A Day at the American Soccer Insights Summit: The Latest and Greatest in Soccer Analytics

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By Akshay Easwaran

Soccer data environments can often be seen as black boxes: based on club websites or American Soccer Analysis’ own State of MLS Analytics survey, we might know that something sporting-data-related is going on at a team’s training ground, but it’s often difficult to place what exactly that something is. In their defense, club and team personnel often want to protect any sort of competitive advantage so this sort of secrecy is (somewhat) justifiable, but these inner workings are what sickos soccer analytics nerds and college students interested in the industry really want to know about. 

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2025 MLS Season Previews: Los Angeles Galaxy, LAFC, Inter Miami

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Six Stars, Zero Cap Space

By Sean Steffen

You hate the Galaxy. Chances are, you’ve hated the Galaxy since you started following the league. But let’s face it. You haven’t TRULY hated the Galaxy in a long time. In fact, for the younger generations, I’ll bet the booing was perfunctory. “Why are we booing this franchise? They are irrelevant.” Heck, going into MLS Cup, I saw a lot of tweets rooting for the Galaxy to prove the power of fan boycotts. Didn’t like that. You aren’t supposed to root for us. With Will Kuntz in charge, you may never root for us again.

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2025 MLS Season Previews: Real Salt Lake, Cincinnati, Columbus

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Salt Lake Peak?

By Harrison Crow

The first half of RSL’s season was filled with (mostly) surprises and fun. While we’ve waited for Salt Lake’s young core to step forward it finally started to blossom and with Chicho Arango and Andrés Gómez both looking like potential MLS MVP’s the team looked poised to potentially play host to a home playoff series and become a true Cupset threat in the West with an almost 3-month unbeaten stretch.

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2025 MLS Season Previews: Orlando, Houston, Seattle

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Orlando’s Offseason Offers Optimistic Outlook

By Matt Barger

Orlando fans may feel their Lions’ magic has run out after fumbling the easy road to the MLS Cup Final.  Finding their form late last season, fourth-seeded Orlando City hosted three underdog stories in the Eastern bracket, eventually losing to the seventh-seeded Red Bulls in the Eastern Conference Final.

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2025 MLS Season Previews: Portland, Charlotte, NYCFC

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Evander Evaded

By Matt Barger

Portland Timbers fans likely left 2024 with much higher expectations for the 2025 season. With an “unacceptable” five-nil loss to Vancouver in the Western Conference Play-in game, the Timbers capped a season that oversaw drastic improvements everywhere except the league table. The attack in particular added a monstrous 19 goals to 2023’s total, flipping a 2023 goal difference of -12 to a 2024 goal difference of +9. With a tightened defense to complement the fourth-strongest attack in MLS, Timbers fans could have expected a playoff run this year.

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2025 MLS Season Previews: New York Red Bulls, Colorado Rapids, Minnesota United

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A Sweet 16 (Consecutive Playoff Seasons) in Harrison?

By Ben Bellman

After setting an MLS record and clinching their 15th consecutive season in the playoffs, the Red Bulls shocked the Columbus Crew in two matches as a 7th seed (47 points) and made a run to their second MLS Cup appearance in 29 seasons. The team started hot with new coach Sandro Schwartz and star attacker Emil Forsberg but hit a mid-season lull when Forsberg was injured, earning 11 draws in 15 matches in one stretch. But once October hit, Schwartz brought the team back to their energy drink roots. Interrupting actions increased 25%-40% and passes dropped by 50% compared to their pre-October levels, and they rode that sufferball through Columbus, Queens, and Orlando to the final. 

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2025 MLS Season Previews: Atlanta United, Austin FC, Vancouver Whitecaps

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The Most Expensive Rebuild in League History

By Kieran Doyle 

Let’s get it out of the way right off the top. This is a tremendous amount of money to spend, and Atlanta better be good more or less right away, or there’s going to be a whole lot of pressure on Ronny Deila, Garth Lagerway, and Chris Henderson. Luckily for you, intrepid Five Stripes fan, they shouldn’t just be good, they should be really good. 

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2025 MLS Season Previews: St. Louis City, Philadelphia Union, Chicago Fire

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St. Louis, St. Losin’... Unless?

By Kieran Doyle-Davis

St. Louis City SC had a pretty gnarly 2024 season, after what felt like an exceptional 2023 maiden expansion season. We cautioned about the likely regression coming off the back of a season in which they posted the seventh highest xGD overperformance ever. Unfortunately, it came. St. Louis posted a -13 goal difference on a -10 expected goal difference in 2024, a far cry from the +18 GD-xGD of the 2023 season. More unfortunately, St. Louis also just played worse.

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