2023 Season Previews: New York Red Bulls, Columbus Crew, Colorado Rapids

2023 Season Previews: New York Red Bulls, Columbus Crew, Colorado Rapids

Since the more than two million dollar signing of coach Gerhard Struber in October 2020, RB Global has continued to spend on the squad after a long fallow period. This off-season is no different with the club record signing of striker Dante Vanzeir. Struber has overseen a dramatic overhaul of the squad, and RBNY improved dramatically in his first season, posting a 10.37 xGD, which was good for fifth in the league (compared to fifth worst in 2020), while the team underperformed overall, gaining only 13th most points with 48 (the 2020 team averaged 1.38 ppg which was close to the 2021 team ppg of 1.41).

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2023 Season Previews: Los Angeles Galaxy, Nashville SC, Minnesota

2022 was a mixed year for Nashville SC. Shuffled over to the Western Conference for a single season, the ‘Yotes (yes, it’s short for ‘coyotes’, no I won’t stop calling them that) started the season with an eight-game road trip, never quite figured out how to win consistently at Geodis Park once they got home, and missed out on a home playoff game by on tiebreakers.

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2023 Season Previews: Toronto FC, Charlotte FC, Atlanta United FC

Predicting 2023 for Atlanta United seems impossible, and that has almost nothing to do with what happened in 2022, although we really should look at 2022. First, something of a tradition in these previews, the full and up to date annotated franchise xGD history of Atlanta United.

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2023 Season Previews: DC United, SKC, St. Louis city

Part of the impetus for short-term improvement could come down to Rooney as 2023 is the final guaranteed season of his contract. If Matt Doyle’s current projected depth chart starts for DC on February 25, the teams average age would be 29.4. Rooney will have to rely on an older attacking core of Designated Players to keep the Black and Red in contention. 

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2023 Season Previews: Austin, Vancouver, Montreal

Hello Austin fans, it is I, your favourite team hater. Author of tweets such as “SCOREBOARD”, and “Dread it, run from it, the xG arrives all the same”. You remember me. I hope you’re all well. I’m here today to talk about your beloved Austin FC and their 2023 hopes, shall we?

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2023 NWSL Draft Big Board

2023 NWSL Draft Big Board

It’s not much of a stretch to say that of all the American professional sports drafts, the NWSL draft is the hardest to correctly map out. Upwards of 250 players register every year for 40 available slots. Tape on these players is scattered among a litany of different paywalled streaming services, each lower quality than the next. As such, scouting out each year's crop of prospects can be an arduous, and perhaps on some level impossible, task. Thankfully, we do have some objective ways to view potential draftees: stats. And thanks to an army of different filters and search criteria, I’ve created a list of 16 players across four position groups that stand out statistically for one reason or another. 

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The Superdraft is Dead, Long Live the Superdraft

The Superdraft is Dead, Long Live the Superdraft

The Major League Soccer SuperDraft is just a few days away, but don’t worry if you had no idea. Its importance in the assembly of good teams has diminished over the years, supplanted by academies, homegrown deals, and myriad other player acquisition methods. However, that doesn’t mean the draft isn’t important anymore. Kevin Minkus examined the SuperDraft for ASA in 2017, but the league is in a different place now than it was then. Plus, we have Goals Added now. 

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Salary Caps and Chaos: Examining Parity and Predictability Across Sports

Salary Caps and Chaos: Examining Parity and Predictability Across Sports

Soccer is beautiful chaos. It’s players working together to weave patterns in line with an overarching plan, but simultaneously reacting to moments influenced by an incredible number of rapidly changing factors. When the chaos lines up perfectly, it’s like those players share one mind and create a product greater than the sum of its parts. Relatively infrequently, that beauty and chaos influence the score.

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