Who is the best soccer player at the World Cup?
Alasdair Wilkins — A group of researchers have discovered an objective way to measure the most important members of a soccer team. Yes, there is a scientific reason why you love Lionel Messi. It all comes down to statistics. It’s relatively straightforward to calculate individual performances in team sports that can be easily divided into lots of discrete events, whether it’s at-bats in baseball, offensive possessions in basketball, or downs in football. When each game is made up of dozens or even a hundred such moments, it’s a lot easier to drill down and identify which players made an impact in various situations. Soccer exists on the absolute opposite furthest end of this spectrum. With the exception of halftime, the games never stop, and goals are so rare (as anyone watching the current World Cup can attest) that it’s pretty much impossible to accurately judge who played well based purely on who scored. So then, what’s a budding sabermetrician supposed to do with the elegant game?
