First Half Stat Pack

All stats are from Who Scored, which is a great resource for football fans of any team or league. As you can imagine, with a 9-point lead atop the standings and a +37 goal differential, FC Bayern looks pretty damn good in most categories. So rather than just run down a list of numbers and say "most goals scored ... fewest goals allowed ... etc," I went in and picked out just a handful of the most impressive and most eye-popping stats. If you know of some numbers or records Bayern has generated since August that you want to add to the list, do so in the comment section, or email us at bayern.offside@yahoo.com.

1) On-Target Shots per Match

Bayern wins this category handily, with 8.2 on target per game (this refers only to Bundesliga play). Not a huge schock, because we scored the most goals. But it's worth noting because several recent seasons have seen Bayern dominate possession, but fail to consistently turn it into scoring chances. This was a problem under van Gaal, in particular, as I recall.

Now, you don't want to just fling the ball at the net at ever opportunity. But it's important to always be pressing at the edges of the defense and forcing them to stop you. You don't want to be satisfied with just knocking the ball sideways and "controlling the game" if you aren't generating shots (unless that's your angle, like Barca). So 8.2 on target per game (way ahead of Leverkusen in 2d, with 6.6 per) is certainly a good sign.

2) Passing Success Rate

FC Bayern wins again - this is almost a "well, of course" stat if you've been watching us play. But what strikes me here is just how impressive the margin is. Check out the top 5:

Bayern's pass % is about 6 points ahead of S04, who are less than one point ahead of BVB, who are less than one point ahead of the following pair. In fact, the LAST PLACE team in the Bundesliga in passing % is newcomers Greuther Fuerth, on 74.8 ... less than 7 points behind Schalke.

Put another way, the difference between 2nd-place Schalke and 1st-place Bayern in passing percentage is about the same as the difference between 2nd-place Schalke and the worst passing team in the league.

3) Counter-attacking Goals

First place in the league is FC Bayern, with 8.

Wait ... what?

Yes, you read that correctly. We're controlling 63 percent of the possession, we're allowing opponents practically no chances to press forward, we play in our own defensive end only 22 percent of the time (by far the least in the league), we've only allowed maybe 80 or 90 minutes of concerted opponent pressure TOTAL throughout 17 matches ... and we have the most counter-attacking goals scored! How many overall chances have we even HAD to counter this year? Nine? Twelve? I can't believe it's much more than twelve. And we have 8 goals from those situations.

I actually think this is the most encouraging stat of all, because, depending upon opponent, we might not be able to dominate possession throughout the match late in the Champions League. In fact, we might not even want to. To see that we can hit the other team with a quick-strike counter despite not being acclimated to that style makes me very optimistic. Even Gomez, who doesn't come across as a counter-strike specialist, got in on the action with a nice counter goal in his first match after returning from injury.

4) Most Comments Since the Site Opened

This starts tracking when Bavarian Football Works opened, which I think was in March, and goes through December 31. So about 9 months. And in that time, KateL was the big winner, with 5,602 comments. Here's the top 10:

- KateL .. 5,602

- Ollikahn .. 2,696

- Grudnik .. 2,557

- Oatbag .. 1,756

- Gilly .. 1,608

- Le Vee .. 1,444

- BayernMan .. 1,398

- Kinkam .. 1,376

- Vrdo4ever .. 1,373

- Scalia1 .. 1,364

In FanShots, Ollikahn and Grudnik tied for first with 8 apiece. In FanPosts, Kate wins again with 29, Grudnik in 2nd with 16, and no one else was in double figures. The tracking is well underway for 2013, but no need to burn yourselves out yet. Just keep participating at a slow and steady clip and you'll find yourself on the list. Also, I'm pretty sure banned members numbers aren't even tabulated, so ... y'know, behave.

Last thing: I got an email from someone who's going to travel to Munich later this year, and who is interested in attending a match at the Allianz. My impression is that (1) Bundesliga matches are usually more difficult to get tickets for than Pokal or CL matches, (2) CL and Pokal match tickets could probably be purchased directly, but Bundesliga matches might require a ticket broker, and that (3) if you go through a ticket broker, you might have to pay a slight premium, but you wouldn't expect to pay 3 times the face value or anything.

Is that about right? Does anyone know of a good ticket place, or know of any further details here? If so, let's hear it in the comments, or you can send us an email. Thanks for reading.