During the pandemic, when Carlon Carpenter and I researched the impact of certain types of soccer passes, we were blown away by how important they were to goal scoring. We wrote 10 articles about them throughout 2021, called the “Where Goals Come From” series. There was so much material, we could have written 25 articles -- many ideas have never emerged and hopefully will still come out at some point (or we’ll work with clubs to implement as their own competitive advantage). Even from those 10 articles, we never imagined the reach they would have in clubs across the world.

Now feels like the right time to bring this back and examine further how the concepts introduced in these articles impact the sport, particularly in an unpredictable league like Major League Soccer. I’m grateful fellow ASA analysts Catalina Bush and Arman Kafai have joined me for this phase of the journey.

Here’s a quick primer / refresher on the Where Goals Come From concepts:

-Jamon