The Prognostication Power Rankings

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By Paul Harvey

Since 2019, MLS has consistently had a panel of columnists, presenters, and other talent predict how the conference standings will end up at the close of the season. These prognostications are primarily to drive traffic and discussion from fans (how dare they pick us to finish 13th!) and for the most part, have not been revisited over time to see just how accurate they are. In fact, almost everyone forgets them until the end of the season where they can use them as bulletin board material.

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2026 MLS Previews: Portland, NYRB, Dallas

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Our 2026 MLS Season Previews have started and today we hit Michael Bradley’s new look Red Bulls, the Timbers, and FC Dallas. If you want to support this coverage of the league, you can head to our Patreon. For $5 a month you can get access to a lot of the data visualization tools we use to make these previews.

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2026 MLS Previews: Colorado, San Jose, Real Salt Lake

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Our 2026 MLS Season Previews have started and today we hit the Rapids, the Quakes, and RSL. If you want to support this coverage of the league, you can head to our Patreon. For $5 a month you can get access to a lot of the data visualization tools we use to make these previews.

Similarly, our friend and longtime ASA supporter Matt Doyle has started a new venture at the Tactics Free Zone, you can sign up here, and we’d encourage you to do so. Take care.

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Check Out futi

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Check Out futi

Hey folks, our long time friends Mike Imburgio and John Muller are putting out an app. Kieran, Ben, and Harrison spoke to them on the pod here [link] if you want to hear some more of the why, and some of the fun things coming out on top of it. ASA wouldn’t have built many of the cool things we have over the years without these two gentlemen, and it’s pretty exciting to see what they’re building now. Mike is here to explain more below.

futi is a next-gen live score app built to bring pro-quality analytics to fans in a familiar format. We’re rolling out model explainers and early data releases so you can preview the models behind the app. Follow us to keep up to date and be part of the future of fan-facing stats at the links below:

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ASA Roundtable: American Soccer Insights Summit

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At the end of January, many members of our ASA Community headed down to Rice University in Houston to talk a whole lot of soccer analytics. ASA Slack was buzzing around so much we figured we’d convene the round table. If you want to hear a podcast version of the conversation around the conference, Ben, Kieran, and Harrison spoke to Arman Kafai about some of the cool stuff going on there.

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Introducing Glass Onion by US Soccer, An Identifier Synchronization Tool

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Introducing Glass Onion by US Soccer, An Identifier Synchronization Tool

By Akshay Easwaran

Every soccer data analysis group has had the same jump-scare: they sign data provider contract #2, and suddenly, they need a solution to link teams, matches, and players across their data ecosystem. Individual data sources are easy to ingest: you can tuck them in their own little schemas, write code specific to their little universes, and rest easy that changes won’t come thick and fast without proper notice from your providers. But with those individual data sources come individual standards for tracking objects (players, teams, or matches). In most (if not all) major American sports, working across providers is easy: just use an object’s single source of truth identifier from the league itself. But as every analyst finds out very quickly, there is no public single source of truth identifier for teams, matches, and players in international soccer.

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Measuring Goalkeeper Impact in MLS: A Data-Driven Look at Value, Volatility, and Efficiency

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By Lucas Morefield

Goalkeeper evaluation has always been one of the thorniest challenges in soccer analytics. The position is defined by small sample sizes, high variance, and context-driven outcomes. In Major League Soccer, where roster rules magnify the impact of every marginal dollar, understanding goalkeeper value is especially important. With clubs often operating near budget ceilings, a single overperformance or underperformance in goal can shift playoff probability, alter roster-building timelines, or change the financial implications of a season.

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