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Morales having tremendous offensive season despite RSL's struggles

Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports

There is no denying that RSL is struggling on attack. They have only scored 13 goals in 15 games they have played. That is the worst scoring rate in team history. The team is currently last in the league at shots per game with 9.8. They are second to last in the league at shots on goal per game at 3.2. But even with these truly awful offensive numbers there is one man that is having a truly remarkable offensive season. That man is Javier Morales.

Morales currently has 3 goals and 3 assists on the season. While those numbers alone are respectable, they are not out of this world. You have to dig a little deeper to see how impactful they truly are. He is tied for the team lead with goals and is leading the team in assists. And he has done this while only playing in 54 percent of all available minutes this season. In other words he has missed almost half the season and is still top of the both goals and assists for the team.

As we go deeper down the statistical rabbit hole we find even more impressive numbers for Morales. One stat that jumps out is "key passes". A key pass is a pass that leads to a shot (and the shot was not a goal, otherwise it would be an assist). This is a stat that is a good indicator of how well a player is getting his teammates involved in the attack. Morales is currently leading the team with 24 key passes. The next highest player on the team only has 11 key passes.

Morales is not only making those special passes to teammates that are leading to shots, he is also taking the shots himself. He is currently second on the team in shots taken with 16. By combining this number with those above (key passes and assists) you can see how many total scoring chances that Morales is creating. Currently, he creates a scoring chance every 17 minutes that he is on the field.

For a team that is struggling so much on offense, this stat is amazing! It is even more impressive when you think that the team as a whole is creating a shot every 9.9 minutes. In other word Morales has directly contributed to 29% of all shots that RSL has taken this year. That is an impressive number. It is even more impressive when you think about how much time he has missed.

There is no denying the fact that RSL needs to improve on the offensive side of the ball. But even with the lack of goals, we all should be taking note of the tremendous offensive season that Javier Morales is truly having.