Tessera

Did not expect to write another version of this, four years later, but I'm even more convinced now: Lionel Messi is the greatest male athlete of all time. www.espn.com/soccer/story...

Messi is the best player at the World Cup, and the best male athlete of all time

Lionel Messi has long been considered the greatest soccer player ever, but he's so much more than that. He's the best male athlete, in any sport, in history.

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Beginning to think it might've been a bad idea to try to close out a game by giving the best soccer player of all time as many touches in the attacking-third as possible.

Person who only watched the World Cup: France are the best soccer team of all time. Person who didn't watch the World Cup: Spain haven't lost a game since March 2024, and they beat France the last two times they've played. The key to understanding soccer is to not watch soccer.

I wrote about the One Weird Trick That Will Save the USMNT. And no, it has nothing to do with "pay to play": www.espn.com/soccer/story...

The USMNT's struggles at the World Cup can't be fixed by overhauling youth development

Everyone thinks they can fix the USMNT. But maybe the U.S. is actually making progress and luck just hasn't been on its side -- what then?

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They need to make youth soccer cheaper in Morocco.

I wrote about the big lesson from the 2026 World Cup: No manager is ever going to save the USMNT. www.espn.com/soccer/story...

USMNT failed at the World Cup because of the players -- no coach could save them

U.S. fans expected more out of the USMNT's expensive, famous coach at the World Cup, but there was one problem: the players.

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Every pass, touch, and free kick from Quintero is perfect, and I'm pretty sure he runs a 5.5 40. I love him.

My biggest issue with soccer has always been that there were too many incredible goals scored 40 seconds after a marginal foul happened on the other side of the field. So glad they fixed this.

The USMNT against Belgium:

We've reached the "my aunt, who doesn't watch soccer and couldn't name either the player or the coach, just texted me to say that Poch needs to bench Balogun for the Belgium game" part of the news cycle.

Can't believe I'm saying this, but I liked it better when the most uniformed soccer opinions I heard every four years were things like "they need to stop the clock" and "Dustin Pedroia would win the Ballon d'Or".

Saying "so what, they got the call right?" in response to VAR or ball-in-chip outrage completely misunderstands why most people watch sports or why sports even exist in the first place.

James Benge@jamesbenge.bsky.social · last mo.

My favorite moment from this game was when Tuchel seemed to be screaming at Djed Spence, a defensive left back who Tuchel selected and was now playing right back because of Tuchel's other squad selections, for not attempting to play a more aggressive forward pass.

Thomas Tuchel is having to coach his way around a straitjacket of an England squad, constructed for him by Thomas Tuchel.

Lamine’s Left Foot @hillaryjhaldanephd.bsky.social · last mo.

Man player, that is. Plenty of our women are cool.

Malik Tillman has achieved something that no other American soccer player ever has: He is cool.

[winger dribbles past 14 players who are all somehow holding swords, plays a perfect through ball] [midfielder runs through lava as multiple tigers (?) claw at his body, chips a perfect pass] [Erling Haaland mishits the ball and it trickles into an empty net] "You just can't stop Erling Haaland".

Every time a team gets eliminated from the World Cup, I'm grading their performance. We've been updating this -- and we'll keep updating it through the end of the tournament: www.espn.com/soccer/story...

World Cup: Grades for every eliminated team, as they exit the tournament

When the World Cup ends, 47 teams will have been eliminated, and we're grading every one on how their run compared with expectations.

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Bill Connelly@espnbillc.bsky.social · last mo.

brb tendering my resignation at the use of "we" in this headline

I've been afflicted with a terrible thought for months, and I just can't shake it. So I have to inflict it on others, too. I think It's Coming Home. www.espn.com/soccer/story...

Looks terrible when it doesn't go in, but shooting your penalty high is good: www.sloansportsconference.com/research-pap...

Do Behavioral Considerations Cloud Penalty-Kick Location Optimization in Professional Soccer: Game Theory & Empirical Testing using Polynomial Regression and ML Gradient Boosting

We are proud to continue the great tradition of bringing together the leading figures in sports analytics, business, and technology.

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This Koopmeiners-at-CB thing is amazing. Lost Diop on the tying goal, got cooked by Rahimi on what should've been the go-ahead goal ... because he's a midfielder? Who isn't even particularly good at defending at the position he actually plays?

That was less "Japan stopped trying to win" and more "Japan's three best players are injured and they were playing against Brazil".

Can’t think of anything that sums up American soccer better than “people being mad that the national team is so good now that they can rest their starters for a World Cup game”.

www.espn.com/sports/socce...

Why Lionel Messi is the best male athlete of all time

The big debate before World Cup was simple: Who's the best player? Now that the Lionel Messi vs. Cristiano Ronaldo argument is (hopefully) over, let's go a step further: is Argentina's Messi the best ever in men's sports?

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