unrelated to this, I was searching for a word for the kind of broader benefit outside of efficiency. Like a park has a bunch of benefits across an array of criteria, that individually are probably smaller than if you built something specifically aimed at one of them

See also: Josh wading into online arguments and having a terrible, terrible time

Sabalenka vs Ostapenko: Can you quantify Main Character energy? cc Orreco AI Tennis

also, ref-talk

There was a ~viral post on here that's similar to this, on how the look of 'low-/high- effort' has changed completely, but it takes a while for that to really sink in. And it's further complicated by the fact that packaging is often used as a proxy for the underlying work

a lot of 'YouTube with a bit of money now' channels make stuff that feels like TV that felt cheap (/old) when I was eight

How to like and pin the feed:

In 890, an army led by Gaelegher brothers beat an invading French force at the coastal town of Wanderwell. Over the centuries misspellings cast this as Wanderwall and then Wonderwall.

writers of bsky: writing with your word count visible/accessible, or not? which is better?

It is 2001. I am watching Serena Williams at Wimbledon on TV. It is 2010. I am watching Serena Williams at Wimbledon on TV. It is 2026. I am watching Serena Williams at Wimbledon on TV.

where are the writers of blue sky when you need them

oh, unrelated to anything important, highly recommend you check out the Table View version of this on the Beeb though

writers of bsky: writing with your word count visible/accessible, or not? which is better?

Maya Joint has a huge task today up against Serena Williams, one of the biggest legends of the sport, on Centre Court. Her mindset will be key, and learning what not to do in a similar position, from players like Jack Draper ⬇️ www.nytimes.com/athletic/740...

I assume that there's datavis research that I haven't yet read up on about this, but "does this _feel_ 'real'" is a thing that I've found to be relevant with charts. People use Twenty3 touch maps far more than I imagined they would, and I think it's just that they're so tangible

Nature of most 'momentum' calculations means big swings when one team then the other spends time in the final third. This makes things really spikey, a little whiplash-y, but I think that bars help this by removing the transition visually Area charts make everything seem like a rollercoaster

Löw left the job five years ago, no wonder they're unfamiliar

What's German for 'ooft'

Germany MNT are currently 12th in FIFA's rankings, Paraguay 33rd. But the ranking points gap between them is about the same as the ranking points gap between Germany and France (2nd)

if you're into J-League or this World Cup has made you interested in Japanese football, follow Ryo

If you can't handle me at my Canada vs South Africa you don't deserve me at my Brazil vs Japan

Lesser-commented on part of that Japan goal is that, for Sano's entire run, Gabriel is covering the left-hand side of the goal (from Japan's perspective). In the last moments, he drifts/lunges across to the right (from Japan's POV), opening up the (small) slot behind him that the shot goes through

in the fifa rankings, brazil might be 10 places above japan but the actual ranking points difference between them is about as much (a little more) than the gap between the team directly above them (england)

Statsbomb have released a bunch of data for WoSo from 2022-2025. Teams in it play more in-play time (than a set of 2015/16 men's leagues), but not by playing a higher *amount* of the match-clock with the ball in play www.getgoalsideanalytics.com/extra-time-f...

Need bluesky to prompt-code semantic muting so I can mute "everything is demonstrably worse than 2006" [quote post I saw] and similar doomerism

In general (WSL aside, which actually *did* have a high in-play share), this just comes from a huge change in the way added time is done. imo this is a 'post-2022' thing, not a 'women's football' thing. 2022/23 was the year in-play time hit headlines www.getgoalsideanalytics.com/extra-time-f...

Now I'm 1) hungry 2) dying to know what dishes make big, healthy margin to cover the stuff that barely makes a margin at all

Barca women are the equivalent of Messi in any men's player attacking stats charts you do (also check out the NWSL parity!) (Data from 2023, 2023/24 seasons)

This blog has so much in it that I didn't even note: Portugal WNT forced their matches to be 'low in-play' time enough that they get labels from not one but *two* tournaments on this chart Note too that this is 'matches this team played in': USWNT not necessarily a 'low in-play %' team

Get in loser we're bringing analytics blogs back

Statsbomb have released a bunch of data for WoSo from 2022-2025. Teams in it play more in-play time (than a set of 2015/16 men's leagues), but not by playing a higher *amount* of the match-clock with the ball in play www.getgoalsideanalytics.com/extra-time-f...

this is gonna come out soon and it's gonna be good

Okay here's the entire Algeria possession 5 minutes and 34 seconds of completely uncontested midfield possession 109 completed passes And then they scored a goal

are they juicing the ball? our experts answer: who cares! (there's presumably a very interesting and serious set of work that could be done about effects of making a football easier to strike/harder to save from distance)

Spent a chunk of this heatwave reading Kit Holden's 'Played In Germany', about Germany and German football, which I liked a lot www.waterstones.com/book/played-...

all my recommendations read like texts the internet's version of 'your dad' would send

Just finished 'How to kill a language' by Sophia Smith Galer. Great book

working on a blog post

Worth a read www.nytimes.com/athletic/739...

look, the only way to fight bad blogs is with good blogs

My guest post over on @graceonfootball.com is up! Thoughts on every team from groups A-C as the ro32 looms. I had tons of fun, so huge thank you to Grace for letting me get in on the action. Seriously, idk how she does this every single day, I'm so tired rn. www.graceonfootball.com/p/world-cup-...

There will be more games played at this World Cup (104) than were played in the first five editions of the competition put together (101).

Futi is now available for everyone! Tell your friends to download the app for iOS and Android at futi.live. We've still got a lot of work to do to make futi your favorite football app, so hop in our Discord and let us know what you want to see next. Thank you guys for all your support!

If you haven't been reading @graceonfootball.com's wonderful daily WC newsletter, what are you doing? Grace is the best and her writing will make you smarter. If you're not a reader, now is a great time to join, btw. I will be guest-starring tomorrow with a full recap of all six of today's games 🫡

21st Group did some analysis when 5 subs first came in saying that it didn't actually advantage richer clubs -- the relative drop-off in quality not actually being greater than poorer clubs -- but does feel more advantageous in international football

Houston, we have broken 1.0xG

72 minutes in, the game has just about reached 0.7xG. Progress.

I know we know this, but Declan Rice is a bit of a cheat code for a midfield. Has done a bunch of supporting runs from LCM flat into the DM zone when Anderson is frozen out, and down LHS for two of those Spence-Gordon moves

37 minutes in, game has not yet broken 0.2xG

The only way you could tell from the broadcasts that the World Cup uses FIFA data -- assuming that you cared about the data provider of your broadcast -- is that the possession share has an 'In Contest' section. (The 'In Contest' section is good)