Footballinear Socceregression

This is part 2 of a series about the statistics of global soccer performance, part 1 is here. A Picture with a Thousand Words on It The point of this week's post was to get to this chart, showing how good each country is at soccer independent of population and region of the world: You are … Continue reading Footballinear Socceregression

Tails of Great Soccer Players

Isn't it strange that the Chinese aren't world champions in every single team sport? Here's why it's strange: China has 19% of the world's population. For individual sports that may not be a huge deal: if tennis ability and opportunity are distributed equally around the world, there would be only a 19% chance that the best … Continue reading Tails of Great Soccer Players

We Hold These Truths

This blog lives by a two-part creed: You can put a number on anything if you try hard enough (number quality not guaranteed, see store for details). Once you put a number on something, you improve your understanding and decision making (even if the number isn't of prime quality). At the core of this belief is the idea that … Continue reading We Hold These Truths