The World Cup hangs over the background as the ebbs, flows and crescendos of a season shapes players, national and domestic sides and transfer moves well before and well after the event. Read more »
Soccer Analysis
Transfer Moves, Playing Time: How The World Cup Looms Over 2018
2017 Year-End Soccer Club Portfolio Rankings
Manchester City, Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona and Manchester United enter 2018 in our top-5. Read more »
Why 2017 Was The Year Of The Fullback
With the focus on counter pressing and counter attacking, it was only a matter of time in which a certain type of player or a position would arise out of sprints, recovery and athleticism. Read more »
Pep Guardiola Always Has Talent, Always Has Ambition
Pep Guardiola doesn't achieve what he achieves improbably. But perhaps nobody in the world dominates as inventively as he does. Read more »
The Race To 100 Million Supporters: Besiktas Build Local & Global
The unbeaten record of Besiktas in the Champions League group stage was a surprise. But led by an ambitious club president, the success on the field and on Twitter was no accident. Read more »
The Best Man & The Underdog: David Wagner Builds On A Budget
Huddersfield have built the foundation both on and off the field. David Wagner's side are an experiment in how far a team can go at the highest level through finding value players who fit a clearly defined style. Read more »
The Lasting Lessons Of England's 2006 World Cup Team For 2018
If the most pressing tactical question a decade ago was how to fit England's most dynamic two midfielders in the same lineup, then Pochettino's versatility with his group of national team players is the anti-Gerrard-Lampard conundrum. Read more »
Why Valencia's Success Is No Early Season Fluke
Valencia attack directly now. They're defensively organized. The players work with and without the ball, or they don't play. Read more »
Year 2 Of Pep At City: Boxes, Inverted Fullbacks & Leaving A Legacy
Beyond the numbers, Manchester City looks like a Pep Guardiola side. It's the differentiation and movement from players like Lahm and Alaba to Walker and Delph that reveal the nuances of his art. Read more »
National Team Overhauls & The Early Impact Of The 2018 World Cup
The 2018 World Cup has already had a significant impact in sparking existential debates about a country's football identity. Why were so many traditional World Cup stalwarts struggling to qualify this time around? Read more »
Marcelino And Goncalo Guedes Give Valencia A Counterattacking Shape
Marcelino's side adds another wrinkle to the style and personality of the league alongside the big three of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atleti. Read more »
Marcelo Gallardo Aims His Press Towards Europe
Rumors of Marcelo Gallardo's future mimic the conundrum of Argentine talent developed domestically then exported to Europe in their prime. Read more »
Inter Milan Find Stability Through The Second Market
On Walter Sabatini and Luciano Spalletti finding stability by getting the lower profile signings right. Read more »
Controlling Space: Jesse Marsch Builds A Low-Key Anti-Barcelona
Jesse Marsch is in the middle of proving something even more impactful than a national team position: that a modern approach centered around youth, pressing and directness can translate into tangible results in the MLS. Read more »
Barcelona, Las Palmas Carry On At Empty Camp Nou
There will always be an unease in analyzing the match in the future. The emptiness at the Camp Nou stripped soccer down to its essence: players passed, dribbled, tackled and yelled. Read more »
Edinson Cavani Finally Receives His Starring Role
Sure, Edinson Cavani miss chances, and those misses will get magnified on social media leading to an even deeper divide on opinions reflecting his quality. He is defined by dichotomy, both of skill and of opinion. Read more »
Atletico Madrid, Wanda Metropolitano And The Architecture Of Harmony
In what could have been a disastrous summer with a transfer ban and fallout from Diego Simeone's non-committal, Atleti inadvertently stumbled into having their stadium cake and eating it too without having to tear down their side to pay for it. Read more »
Frank De Boer, Mid-Table Progression And Selling Hope In Football
The Ajax-ization of Crystal Palace lasted 77 days. The most surprising aspect of the firing was how little surprise there was. Read more »
Match Control, Full Concentration And English Teams Breaking Through
The question of why Premier League sides fail to make it to later rounds of the Champions League inspires various levels of analysis and theories, but it wasn't always this way. Read more »
Absolute Harmony, Team Spirit And Progressing Through CONMEBOL
The CONMEBOL table reflects a larger changing of the guard at play in analyzing the rise of Colombia and Peru, and the struggles of Argentina and Chile. Read more »