What, if anything, did Philadelphia Union do that was different from their historical averages so far this year? If you're reading this article first - you may want to check out this article on Composite Possession with Purpose (CPWP) Predictability Index, results for Week 16 in Major League Soccer, first to see why I am offering it.... Continue Reading →
PWP Predictability Index vs MLS Results Week 16
While I didn't venture any predictions for this past weekend in Major League Soccer I thought it would be fun to see how the overall Composite Possession with Purpose (CPWP) Index fared compared to the results in Week 16. As a reminder here is the CPWP Predictability Index from Week 15: Vancouver at home to... Continue Reading →
World Cup 2014 – Group Stages Completed; Who’s leading the PWP Pack?
No more draws... you're out you're out. The true brutality of the game begins; if you're faint of heart and don't want to know how well the USA stacks up against the rest of the World in Possession with Purpose don't read on. I'll lightly touch on my Attacking PWP to set the stage and... Continue Reading →
World Cup 2014 – Possession with Purpose; What do the tea leaves show?
The brutal facts of World Cup results are beginning to take shape now that 2 games are completed in the Group Stage; some surprises on both ends of the pitch to be sure. Is the most surprising of all seeing both Spain and England tossed out with the early morning rubbish? Or is it the complete surprise by... Continue Reading →
USA 2 Portugal 2; final thoughts before moving on…
I won't go into great detail like others have about the Portugal game; in my view Matthew Doyle has done an excellent job already (read here). But when you get to his Point #6 stop and watch that initial video a couple of times and then take a read of this article by Simon Borg -... Continue Reading →
Taking on Portugal… USA – Sunday…
There is quite a bit of information to consider in how difficult this game will be - I'm not sure I'll scratch the itch about everything but here's some information I think has relevance for those who intend to watch the game this Sunday. To begin... Possession: The correlation of possession percentage to average points... Continue Reading →
Possession with Purpose – Predictability Indices – Major League Soccer
After some superb discussion at the World Conference on Science and Soccer folks back in 2014 I first wrote this article; I've since improved the Total Soccer Index (though I haven't published the new algorithm). Here's my most recent article on predictability (Predicting Team Standings in Professional Soccer) - it was this article that led... Continue Reading →
World Conference on Science and Soccer – My Presentation on Possession with Purpose
Roughly 10 days before the Kickoff to the first ever World Conference on Science and Soccer held in the United States I got a phone call from the Conference President and Coordinator Terry Favero asking me if I was interested in making a presentation on Possession with Purpose. To say the least I was pleasantly... Continue Reading →
World Cup 2014 – Possession with Purpose – Nearly done with Round 1…
Draws - bollocks - teams are out to score goals - 43 of them so far - and there are still two games left in Round 1 of Stage 1 - but are the teams scoring the most goals really that dominant? For many that's a silly question but seriously - are there trends behind... Continue Reading →
Philadelphia Union – the plots thickens – Vartughian pushed out as well…
In case you missed it Philadelphia Union also sacked Rob Vartughian yesterday - one day after Hackworth got the boot. Vartughian was an Assistant Coach and Technical Director. I'm not sure what the Philadelphia Union organization means by calling someone a Technical Director but it's my guess it has something to do with behind the scenes player... Continue Reading →
