One way to figure out if you have the right number of teams in the World Cup is to look at the aggregate totals per game: they should all be similar by organization
South America has sent only six teams, and they are a powerhouse, with +0.80 goal differential per game
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This is the greatest quote ever from Sam Antonacci
“[Baseball] is a team sport. If you’re mad about giving up 2-runs in the 9th, take your ass to go play tennis.”
Ollie Watkins on the art of being an impactful sub. “I was speaking to Jude (Bellingham) about it because he was asking me, ‘what's your mentality?’ As you know, you're not going to play. I said I felt like there's no pressure on me, people don't see me playing. They see Harry (Kane) playing, but I know what I can bring to the table.
"I watch the game when I'm on the bench. I see the game open up. It's a completely different game when you start a game to when you finish it. There's so many more opportunities when you come on, a lot of people are tired, they lose focus. Sometimes it can be better to be a substitute then to start. I watch carefully what the opposition player is doing because when you come on the field, then you get that opportunity to punish them.”
One of the greats @mixedknuts joins us for a VERY insightful episode discussing rules of World Cup betting and giving us his hot takes including why Germany thinks running up the score is their version of showing respect
A behind the scenes deep dive into our finances last season 👇
It’s easy to get lost in the headlines but what we are doing above all else is trying to create a sustainable community asset
Football clubs need support, the good they can do for communities is unmatched
Being sleep deprived due to the World Cup is normal but which nation's fans have their sleep disrupted the most? Spare a thought for the Algerian football fans! Group-stage kick off times converted to each team’s local time and how much sleep might be lost. Source: https://t.co/bDtkXtej23
Scotland’s Andy Robertson has found a hack to beat FIFA’s new throw-in countdown:
Get your team-mates in position before you pick the ball up, which starts the referee’s countdown.
Very smart 👏 👏 👏
#Robertson#HAISCO#Scotland
UTILIDADE PÚBLICA: para quem gosta de dados, estatísticas, e números, ou apenas gosta de Futebol, a FIFA está disponibilizando dados físicos e técnicos de todos os jogos da Copa do Mundo.
link: https://t.co/raLLKYzDsK
I explain how I went about creating my International football team ratings on Substack. It is extremely nerdy and probably not scintillating reading, but it's info I wanted to get out there https://t.co/KGqowjqoB0
My International Football team ratings are out ahead of the World Cup and I posted the spreadsheet for them to my Substack here: https://t.co/i8JNf01m62. Enjoy.
Tony Bloom's Hearts with another pressing, depth-threatening ST from a lower division outside their region
Don't have to have the best scoring numbers overall, but they have to be workhorses and show underlying skills that shine so bright with better teammates overall
@AngryVorosM Fair Q. This is my guess not data driven but I expect Arsenal's xG diff in the 10 games or so before the CL final was on a downtrend. Just watching them it seemed pretty clear that various players were playing hurt / playing on fumes towards end of season (most obvs Saka)
@AngryVorosM So FWIW I think difficult when doing club ratings to adjust for player injuries / changes. Adjusting eg baseball team ratings for starting pitcher is easier than a football team's expected goals / ball progression. PSG Lg 1 and CL teams are often different players