Sunday, March 23, 2014

What team has ever started out a season and given up three PKs in their first three matches?

When the Portland Timbers faced a dismal second penalty kick in this weekend's match against Colorado,   I began to wonder what the frequency of penalty kicks in a game was really like.   The Timbers have given up four goals in their first three matches and three of them were PKs.   That seems bizarre to me.   So I searched for some statistics on the question.   Penalty kicks have a long history in the game,  though they weren't originally a part of it.   The data suggest that two PKs in a match isn't all that notable.    On the other hand,  they were devastating to our team in the match against Rapids.