me and Joe sat down to grind some tape please look at our new thing we do www.fivestripefinal.com/p/film-room-...

Expected goals are everywhere now, but there's so much more we can do with them. Here's how futi turns basic xG into team-level metrics including deserved results, projected points and projected finish.

The Sunday night column is back! Matchday 1 saw LAFC make a statement, Cincy dive into The Discourse & plenty more around MLS. Including a performance for the ages by the wrong guy late on Sunday night. tacticsfreezone.ghost.io/lafc-send-a-...

Following MLS is harder than it should be, so I made an automated daily newsletter that rounds up high-quality coverage from around the league. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow but you can sign up in advance here: tally.so/r/eq6DQx

If you want to catch up, you can find all the previews here www.americansocceranalysis.com/home/categor...

⚡ 𝐅𝐀𝐒𝐓𝑭𝑶𝑹𝑾𝑨𝑹𝑫 \\ 𝐑𝐮𝐬𝐭-𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐋𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐏𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐧 𝚙𝚒𝚙 𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚏𝚊𝚜𝚝-𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚍-𝚏𝚘𝚘𝚝𝚋𝚊𝚕𝚕 Today I'm 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐚-releasing 𝐅𝐀𝐒𝐓𝑭𝑶𝑹𝑾𝑨𝑹𝑫. My new Rust-powered football tracking data loader wrapped in a Python package.

2+4. 3+3. What do these mean when it comes to MLS roster building? Is there a clear benefit choosing one or the other? Is one model a ‘cheap’ way in building a roster? For FAM, today we’re analyzing MLS Roster Construction Models.

@akeaswaran.me made this neat graph of a quick strength of schedule model. Really interesting to see how relative difficulty between the front and back parts of the season may drive narratives. Neville might find his seat pretty hot, while Varas is my pick for COTY winner w/ a likely hot start.

Every year the MLS punditerati are asked to pick their MLS standings, every year they get smoked. @paulharvey.theoutfield.nyc decided to look into who is the best prognosticator, and who deserves the hatemail. www.americansocceranalysis.com/home/2026/2/14/the-prognostication-power-rankings

Fifteen years ago, I got my dream job writing for MLSsoccer. Last week, that came to an end. I'm off on my own, and it's time to build something new – with a little help from all of you. tacticsfreezone.ghost.io/an-end-to-my...

A brief preview interregnum: we talked to the guys over @futi.live about what they’re building and some of the cool models they’ve got going on over there www.americansocceranalysis.com/home/2026/2/...

Our 2026 MLS previews are here and they start at the bottom: @mattbarger.bsky.social tells us about DCU trying to be the Union, and @paulharvey.theoutfield.nyc argues regression for Atlanta and the expansion of a Cheese empire in Montreal www.americansocceranalysis.com/home/2026/2/...

A lot of the ASA-erati attended the @americansoccerinsights.com summit at Rice University last week, and people wanted to talk about their experience. So we convened the ASA roundtable for highlights. www.americansocceranalysis.com/home/2026/2/7/asa-roundtable-american-soccer-insights-summit

We had so much fun at the @americansoccerinsights.com Summit last year, we had to come back for another live pod! We were joined by @catabush.com and Houston Dash analyst Chloe Dhillon for a great talk about the state of data in the women's game, for the public and for teams. Enjoy!

For The IX Soccer, @catabush.com wrote about the importance of access to analytics and why FBref losing Opta data is a huge blow for women's soccer coverage.

Sam's the best. Read his stuff and subscribe to Five Stripe Final if you're an Atlanta United fan (or if you want to get smarter about soccer and/or derive more enjoyment from reading about it.)

It's really hard to understate how grateful I am for an event like @americansoccerinsights.com. This past weekend was extraordinary and it wouldn't have been possible without the Summit. The content was exceptional and now I have to comb through 5+ pages of notes lol.

Can't even begin to say thank you to all that came out to ASI. This is maybe the first if not the biggest showing of @americansocceranalysis.com present cast and alums we've ever had in a room.

The ASI Summit kicks off tomorrow! To get a peek at this weekend's content, visit our website. In addition to abstracts, you'll find the papers and code repos from the participants of this year's research breakaway competition, sponsored by SkillCorner. americansoccerinsights.com/program/abst...

VIZHUB 2.0 IS HERE ‼️ A culmination of VizMas + recent improvements, VizHub 2.0 brings the following features: - revamped league tab with player & team stats - more granularity across entire app - new graphics - mobile support 2.0 only broadens VizHub to cover more of your dataviz needs.

How do you add tactical context to football data? For futi, it starts with a phase of play model.

I've written before about the 'processing war' caused by the array of different data providers who rarely want to make it easy to work with other datasets. This kinda thing is handy, and could save the biz, cumulatively, a lot of boring time

Really excited to get this project in the public eye. Our mandate at U.S. Soccer is to Grow the Game: lowering the barrier to entry for analysis is the best way we can do that!

And if you want to interact with the package directly, head to ussoccerfederation.github.io/glass_onion/

If you want to hear Akshay talk about Glass Onion, why it's so important for US Soccer to put something like this out there, you can catch him on the latest episode of the ASA Podcast. Available wherever you get your pods. open.spotify.com/episode/2lQ4...

There's a new tool from @ussoccer.com and @akeaswaran.me is here to tell you about it. Introducing Glass Onion, an Identifier Synchronization Tool www.americansocceranalysis.com/home/2026/1/...

Seriously, though: On top of Arman's MLS knowledge, dude has 2 econ degrees. I took like 2 macro classes. Add that to his deep knowledge MLS and the cap.... if you're a true sicko, his (free!) substack is a must footyanalyticmusings.substack.com

Team history chart of the day: Oklahoma State Peak: 2017, +0.25 net EPA/play, 7th in FBS Low: 2025, -0.29 net EPA/play, 135th in FBS gameonpaper.com/cfb/team/197

From a business perspective, this is genuinely one of the largest market opportunities out there.

In the wake of FBref's defacto death, I saw a lot of posts suggesting alternate data sources. Unfortunately, many of them focus exclusively on men's soccer. To measure what options remain for woso, I conducted a survey of the most popular FBref alternatives. What I found is disappointing: 🧵

Just because I feel like it needs to be stated out loud, @americansocceranalysis.com is fine. We all appreciate the support with stuff surrounding FBref. We have the token patreon if you want but really, best way to support us is to do cool shit with our data. www.patreon.com/americansocc...

There is still time to register for the ASI Summit, but act fast! Registration closes on January 23rd, so make sure to secure your spot before then. We do not offer on-site registration. Get your tickets now: americansoccerinsights.com/registration/

Full GAM release!

One more person to thank (especially in light of today’s FBRef/SportsReference news): @collegefootballdata.com, who graciously collects, cleans, and organizes the underlying data that powers our models and summaries. Please support them in any way you can! www.patreon.com/collegefootb...

I don't thank them enough www.americansocceranalysis.com

This harms the football data ecosystem more broadly too. Most people who start in football data aren’t buying raw data, they’re experimenting with freely available stuff (h/t Statsbomb for leading the way) and that’s how they become analysts etc on the pro side later.

Today is a good day to be thankful for all the wonderful people that support the analytics community. I will always be eternally grateful for my friends at @americansocceranalysis.com (@bgrnwd.bsky.social and @tylerrichardett.dev specifically).

We can't thank everyone enough for using the site and to those who newly discovered us this season. So many new features and fixes coming for the 2026. College football is the best. Major shoutout to @sickoscommittee.org for essentially being our loudspeaker as we grow. - Akshay, Saiem, and Jack

National Championship preview, radar edition

CFP National Championship #1 Indiana vs. #10 Miami Game Preview: gameonpaper.com/cfb/game/401... Indiana: gameonpaper.com/cfb/year/202... Miami: gameonpaper.com/cfb/year/202...

MLS implemented two rules in the last couple of seasons that have allowed for more GAM to be produced, increasing the roster budgets for teams. Why did they have this impact and what impact did it have? We dig into it for FAM:

This dashboard is kept up to date with NWSL signings, which are happening at a rapid pace these days

Free newsletter: I spent the afternoon figuring out – very, very roughly – how much GAM each MLS team has to play with. My brain is mush. tacticsfreezone.substack.com/p/figuring-o...

ICYMI: We've got team history charts added to the site. And yes, Indiana's EPA chart is just what you'd think it'd be: gameonpaper.com/cfb/team/84

For the second year in a row, the ASI Summit will be hosting a Women in Soccer Analytics networking reception upon conclusion of Friday's events. All summit participants are welcome. To RSVP, use the following link: (Note: RSVP is required by January 23) docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

NEW TO GAME ON PAPER: Team history pages and national trends! Here you can see a team’s progression against the rest of the nation in a given metric and flip through their profile radars. National Trends: gameonpaper.com/cfb/charts/t...

For more incredible graphics like these, visit ASA VizHub, the @americansocceranalysis.com project built by the one-of-one @catabush.com

We are officially one month away from the 2026 ASI Summit! You can now view the Summit schedule on our website at americansoccerinsights.com/program/. Registration is still open, so don't forget to secure your tickets while supplies last. We look forward to seeing you soon!

Looking forward to seeing soccer analytics people at this

There’s no draft in NWSL but teams sure are signing players out of college. So @paulharvey.theoutfield.nyc made the NWSL college prospect dashboard. www.americansocceranalysis.com/home/2026/1/...