Matt Barger

Matt Barger

@mattbarger.bsky.social

Data scientist. Anti-fascist. Soccer fan. Disappointed Keynesian. Sometimes writer for American Soccer Analysis

1.1K followers1.5K following5.7K posts

1. Ronin is a fantastic movie. 2. I remember they were celebrating this aspect on the release 3. How did no one die?

jamelle@jamellebouie.net

watching the 4K release of Ronin with frankenheimer's commentary and learning that the car chases in the movie were happening *at speed*. no camera tricks or anything, they were straight up *racing*. "we set up all the actors in high performance driving school so they were used to the speeds."

Matt Barger reposted

Jeff Kassouf@jeffkassouf.bsky.social

BREAKING: The NWSL and NWSLPA have settled several grievances, including the High Impact Player rule. The criteria is wiped (still 12% cap charge). ANY player can be HIP. Also settled: Other Rodman grievance, footwear grievance. Greater $ transparency reporting now required. More on @espn.com:

How are those 2024 talking points going?

The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com

Springfield, Ohio, leads the state in year-over-year job losses. When thousands of Haitian residents lost their protection from deportation, dozens were arrested, scores lost their jobs and others either left the country or decided to hunker down at home.

a soft reminder that this is how all the polling was going in 2024 as well. don't be surprised if the Republicans, who openly exude voter disenfranchisement and intimidation, pull another "against the odds" win again. and... oh, right. vote. preferably not for Republicans.

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I was done with believing things would change when Lebensraum and forced migration won in a landslide. and the hard part? we're brainwashing ourselves. average screentime is, what, 6 hours a day? the same things that I believe destroy social trust are things in which I willingly engage.

so while I very much hope El Sayed, Talarico, and the blue wave rolls through this country... I inevitably prepare for another four decades of being ruled by the perpetual victimhood and grievances of insanely rich sociopaths.

a soft reminder that this is how all the polling was going in 2024 as well. don't be surprised if the Republicans, who openly exude voter disenfranchisement and intimidation, pull another "against the odds" win again. and... oh, right. vote. preferably not for Republicans.

if AI and social media have taught us anything, it's that we looooove having our biases confirmed. if you glance at the other side (i.e., open Facebook or Twitter), you'll see that complete non sequiturs and blatant racism land as salient policy options.

I really like the logic behind this. Simple and effective.

Kieran Doyle@kierdoyle.bsky.social

Goofing around with a metric on players who are good at receiving the ball and able to turn and play forward (and passers who enable it). Here's my first simple pass, just forward pass (>5m and < 45 degrees from center) + forward action. There's too many wide players so I gotta play with it.

Scenes from Spirit 1-0 Gotham An important win against a good Gotham team. Leicy came back for 45, continuity looked better with her on the field. Combination play is still a bit rusty Clara Luvanga makes the offense better until she has to shoot our dribble forward.

If the Spirit can lock in a top two finish after a soft second half of the season, that’s a huge win for this squad. Midfield remains a huge issue.

Matt Barger reposted

SULLIVAN: We weren't supposed to get these questions beforehand, were we? MODERATOR: No, neither one of you got questions beforehand PELTOLA: I'm prepared!

Same with this response. It's a very dumb response to anyone who isn't conservative. But this is probably the central source of conservative rage nowadays. They feel like they have to disavow themselves to fit someone else's world. And, again, the conservatives' dissonance on this is preposterous.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Mike Collins makes apologies for white nationalists like his son in law: "These people feel like they've been forgotten. And they're just lashing out."

To be 100% clear, if you espouse Jim Crow because you feel forgotten, you're a dumbshit. There just happens to be a lot of dumbshits in this country.

For anyone (everyone here) who calls this an own: Check the responses to this exact post on Twitter. The audience Ossoff is trying to reach with this expects Collins to saying this, and the audience Collins is representing feels that Collins is oppressed; he can't say their true answer.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

OSSOFF: You didn't answer earlier. Answer now. Did Donald Trump win the 2020 election? MIKE COLLINS: You know, the 2020 election. Everybody has seen my views on that OSSOFF: What are they? COLLINS: There was a lot of doubt in that election OSSOFF: I didn't hear an answer

And yes, it's probably a lot of disinformation and bot farms behind the "yeah dumb Biden lost lul" posts. If it didn't influence voting and reinforce biases, the bot farms wouldn't do it.

I'm mostly surprised by how negligible the schedule change is because the season runs so long. We're basically trading a couple weeks of summer for a couple weeks of winter. Unofficial Apertura/Clausura, here we come.

American Soccer Analysis@americansocceranalysis.com

Been a lot of chatter about how the upcoming MLS schedule change is going to affect play on the field. @kierdoyle.bsky.social decided to look exactly how. www.americansocceranalysis.com/home/2026/10...

This one half of soccer is everything we wanted to see across two games against Spain. Glad to see the US being able to manufacture and then capitalize on transition attack.

Lily Yohannes looks SO good when they put her in an attacking position. Releasing the attack and the tension surrounding this midfield. Beautiful play resulting in a goal (that might need to be called back for offside?).

For anyone who thought 2023 was a blip, let this window assure you it was not. Some pretty big issues on this team right now. Better the USWNT find this out now and not in Brazil.

Lindsey Heaps might be the best individual CM we got right now, but I do not know how or where she fits into this defense or this attack. Triple espresso attack looks pretty decaffeinated. Defense seems a bit shaky on the rotations.

Matt Barger reposted

Also this goal comes off a Spain goal kick, where they do the thing I'd like to see teams do more often: if they press you with 5 and leave 3-4 back, they've got 1-2 players covering a huge gap between those lines. Just dink it in between, go win a 1v1, and you have instant transition.

Jason Anderson@jasondcsoccer.bsky.social

I think PTJ is the best shot-stopper the USWNT has, but that goal laid bare a real issue: she panics with the ball at her feet too often. Is it a perfect pass back from Fox? No, but there's plenty of time to let it run to her left and clear it, or even open her hips and take a touch away from goal

btw, this is better. This is much better. Yohannes with a neat throughball off the transition letting Swanson take one long touch into a good shot on target. Do you notice how all the chances the US look like scoring come off quick transition play? Could we.. maybe. create more of that?

Generally the two ways you do that are: playing with the ball so far back that you bait the press into overcommitting, or sit intentionally deep to get the ball and attack transition with a ton of space in front. We're doing one, not the other. The first goal came off a deep ball recovery.

Horan long ball to Wilson to get behind the defense. Sanchez gets the ball with work to do and options with her. Yeah, that's how this team should work.

Trinity on the ball, sees her side is overloaded on defense, passes backward to Wesley, who immediately playing a longball at Heaps flat-footed death stare. Yeah, it's a little rough rn.

Back to positives: Progression is better. Pressing was better until it wasn't. Ashley Sanchez is asking questions of the defense, but she's the only one right now.