Category Archives: Football/Soccer

WWC2019: The Final

I’ve been oddly reticent about writing up a preview of this one. I suspect it’s because I will be rooting for the Orange, without thinking they have much of a chance at all against the USA. Soccer analytics still feels … Continue reading

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WWC2019: The Semifinals (for real this time)!

Four games remaining … How We Did Meh. No exact scores, got Germany – Sweden wrong (along with everyone else), and had basically refused to pick the USA – France match. England – USA Jill Ellis‘ highly conservative style, demonstrated … Continue reading

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WWC2019: The Quarterfinals!

{ Got ahead of myself and originally published this as the Semis. Whoops. } How We Did Not bad. Not great, but not bad. Evidently, I don’t respect Scandinavia as much as I should, as both Norway and Sweden surprised. … Continue reading

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WWC2019: The Round of 16

{ I’m writing this immediately after the Germany-Nigeria game–travel and work got in the way of getting it done before that. } Nothing too surprising coming out of the groups–sure, exactly how Scotland/ Argentina/ Nigeria/ Chile/ China would end up … Continue reading

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WWC2019: The Second Games

A note on VAR to open. I’m a fan, for sure–getting calls right strikes me as generally important–but there are two points that, I think, need to be addressed: First, if you look for a penalty, you will usually find … Continue reading

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WWC2019: The First Round of Games

Notes and thoughts on the first games in each group. GENERAL NOTES I really want to highlight the difference between Argentina, Italy, and Brazil on one hand and Spain on the other. Twenty years ago, none of these countries cared … Continue reading

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WWC2019: Predictions & What-Not

Scrambling to get these out there before kickoff tomorrow. Remember, the top 2 teams from each group, plus the next 4, make the knockout rounds. It’s hard for the key match to not just always be the clash between the … Continue reading

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WWC2019: It’s Almost Time

Gosh, it feels like 1200 days since we were here last … I’m not sure what I plan to write about the World Cup about to kick off in France, but I’m sure I’ll probably match my output for WWC2015. … Continue reading

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Dashing: 30 April v Sky Blue FC

There’s just not a lot to say about this game. The story of the night was about who wasn’t on the pitch, and not a lot of import happened on it. Sigh. See other writeups at Midfield Press, Dynamo Theory, … Continue reading

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Dashing: 16 April v Chicago Red Stars

Welcome back to Dashing, an occasional series on Houston’s professional women’s soccer team. As a reminder, I try to focus more on tactical/evaluative comments than game reports. Fantastic game writeups can be found in the usual places: Dynamo Theory, KeeperNotes, etc. … Continue reading

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