Soccer Archives - Donald Erik Schneider

The MLS, GAM, and Pro/Rel

April 28, 2026April 28, 2026dondoLeave a comment 98 views

This weekend the Seattle Sounders will host Sporting Kansas City in the MLS regular season. Most Seattle Sounders fans agree that Andrew Thomas, Jesus Ferreira, Jordan Morris, and eight water bottles could probably beat SKC this year. SKC is really, truly, monumentally bad at the moment. Which is weird. Historically the MLS has enjoyed significant…

Sounders, Philly, and Léo Chu

May 1, 2024October 4, 2024dondoLeave a comment 2817 views

Soccer is a delicious, multi-faceted game that can be analyzed at many layers: at the team level, one can debate player selection, formation choices, tactical choices, and so on; at the individual level, one can discuss an individual’s athleticism, fitness, ball skills, and on and on. In the attack, one key element to consider at…

World Cup Soccer Data

July 7, 2022July 8, 2022dondoLeave a comment 2499 views

I’m pretty into soccer. I played soccer all of my adult life, except when injuries got in the way. I’m a massive Seattle Sounders fan. And I love the global sport. Every four years since 2006, I have taken a bunch of time off work to travel with a group of friends to watch the…

US Men’s Soccer needs more than cosmetic surgery.

November 26, 2017dondo2 Comments 1680 views

In 1994, after riding the train to Palo Alto with chanting, excited fans, and then watching the USMNT play competitively against Brazil in the Round of 16, I was optimistic about the game in the US. So optimistic that I was convicted we would compete for the world cup in a generation, and win it…

Stats and soccer… turns out, possession is good.

May 20, 2017May 20, 2017dondoLeave a comment 1371 views

Here’s one for the soccer fans — really, specifically, for my older son. He’s a quantitative nerd, and he likes to point out that in soccer possession is not correlated to goals… but it turns out he’s wrong! Ah, it makes me so happy to point out that he’s wrong in statistics. Reep eventually came…