Sports – FiveThirtyEight — Soccer RSS



It’s a Huge Upset When All the World Cup Favorites Win

Warren Buffett has a great investment track record. So perhaps it’s no accident that he declined to offer $1 billion for correctly predicting the outcome of all World Cup knockout stage games, as he did for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament games. The odds of winning Buffett’s NCAA challenge were about one in 7.4 billion, assuming […]

Continue reading



Statkeepers Call the Shots, But They Can’t Agree on Them

In the third minute of added extra time in Tuesday’s Belgium-U.S. World Cup match, Belgium’s Kevin De Bruyne took a pass in the box, dribbled to his right and hooked the ball into the left side of the net. Finally, after 31 shots, the Belgians had broken through. Or … wait. Was it 32 shots? […]

Continue reading



Statkeepers Call the Shots, But They Can’t Agree on Them

In the third minute of added extra time in Tuesday’s Belgium-U.S. World Cup match, Belgium’s Kevin De Bruyne took a pass in the box, dribbled to his right and hooked the ball into the left side of the net. Finally, after 31 shots, the Belgians had broken through. Or … wait. Was it 32 shots? […]

Continue reading



Tim Howard Lost, But He Just Had the Best Match of the World Cup

After losing 2-1 to Belgium on Tuesday, the U.S. men’s national team will be left to contemplate its future; after years of steady improvement, there are hints U.S. men’s soccer has hit a plateau. But one American left the tournament with a strong argument for his international quality: Goalkeeper Tim Howard. Howard was FIFA’s Man of […]

Continue reading



Tim Howard Lost, But He Just Had the Best Match of the World Cup

After losing 2-1 to Belgium on Tuesday, the U.S. men’s national team will be left to contemplate its future; after years of steady improvement, there are hints U.S. men’s soccer has hit a plateau. But one American left the tournament with a strong argument for his international quality: Goalkeeper Tim Howard. Howard was FIFA’s Man of […]

Continue reading