Champions League Quarterfinals
The Hard Truth of Football The quarterfinal of this year’s condensed Champions League, hosted in Lisbon last week, was nothing short of extraordinary. It seems likely that the combination of […]
Category Archives: Analysis
Tactical analysis of a team, player, or game.
Summer Kicks Off
With the Women’s World Cup kicking off in France and the U-20 World Cup beginning its quarterfinal round yesterday, the summer soccer season felt like it was kicking off in […]
U-20 US – Nigeria Pre-cap
The Unites States find themselves in a must-win game against Nigeria today after losing 2-1 to Ukraine in their opening game of the Under-20 World Cup. The loss came despite […]
U-20 Day 1: Group B Round-Up
The U-20 World Cup kicked off with games from Groups A and B. The latter of those offered the more interesting fixtures. There is no such thing as a group […]
Germany 0 – Mexico 1
Mexico upset tournament favorites Germany in a game that was as tactically interesting as it was viscerally exciting. Joachim Löw’s Germany set up in their anticipated 4-2-3-1, though with Marvin […]
Portugal 3 – Spain 3
The first major game of the 2018 World Cup more than lived up to expectations, as the 36th Iberian derby produced a thrilling and high-quality match of that will be […]
Russia 5 – Saudi Arabia 0
Russia produced a dominating win over Saudi Arabia in this opening match of the 2018 World Cup in a game that was more exciting than skillful. Much of the pre-game […]
A Real Manchester Clásico
At the beginning of last season, I wrote an analysis of the first Guardiola-Mourinho Manchester derby, a game that now seems remarkably distant, a relic of a bygone era. The […]
The Manchester Clásico
Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City won their first derby against José Mourinho’s Manchester United this past Saturday in a game that was more tactically conventional than had been anticipated, at least in […]
NKOTB 2: Mazz-Puel-Karanka
Last week I looked at the biggest new names in Premier League management; this week, it’s the undercard. Though Walter Mazzarri, Claude Puel, and Aitor Karanka don’t have quite the […]
