The Four Biggest Tactical Trends in the NWSL

/
The Four Biggest Tactical Trends in the NWSL

Amidst all the chaos that the 2021 NWSL season brought (which we won’t get into in this space) there was some fantastic soccer played. While the goals per 90 were at their lowest in many years, that did not mean the matches were without intrigue: the manufactured parity that is commonplace within the American sports ecosystem has thankfully not led to teams essentially being copycats of one another. Still, like almost any league, there exists a clear and definitive “style” which conditions what we see week in and week out.

Read More

Where Goals Come From: How Do You Train The Killer Pass?

/
Where Goals Come From: How Do You Train The Killer Pass?

Introduction

In our last article, Jamon introduced the concepts of the “killer final balls” that lead to the best goal conversion rates - those types of key passes that are the most efficient and dangerous. More specifically, the two most “deadly” types of passes in this sub-category are through-balls and cutbacks. As is always the case with this series, our purpose is to create a framework which is actionable and applicable to teams- theory has very little meaning for us.

Read More

NWSL Biweekly Article #2 - Goals Added (g+)'s Favorite Player

/
NWSL Biweekly Article #2 - Goals Added (g+)'s Favorite Player

This is the second of a series of biweekly articles on American Soccer Analysis analyzing interesting tidbits across the season - both at a team and individual level. As the season continues to heat up, these articles will come at all angles of the game: tactical information, fascinating data quirks, and as well just basic match reports. The NWSL, as is the case with American soccer across the board, is a wild ride - hopefully this series will provide everyone with things to keep an eye on throughout the year!

Read More

Gotham v. Courage and Cudjoe v. Goals Added

/
Gotham v. Courage and Cudjoe v. Goals Added

With the Challenge Cup kicking off two weeks ago, this is the first of a series of biweekly articles on American Soccer Analysis analyzing interesting tidbits across the season - both at a team and individual level. As the season continues to heat up, these articles will come at all angles of the game: tactical information, fascinating data quirks, and as well just basic match reports. The NWSL, as is the case with American soccer across the board is a wild ride - hopefully this series will provide everyone with things to keep an eye on throughout the year!

Read More

Where Goals Come From: Training for Progressive Pass Finishing

/
Where Goals Come From: Training for Progressive Pass Finishing

This is the seventh article in a series of articles and videos in the Where Goals Come From project from Jamon Moore and Carl Carpenter.

Now that we have inundated you with progressive passing data, videos, and presentations, now comes the time where I provide examples of how to create these types of opportunities in matches by applying these attacking principles to training. This is the part which is the most important to me personally: it’s easy for us to theorize and analyze what successful teams do well and identify these as the top levels of the game, however, the goal (no pun intended) of the Where Goals Come From project is ultimately to impact clubs and coaches to incorporate this framework into their strategy and game models.

Read More

Where Goals Come From: How The Best Teams in MLS Pass

/
Where Goals Come From: How The Best Teams in MLS Pass

This is the fifth article in a series of articles and videos in the Where Goals Come From project from Jamon Moore and Carl Carpenter.

By now, readers of the Where Goals Come From project will be very in tune with the benefits of progressive passing in soccer, both from a data and tactical perspective. Within these last few weeks you’ve probably noticed a trend about the scope of progressive passing and its effectiveness throughout all levels of men’s and women’s football, furthering its importance within the game as a means of scoring goals (you know...where goals come from).

However, as American Soccer Analysis, we would be remiss to not put one specific league under the microscope and take a deeper look: in this case, Major League Soccer. In doing so, I’m going to look at the various tactical schemes the “defining” teams of the past three seasons in MLS have used to find success. These teams are:

Read More

Where Goals Come From: Passing in the Final Third

/
Where Goals Come From: Passing in the Final Third

This is the fourth article in a series of articles and videos in the Where Goals Come From project from Jamon Moore and Carl Carpenter.

In case you missed it

A companion article to this one

Read More

Where Goals Come From: Tactical Progressive Passing Movements

/
Where Goals Come From: Tactical Progressive Passing Movements

This is the second article in a series of articles and videos in the Where Goals Come From project from Jamon Moore and Carl Carpenter. Read part one on Where Goals Come From.

Scoring goals in soccer is hard. Broadly speaking, in the elite European leagues, most matches have no more than three goals per game. This scarcity in goal scoring is the reason why metrics such as Expected Goals (xG) have gained such a foothold amongst the analytics (and increasingly the general) community: anything to gauge the value of a team’s chance creation is gold dust.

Read More

MLS Is Back: Week One Highs And Lows

/
MLS Is Back: Week One Highs And Lows

My excellent colleagues at ASA have done some terrific work in rolling out Goals Added (g+) the past couple months, putting out methodology articles, and finding new and creative ways to assess player performance on the pitch through this metric. We highly recommend you read the articles linked above, but g+ is the model we built to assign value to every single on-ball action that happens in a soccer game. The return of MLS has given us at ASA the first extended period of which to use this g+ data since the league’s restart, so through the medium of video analysis I will be looking at some of the major actions of g+ during the first week of action. I’ll be giving context to the numbers behind it: where the players did well, where they did poorly, and why g+ afforded them the values they were given!

Read More