Talked a bit about the origin story of the "Momentum" graphic you might have seen during this World Cup with the @sport.nos.nl (Dutch). Got to be honest, when we made this in 2019 I _really_ didn't expect this to become a 'thing' ha.

I did it I wrote the article wish me luck Lionel Messi is the GOAT, Ronaldo is not, why just about every statistical analyst agress www.expectinggoals.com/p/messi-rona...

8.2 - Among all outfield players in matchday 1 this World Cup, only Donyell Malen and Tsuyoshi Watanabe covered less distance than Lionel Messi on average per 90 minutes (8.2 km). Walk-over.

444 square km, 150,000 people. Curaçao are the smallest nation ever to qualify for the World Cup. They arrive unbeaten in qualifying, with the oldest head coach in WC history and two brothers at the heart of everything: theanalyst.com/articles/curacao-world-cup-2026-dream-preview

Looks like a sandworm for me so only right for Lisan Al-Gaib's team to tame it.

This Czechia side are based far more around collective endeavour than individuals. So, will they be able to do what the 2006 team couldn't and make it out of their group? theanalyst.com/articles/cze...

New interactive World Cup #dataviz piece with @rbenson92.bsky.social for @optaanalyst.optajoe.com Let's gooooooooo theanalyst.com/articles/wor...

20 - Club Brugge are the second team to win the Belgian title 20 times, with the Opta Predictor only giving Blauw-Zwart a chance of just 20.1 percent to do so after their MD3 defeat against Union Saint-Gilloise in the Champions' Play-offs on 19 April. Resurfaced.

The most attacking, aggressive team in soccer right now is this one, in the Netherlands. Let @stighefootball.bsky.social explain: www.espn.com/soccer/story...

Wrote something on the incredible Ekstraklasa season and the rise of Polish football for @optaanalyst.optajoe.com together with @wesleyvictormak.bsky.social : theanalyst.com/articles/pol...

Nice piece on the entertainers of this @eredivisie.nl season by @jorisvdban.bsky.social for @optaanalyst.optajoe.com , N.E.C.. Dots mandatory. theanalyst.com/articles/nec...

Job Alert! This is an Assistant Director of Football role in women's football, reporting directly to me. The skill set is diverse, including tactical knowledge, player eval, negotiation, and strong people skills. Women especially encouraged to apply. jobsinfootball.com/job/123612/a...

🇵🇱 Welcome to Poland's Ekstraklasa: Europe's craziest league 📉All 18 teams can still win the league...or be relegated 😲 Current leaders finished 15th last season 👀 Relegation zone shocks 📈 Crowds up 50% 🇪🇺 European successes 🎁 Gift article on @theathleticfc.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/athletic/711...

@nodunks.com @treykerby.bsky.social appreciate the Dutchie shoutout, watch us coming to LA to dominate the Olympics! Hmmm, maybe see if we can dust off Rik Smits and Francisco Elson for some veteran impact or maybe track whether VanVleet is actually a Van Vliet by heritage.

Ludogorets have won 14 successive league titles. 🇧🇬 Levski Sofia, who they play tonight, stand in the way of a world record. How have Ludogorets done it? And is it good or bad for Bulgarian football? Free to read on @theathleticfc.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/athletic/708...

We’re recruiting for a Data Engineer to join our Research team at Liverpool FC. In my (perhaps biased) view, it’s a great opportunity to join an excellent team, work at the forefront of sports analytics, and have a tangible impact. www.linkedin.com/posts/conorq...

Very excited to see if John Heitinga has rightplacerighttime'd himself into a temporary head coach job again.

@talkhoops.bsky.social Hi Zach! Avid Bounce reader here! Didn't Norman Powell join the Jamaica Basketball team last year? Surely he should be considered as an international selection if he wants to!

FC Groningen, Attacking and Defending Radars 24-25 vs 25-26. Significant upgrades in output, but why?

Minste dagen tussen laatste wedstrijd met FC Groningen voor hun debuutwedstrijd met het Nederlands Elftal sinds de laatste keer dat FC Groningen een international leverde (1990): Michael Reiziger - 157 dagen Luciano Valente -187 dagen Arjen Robben - 360 dagen Hans Hateboer - 418 dagen

🇪🇺EURO POD!🇪🇺 @acjimbo.bsky.social, @julienlaurens.bsky.social, @sebsb.bsky.social, @polballus.bsky.social & @jameshorncastle.bsky.social on… 🇫🇷 PSG's late show 🇩🇪 Bayern finally drop points 🇪🇸 Another three for Lewandowski 🇮🇹 Unhappy Antonio 🇳🇱 Ajax in crisis w/ @jongsma.bsky.social pod.fo/e/3506d0

Really enjoyable story to work on, and great to speak to some of the people involved.

@lowqualityregen.bsky.social And they say the Dutch are quite blunt in their use of language, I have no idea what they are talking about.

Here's the consequences for 🇳🇱 the Netherlands after 5 losses in 5 games. 🔹 From 80% of 6th down to almost 50%. 🔹 Even chances of dropping below Belgium, up from <0.1% to now 1.7%. All that while the Netherlands still have 6/6 teams, while Portugal have lost 1 and Belgium already lost 2!

Five penalty misses? Maybe they should make the goals bigger or move the spot closer?

Everywhere you look, another massive striker is scoring goals and doing freaky things. Ashwin Raman has analysed the reasons for and ramifications of the jumbo-sized centre-forward trend that is taking over football—and what it means for the future, this summer and beyond.

1 - OptaJohan's Data Insights team is looking for editorial talent to join the Dutch team based in Amsterdam (40 hours p/w). Opportunity. eobe.fa.em2.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

After 12 years, today is officially my last day at WhoScored. It's been a journey, and then some! I'm now moving back into the world of freelance content creation and editing. If you wish to work with me, then feel free to reach out.

Alexander Sørloth is short of Alexander Sørmixaloth

With Paul Simonis taking charge of Vfl Wolfsburg, this piece by Kasper Spruijt for @optaanalyst.optajoe.com might be worth checking out, on a once in a lifetime season for Go Ahead Eagles. theanalyst.com/articles/go-...

🇪🇺 EURO POD!🇪🇺 🇮🇹Some title race 🇳🇱Ajax collapse w/ @jongsma.bsky.social 🇫🇷Lacazette's goodbye 🇪🇸Barca on the beers 🇩🇪Dortmund do it! Plus a big game in Bilbao? 🤔 @acjimbo.bsky.social, @julienlaurens.bsky.social, @polballus.bsky.social, @sebsb.bsky.social & @jameshorncastle.bsky.social pod.fo/e/2d7e15

In the top five leagues, in this period, 31.4% of titles have been won by the bald. PL is bald-dominant, followed by Serie A (counting Allegri as bald) Kompany is the sole ‘bald’ BuLi winner, and Zizou the sole LaLiga one Ligue 1 says ‘non’

Every Eredivisie title since 2018-19 has been won by a bald manager, so it only makes sense that Paul Simonis and Erik ten Hag are the frontrunners to replace Francesco Farioli at Ajax. #analytics

𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞'𝐬 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐩𝐬𝐞 On 19 April, Ajax led the Eredivisie by nine points. Just four games later, they trail PSV by a point. It's the biggest collapse any of Europe's biggest leagues has ever witnessed. theanalyst.com/2025/05/ajax...

First place is lava!

🇪🇺 EURO POD!🇪🇺 @acjimbo.bsky.social, @jameshorncastle.bsky.social, @polballus.bsky.social, @sebsb.bsky.social & @julienlaurens.bsky.social all here... 🇪🇸 Clasico chaos 🇮🇹 Napoli drop points 🇩🇪 Hamburg are back 🇫🇷 Monaco & Marseille in the UCL 🇳🇱 Eredivisie madness w/ @jongsma.bsky.social pod.fo/e/2d4a08

Back to back dingers from Robert Deniro and Liev Schreiber in the area of Hollywood tough guys shrugging their shoulders going “yeah why wouldn’t I love my child?”

@zonal-marking.bsky.social So apparently in basketball, going up 20 is a dangerous lead.

@lowqualityregen.bsky.social FROM NON-CERTIFIED AT CAMBUUR TO CHAMPION IN LIVERPOOL

Sounds like it’s a mistake to leave public goods in the hands of billionaires who can decide at any moment they’re bored and don’t want to support them anymore bsky.app/profile/clar...

21 - FC Groningen's Luciano Valente completed 21 passes in the final third tonight, at least 11 more than any other player during Feyenoord v FC Groningen (Jakub Moder and Gijs Smal both 10). Ace.

6 – Yesterday, OptaJohan hosted the sixth edition of the OptaJohan Quiz. From a field of 18 teams, it was NuSport who emerged as winners. Ascension. The quiz, consisting of four question rounds and four photo rounds, is now available for download. Questions: bit.ly/3FHdP3P Answers: bit.ly/42tONx9

We're expanding our team of Data Analysts so if you want to work for Opta and create new visualisations, dive into the data to find insights for clients and chat about sport all day, apply here. We're open to remote workers to get the best candidates. eobe.fa.em2.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

@lowqualityregen.bsky.social In case you are accepting international entries.

🇪🇺EURO POD!🇪🇺 @acjimbo.bsky.social, @julienlaurens.bsky.social, @zonal-marking.bsky.social, @polballus.bsky.social & @sebsb.bsky.social ahead of #UCL week: 🤩PSG v Liverpool, Real v Atleti 🇩🇪Bayern v Leverkusen 🇳🇱@jongsma.bsky.social on PSV & Feyenoord 🇮🇹Napoli 1-1 Inter podfollow.com/totallyfootb...

Jostein Gundersen (181 completed passes, a Europa League record) completed more passes in last night's game against FC Twente than 71 percent of the players in this season's Europa League have in the whole tournament. (data from @optajohan.optajoe.com)

Nog gekker: Sinds Opta de wedstrijden van AZ in detail analyseert (2010-11 in Eredivisie+Europa, Beker iets korter) was er geen enkele uitwedstrijd waarin AZ zoveel schoten loste in een eerste helft.

36 - Aged 36 years and 17 days, PSV’s Ivan Perisic is the oldest player ever to score in consecutive knock out games in the UEFA Champions League. Vintage.