Marcelo Sarvas has big Impact on Galaxy draw with Toronto

The latest Match Impact Rating numbers are in, and LA Galaxy midfielder Marcelo Sarvas has topped the list with an MIR of 79. Jose Villarreal with his goal off the bench got a super-sub rating of 161.1, but let's dig a bit deeper into why Sarvas came out looking so good against Toronto FC.

The statistical debate with Marcelo Sarvas is whether or not he was shooting on the Galaxy's opening goal. According to the Opta chalkboard, Sean Franklin successfully passes to Jack McBean who successfully passes to Marcelo Sarvas. Sarvas' intentionally assisted shot is heading wide until Magee redirects it with his right foot into the back of the net.

As a result, Magee's shot is assisted but not intentionally. Still, off the chalkboard Marcelo Sarvas gets the assist for his mishit shot even if the assist wasn't his intention.

In fact all three of Sarvas' shots were off target, two wide left and one from outside the box that skied high. Still his pass completion rate was a great 80%, well above the team average of 69%. He also won three more fouls than he conceded.

On the fantasy side he was worth six points getting both an defending bonus (six recoveries) and an attacking bonus, though he did get dinged for a yellow card.

Jose Villarreal equaled that fantasy score with his goal, and in Match Impact got that whopping 161.1 since Match Impact averages statistics out over ninety minutes. Clearly Villarreal had the ultimate impact on the match, but he was brought in to solve a problem created by the players who went the full ninety.

Continuing down the list, Mike Magee with his goal finished with a MIR of 44.9. Magee was the top fantasy earner for the Galaxy, with his five point goal and two minute bonus for going ninety minutes topped off with a one point attacking bonus for the key through ball Magee sent up to Landon Donovan that under any other circumstances Donovan would have put in the back of the net.

Mike Magee, Marcelo Sarvas, and Jose Villarreal all had great matches. The rest of the match impact numbers were unremarkable and ditto for the fantasy numbers. The Galaxy didn't play that well against Toronto, and were saved by same outstanding performances by that trio.

Match Impact Rating is given to LAG Confidential by Patrick S Johnston.