Long Cao

i call it a leveraged buy down: in 2026, you can buy down any senior player making $226,800 (2x senior min salary) using $113,400 in GAM, making them eligible for supplemental and writes off the rest of their budget charge. we've seen Austin use this a few times, there's no other explanation afaik

fuck it, pull up the FW26 Ralph Lauren tape from Milan Men’s Fashion Week

ralph lauren cooked so hard with the opening/closing ceremony fits for the US Olympic team

Shoutout to the camera operators for this halftime show, hot damn.

this is the best produced halftime show i’ve ever seen

bad bunny for prez

Q: How do you anticipate the next CBA changing the landscape in MLS, especially with regards to roster construction?

Beyond Expected Goals: A Probabilistic Framework for Shot Occurrences in Soccer Expected goals (xG) models estimate the probability that a shot results in a goal from its context (e.g., location, pressure), but they operate only on observed shots. We propose xG+, a possession-lev...

cool xG related research coming out of UPenn:

arxiv.org/abs/2512.00203
github.com/WhartonSABI/...

a man in a black coat salutes on a soccer field with players in the background . ALT: a man in a black coat salutes on a soccer field with players in the background .

holy moly Benfica

A video of Alex Pretti reading out the final salute of an unnamed veteran he cared for until the end of his life in the ICU, posted to Facebook by his son.

Every single game this year. Make them hear you

listening to wiz khalifa "see you again" while i browse the remnants of fbref

At Sports Reference we have taken great pride in the role FBref has played over the last seven years as an expansive source for soccer fans all over the world. Unfortunately, last week the provider of our advanced soccer data sent us a letter terminating our access to their data feeds and requiring the deletion of their data from the site immediately. As a result, we have removed the provider's data from FBref and Stathead in compliance with their demand. The data provider has asserted that our use of the data violated our agreement. Their demand came unexpectedly despite our long-standing and good-faith operation of FBref and Stathead. We have operated the sites in a consistent manner from their creation (well before the signing of this agreement) through today, and we have always welcomed open and frank discussions about how the sites operate. Any effort to retain access to this advanced data would have been costly and uncertain. Under the circumstances, we have decided to comply with the termination notice. This creates a significant gap in the stats offered on FBref and Stathead. We are heartbroken both for our users who have come to rely upon this product and for our team that has spent thousands of hours bringing these stats to life and supporting our users. We are especially upset by the massive step back this creates in access for women's advanced soccer data. Data Democratization is a core Sports Reference value and the removal of this data is a sad day for all of us. We will take time to assess possible paths forward. FBref will continue to present the deep historic basic data we have for over one hundred competitions, but if we present advanced data in the future it will certainly have a dramatically smaller scale.

Utterly disastrous news for public access to soccer data and statistics.

www.sports-reference.com/blog/2026/01...

here for the simpsons memes

agreed on the ceiling / lack of wiggle going forward with current assumptions, but i'm kind of building in an expectation that a new CBA would open up breathing room

from my estimates, i think there's room _if_ we have at least one outbound sale. Obrian to Deportivo Cali has been rumored and getting his wages off + a small fee would make up for a gap. still means Austin would run very hot on aggregate budget compliance, i think.

ok ima have a baby damn baby got hands

traveling with a 2 year old

The Georgia Tech mascot was sad after they turned the ball over and needed to be comforted by the Pop-tarts

and yet Palace scored both goals but lost in penalties. really makes u think .

I think the context of a cup game makes it different, the only thing that matters for a weaker team is winning, even if it’s ugly

seems like the first TAM cashfer deal in the league, right? the parameters *just* about fits the TAM threshold. will be interesting to see what the fee schedule breaks down to if it’s publicized or inferrable

scenes when Orlando Pirates are in for a shock double swoop for them

Seattle Sounders signed both Ryan Sailor and Max Anchor

this is going to reside in my brain for a long time

food for your thoughts: I kind of wonder how much the looming calendar change + a new CBA by end of 2027 (expires Jan 2028) affects long term decision making here

who decided to call it “reasoning about code equationally” and not “understanding the assignment”

big week for the Alonsos (Pete and Xabi)

wtf is a FIFA peace prize? that's like being an NFL laureate in physics

nice. i think i'm going to do it this year with just the 12 problems, seems less overwhelming

Lenny and Carl from The Simpsons

Lennart Karl, player for Bayern Munich

Dale Partridge on Twitter writes: "Feminist media is BIG mad about me saying that women shouldn’t wear underwear (leggings and sports bras) as outerwear. As Pearl says, “It’s amazing how hard women will fight to be naked.” Immodest ladies, read 1 Tim. 2:9, repent, and follow Christ." Attached are two images. Image 1 headline: “Outraged pastor slams worker at quaint coffee shop for wearing ‘sinful’ leggings and sports bra in front of kids” Image 2 headline: “‘Make sin shameful again’: Pastor sparks row after sports bra complaint”

A friend who teaches theology shared with me a post about CS Lewis's Mere Christianity, which discusses foundational Christian logic across denominations. It reminded me of Dale's tweet below, and I wanted to share some thoughts here regarding modesty and respectability, which are often hot topics.