By The Numbers: Freddy Adu by Greg Seltzer - July 8, 2007 |
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In the first edition of a new American Soccer Daily feature, we mathematically track US Under-20 skipper Freddy Adu's performance against Brazil on Friday night. |
 Adu had a very productive second half against Brazil. (photo: Stephen Dunn/Getty) |
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| Without trying to portray Charles Eppes (check out NUMB3RS, good stuff), let's commence with the breakdown... Tough Touches For this category, I looked for tight space receptions, difficult to handle passes and even included quick combo touches under pressure with success of the pass as indicator. Freddy had a banner night here, with thumbs up on 20 of 22 TT's (all stat breakdowns must have abbreviations, of course). He saw more ball in the second half, and came through with 14 out of 16 on the plus side. This stats seems to shows that the Real kid is figuring out how to use his low center of gravity and technical skill against even the fastest opponents playing a high pressure game. First half: 6 for, 0 against Second half: 14 for, 2 against Turnovers This is not so simple as its advertised; all dribble losses, steals made or suffered and fully errant passes counted here, as one might expect. However, he was not marked in red for ambitious well-placed balls that ended up lost through no fault of his own. Really, it was a pretty quiet night on this front. Freddy took four and gave up four, but one of his two first half pocket picks allowed Jozy Altidore to lash home the opener. Three of his four TO's against came in the second half, unsurprising since he had more time on the ball. First half: 2 for, 1 against Second half: 2 for, 3 against Fouls This one we play straight up, and the count doesn't initially seem so hot: 5-4 favoring fouls given, with two to each column for the first half. While you generally want your #10 to be drawing many more fouls, let's not jump to conclusions on this tally. Three of his fouls suffered earned danger free kicks, and two of those against were 50/50 calls that came in attack. Adu also took a smart foul early in the game that put the brakes on a scary Brazil rush. And then there's that one foul... the scythe swipe that earned him a yellow card. It's great to see enough battle to earn a few whistles, but lets leave the wild flails for the guys chasing you, which brings us to... First half: 2 for, 2 against Second half: 2 for, 3 against Defenders Beaten Another simple one, no ankle X-rays required. Adu only took one man off the dribble in the first half, but came back with four in the second. Again, not an overwhelming tally, but consider that he lost four DB's to fouls suffered. Another way to look positively on the mild count is that Freddy clearly did not make wasteful runs trying to do too much or fail to move the ball to an open teammate when defenses collapsed on him. The other good news is no Brazil player was able to dribble past the white #11 shirt. We rarely consider the youngster's defensive work, but computations are beginning to hint that he is far from a swinging gate. First half: 1 Second half: 4 Dribble Into Area Freddy only managed three DIA's into the Brazil eighteen, and only one after halftime - of course, that "one" was a diabolical endline wizard scamper that eventually concluded with Altidore's late winner. Softening the mild disappointment of the low output here is the fact that Adu was on the verge of five more dribble breaches that didn't happen for one reason or another: a smart dish to the wing, one of those aforementioned iffy calls for the Brazil defense, a pair of fouls suffered and a turnover. The point is, the threat of him breaching the box on the run was always in the air, but not so much as to denote individual overreach. So by my estimation, the number behind the number again completes a quality picture that happens to include his spectacular game winning set-up work. First half: 2 Second half: 1 Ball Into Area Another attack only category, this one covers all run of play passes for a teammate heading into or already in the area that didn't result in a turnover. This low tally of four - from two in each half - is probably the one for which I can't so easily provide a silver lining. One should probably expect twice as many entry passes from a star quality playmaker, but then again, it is only one game. First half: 2 Second half: 2 Assist Chance Here we make a scratch mark for each time Adu served up chance to fire on goal for a teammate. He rang up four, three of which came after the break. We'd have another lukewarm gross to wonder about, if the net wasn't so enjoyable: two actual assists. First half: 1 Second half: 3 Quality Restarts The US wonder boy took eight set pieces, with all six corner kicks landing in the hot zone. None of these serves led to a shot on goal, but they kept the Brazil defense on alert. One of his two free kicks went awry, but the "+ sample" was a dipping doozy that forced an athletic fingertip save from the Brazil keeper. First half: 5 for, 1 against Second half: 2 for, 0 against Shots After taking a goose egg for the opening stanza, Adu squeezed off four shots in the second half. The assist on Altidore's decider was not a pass, but a shot (did anyone notice that the Brazil defender deflected it over to Jozy with his hand?). In all, three of Freddy's shots were on target, including the previously noted free kick. First half: 0 Second half: 4 |
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