When Eric Dier drove his penalty kick just past the outstretched fingers of Colombian goalkeeper David Ospina and into the back of the net, he broke a 22-year English streak of losing on penalty kicks. The obvious question now is whether England can break a far more important streak that’s lasted even longer: 52 years […]
When we think of the best soccer players in history, we rarely think about the relatively inconsequential goals they scored for their club teams in midseason matches against their middle-of-the-pack competition. Instead we think about how they played for their national teams, and especially how they performed at major international tournaments like the World Cup. […]
In a World Cup full of upsets, one thing remains consistent: Brazil is the best soccer team in the world. The Selecao came into the tournament playing like the best team in the world. Through four games in Russia, they’ve played like the best team in the tournament — both in the way they attack […]
If you watched the World Cup these past few weeks, you likely noticed the game that exists within the game. Under most circumstances, when the score is tied, soccer is a simple matter of putting the ball in the net. But once a goal is scored, the shenanigans begin: The leading side typically takes on […]
By analyzing the statistical fingerprints of every performance by every player to appear in a World Cup since 1966, FiveThirtyEight’s new interactive tool — 50 Years Of World Cup Doppelgangers — can give a realistic sense of how great or lousy each performance in Russia this month is by comparing them to how other players […]