Now the Crew just need to play some kids. www.thedisrespected.com/bezbatchenko...

I rarely use capital letters or exclamation points, but I do here. Tim Bezbatchenko is returning to #Crew96 as Haslam Sports Group's President of Global Soccer. Let the sun shine in. #VamosColumbus No paywall on this one. Have a nice day. www.thedisrespected.com/bezbatchenko...

It’s happening.

Let Courtois take over and play the kids, this season is a write off. Also make Bez an offer he can’t refuse. #Crew96

I don't know exactly why this single seat offer was a thing, but I paid $7.52 after fees to go to the last Nashville SC game. Can't beat $1.25/goal.

Kei Kamara will forever live on in soccer analytics as the example of how xG can never equal one. youtu.be/V_7atDXZexc?...

With most teams having played 8 games, the underlying stats are beginning to become useful while still noisy. Vancouver may be the best MLS team ever and SKC the worst. Both are performing as expected. There's a huge pack of average teams down on their luck.

We were able to schedule a friendly with this team yesterday. The ref had to call the game early because parents were complaining too much about his calls, which is about the most American thing possible.

Let Courtois take over and play the kids, this season is a write off. Also make Bez an offer he can’t refuse. #Crew96

New research! @beninquiring.bsky.social replicated @eliotmckinley.com's work on throw ins, and added g+ in to see how teams can be smarter on the trendiest part of the game in 2026. With an interactive throw in visualizer! www.americansocceranalysis.com/home/2026/4/...

My son’s final game of a soccer tournament this morning was cancelled this morning because of increasing ICE activity in Nashville. I cannot wait for all the people that caused this to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

It's great to see the Art Modell Law potentially going national. FWIW when he was an Austin city council member, Casar voted to provide public land to Anthony Precourt so he could move the Columbus Crew to Austin. I'm glad he learned a lesson from that.

Gotta pay the Trump toll if you wanna get in that Persian Gulf hole.

Not great, Henrik.

One does not simply transition to relationism overnight

It took me a sec, but the xG dashboard is back for 2026! For those who weren't here last season, the dashboard uses @jamonm.bsky.social & @carloncarpenter.bsky.social's WGCF principles to break down MLS shots. Built using @americansocceranalysis.com data. public.tableau.com/app/profile/...

So that insane home advantage didn't survive week 3 of the 2026 MLS season (46th percentile now).

Adding in all MLS games, 2026 has the highest home advantage to start a season - just edging out 1997 and 2000.

I pulled some data via @americansocceranalysis.com's {itscalledsoccer} and while home advantage has never started out so high in an MLS season since 2013, it is not quite the highest ever (only 98.41 percentile). I suspect this is an aberration and it will bounce around just like it always has.

With only two weeks left before the 2026 NWSL season kicks off, check out which teams will look most similar to and which teams will look most different from their 2025 counterparts! Returning minutes graph for @americansocceranalysis.com.

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

While there could be a few more changes, this incorporates all the recent moves (Salloi, RBW, Dorsey, Carmona, Elie). This season has the highest roster turnover since I started tracking this prior to the 2019 season, but there are no statistically significant differences in any of the seasons.

Since I wrote this @michaelarace1.bsky.social interviewed with Henrik Rydström where he answered: - #Crew96 will probably play 3 CBs because that's what the team knows- but may go to back 4 - Zawadzki is CB for now - Habroune can play as AM, 8, or 6 creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/...

@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.

I’ve written some articles that took months of research and writing on nitty gritty soccer analytics topics. But nothing has ever come close to being as popular as my transformer-based QSMNT tweet generator shitpost from back before ChatGPT was a thing. www.americansocceranalysis.com/home/2022/6/...

You'd think that hating soccer would disqualify someone from running Major League Soccer. Given their actions it appears that not only it doesn't, but it is a qualification for getting the job.

Fancy Stats commissioned a bunch of articles about the 2018 World Cup from American Soccer Analysis writers. I will not apologize for any contribution I have made to the shift from open play to set piece scoring. www.washingtonpost.com/news/fancy-s...

Pod drop: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a... We talked to @armankafai.bsky.social about the ASI Summit and some of the top tier research going on there. Then we got weird on MLS roster rules. Available wherever you get pods.

Now updated for some errors and recent moves. Orlando with a big drop with Alex Freeman and Luis Muriel departing. Seattle at the top after I corrected for the re-signing of Stefan Frei.

With less than a month until the 2026 MLS season starts, rosters are getting finalized. Chicago, Austin, Columbus, and LAFC are largely running things back. Toronto FC finally decided to rebuild after years of bad results, returning fewer than 50% of minutes from 2025.

A piece worth your time, from @jeffrueter.bsky.social: www.theguardian.com/football/202...

RIP Nashville Magnolia trees.

I highly recommend listening to @michaelarace1.bsky.social’s interview with new #Crew96 coach Henrik Rydström. A very interesting guy. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

Continuing the tradition, I have compiled an end-of-year overview of the soccer analytics content that I liked the most in 2025. This edition includes pointers to about 200 resources, including research papers, blog posts, news articles, podcasts, and webinars. janvanhaaren.be/posts/soccer...

NBD…just four bananas in one. Quad-Banana.

The most MLS thing of this 2026 MLS draft may have been Colorado using the 6th pick, which they received from Toronto in exchange for an assistant coach and a video analyst, to select a player already in the Colorado Rapids system.

I took this photo walking home with my son when he was in pre-K. Among other things, it might explain some of the decrease in walking/biking.

Check out @americansocceranalysis.com for this year's edition of my MLS Superdraft Big Board. This year, there's more depth and more room for discovery. Also, for college soccer fans it includes ALL Division 1 players regardless of draft eligibility. There's some exciting players coming in 👀

It was a magical time to be a #Crew96 supporter under Wilfred Nancy. @calebdenorme.bsky.social returns from his slumber to pay tribute to the former boss. massive-report.com/2025/12/03/w...

This morning in our TN-7 precinct there were 3 other voters besides my wife and I, which is 3 more than there normally are on non-presidential election days. So maybe she's got a chance.

The most uniquely American tradition at my Vietnamese immigrant in-law's house is the pho that made from what's left of the Thanksgiving turkey.

This is going to completely disrupt the elementary school match word problem industry.

I'm much more of a "team goal" guy than an "individual banger" guy but this shit's stayed with me for 15 years. Still my favorite thunderbastard in MLS history. Has a level of intentionality to it that few goals have ever matched. What a player, what a career.

What's even crazier about this game is that FC Cincy's one shot logged by the scorekeepers requires a very generous definition of a "shot". #Crew96

Incredible.