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 […]
Category Archives: Analysis
Tactical analysis of a team, player, or game.
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 […]
NKOTHB: Pep – Mou – Tony C
With the possible exception of Manchester United’s mega-signings of Zlatan Ibrahimović, and Paul Pogba, the most exciting additions to the Premier League this season are a trio of managers. Pep […]
