive. I have published the component numbers precisely so that you can make your own judgments. The game of football is irreducibly complex, and I do not mean to suggest I have finally reduced it to a single number. But I think xG, even if this simple form, remains a useful and interesting figure. I will be working to improve my xG statistics (in a fully open way) over the next several months.

xGR: Expected Goals Ratio, ratio of expected goals scored to expected goals allowed.

SoS: Strength of schedule based on my Premier League projections. This is the expected xGR of a hypothetical league average team which faced the same opponents with the same home/road split.

Adj xGR: xGR adjusted for strength of schedule. Calculated simply as (xGR / (SoS / 0.5)).

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