# Most improved LA 2007 Boys Teams So Far... (as of 1/13/20)



## Kante (Jan 13, 2020)

Have been digging out from the holidays. Ugh. (Actually, holiday was pretty fun so shouldn't complain...) 

Here's the most improved LA 2007 teams so far this year...  Am doing this a little differently due to some constraints w/ the new bbs platform and there will be a separate thread w/ the least improved teams.

Usually, families and coaches will have some intuitive sense of how things are trending but it's hard to be concrete. The goal of this (long) post is to provide some objective data for evaluating DA team performance/development so far this season.

Will leave it to the clubs, coaches and families to interpret on whether or not the improvements or declines were due to development over time (i.e. good or bad coaching) or other reasons such as adding new players, a key player was injured for a bit etc.

If your team is not listed below or is another age group or gender but you are interested in how they’re doing, send a DM note and will send over the requested team chart(s).

The short version on the methodology for comparing teams is that the same algo being used to predict match results can also be used to track team progress relative to their peer group over time. This progress tracking is calculated as:

the % of goals scored vs average goals allowed by each opponent (i.e. goal scoring effectiveness % per game)
minus

the % of goals allowed vs average goals scored by each opponent (i.e. goals defending % per game)
equals

goal differential % per game, which can be charted for each game to show improvement or decline trends over time.
If there’s a need for/interest in more detail or other questions, just ping over or reply to this post.
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*Los Angeles

Most Improved #1: Santa Barbara Soccer Club*
Santa Barbara started strong w/ a 3-1 away win over the Pats in the first game of the 2019-20 season but quickly faded on both sides of the ball, with a consistent decline over the next four games and then bottoming out with 0-5 away loss to LAUFA in mid-October.

But things started to turn around for Santa Barbara after that w/ decent rivalry 1-0 win over Ventura Fusion the next week, and then solidly improving trend lines since. The improvement seems to have been fairly sharp, particularly with an order of magnitude step improvement defensively after the LAUFA match.

Santa Barbara 07s have not added players this season, but, per DMs and game reports, one key player - #14 IR - was out with an injury for four games. Some of his absence overlaps with the decline that Santa Barbara experienced at the beginning of the season, and his return overlaps to a decent degree with Santa Barbara's turnaround.

Going into the New Year, Santa Barbara could be a team to watch if they continue their improvement.

Here’s the u13 Santa Barbara goal differential % over time chart:


Here's u13 Santa Barbara's defensive/goals allowed as % of average goals scored by opponent improvement over time chart:


Here's u13 Santa Barbara's offensive/goals scored as % of average goals allowed by opponent improvement over time chart:


*Most Improved #2: Ventura Fusion*
Ventura also had a tough start in their first five games, starting off w/ 1-3 loss to TFA, a declining over the next three games which featured a 1-5 loss to LAUFA, and then bottoming out in their fifth game w/ 1-8 loss to LA Galaxy at the end of September. 

After their loss to LAG, Ventura began to turn a corner with consistent defensive improvement over time that, coupled with an offensive improvement starting with the November match against LAUFA, began to generate more competitive results.

Although Ventura had some roster churn, it looks like their improvement over the season is primarily organic i.e. not due to adding players.

Here’s the u13 Ventura Fusion goal differential % over time chart:


Here's u13 Ventura's defensive/goals allowed as % of average goals scored by opponent improvement over time chart:


Here's u13 Ventura's offensive/goals scored as % of average goals allowed by opponent improvement over time chart:


*Most Improved #3: LA Galaxy*

Most of the time (but not all), the most improved teams tend to be non-MLS/smaller clubs that started poorly and then showed improvement from that poor start. Point being is that often improvement is, to some extent at least, the result of an easy comparison. 

But, so far this season, LA Galaxy is the third most improved u13 team in the LA group, so credit given where credit is due with fairly consistent improvement on both sides of the ball over 2019.

To be fair, LAG only started OK, but not great, with three relatively competitive losses in their first three games of the season. The item that stands out across three games is that LAG only scored three goals total. However, they turned things around pdq on the offensive side, averaging 3.56 goals scored per match thereafter. 

Defensively,  LAG also improved pretty consistently after the first three games, but there is still room for improvement. LAG allowed eight goals in their first three matches, and, while they did improve thereafter, LAG still averaged 2.22 goals per match.

Here’s the u13 LAG's goal differential % over time chart:


Here's u13 LAG's defensive/goals allowed as % of average goals scored by opponent improvement over time chart:


Here's u13 LAG's offensive/goals scored as % of average goals allowed by opponent improvement over time chart:


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