Weekly Roundup 06.01.25

Who would have thought that the 'team' of individual superstars who often failed to justify their collective talents at Europe's top table would remould itself into an actual team and finally claim the holy grail? For those wondering if I've been eating too many wild berries in the New Forest on my recent break, I'm referring to last night's stunning Champions League victory by PSG over Inter Milan. Shorn of the big names, it seems Luis Enrique has created an exciting blend of youth and experience that now play as a 'team' and deservedly triumphed in Munich. Much to be said on focusing on collective strengths rather than individual ones in a team sport, perhaps.

Without further ado, let's turn to the round-up, and we'll begin with a couple of stunners from the world of football. First up is David Rudkin, and this series of brilliantly designed variable-width bar charts depicting the form of Premier League teams across the season. David cleverly uses the variable width to convey the wide-ranging number of matches each month might have, and in turn provides an easy-to-glance view of where teams' seasons may have risen or fallen. For proof of this, take a look at Manchester City's November and December...

A smile always crosses my face when I see a design from Naresh Suglani cross the desks. In this latest stunner, Naresh looks at the incredible Liverpool career of Mo Salah. Beautiful design and a multitude of interesting stats provide a fascinating insight into the Egyptian King.

Same sport, different continent, as we move to Japan and the J-League and this design from Yasushi Ishikawa, I'm not sure I've seen a visualisation that not only looks at the number of passes but also the direction of them. Where I found this viz really stood out was in the overlay of the pressure provided by the opponents that results in an increased number of backwards passes. What I found interesting was how it appears that, despite the dominance of Hiroshima, in terms of the scoreline and pressure, Yokohama had significantly more passes.

Merging the worlds of Basketball and American Football might seem to be impossible, but Todd Whitehead has provided a unique comparison in this design. It appears the performance of bballer Tyrese Haliburton caught the eye recently with an unprecedented number of completed passes (combined with the overall distance). Interesting in itself, one might say, but what Todd has done excellently here is compare Haliburton's performance to those in the NFL who have achieved similar stellar figures. I enjoyed this comparison, and it certainly posed some interesting questions. Great work, Todd!

This next viz goes down as one of my favourites in recent times. There are so many layers (pun intended) to this map layers creation by Bo McCready that it's impossible not to spot something new as you scan across and down. Tracking the attendance from the recent Major League Baseball season, this viz affords comparisons across a vast array of dimensions: Who has the biggest stadium capacity? Which teams regularly fill their stadiums? Does a good/bad run of results impact attendance? are just a few of the interesting snippets I was able to pick up. A true classic!

PLUS: If you wanted to know how Bo pulled this together, then check out his blog that covers the process in wonderful detail.

We aren't far away from the next instalment of cycling premier road race: the Tour De France, and if you are looking for a data-led preview, then you could do far worse than explore this epic from ammattipyöräily. Tracking each of the stages in incredible detail and all on one page, too!

Finally, many congratulations to Eric Balash for receiving the #VOTD award for this fantastic activity tracker dashboard. Packed full of key metrics and laid out in a beautifully designed way, this is another fantastic example of self-quantified data being used brilliantly. Well done, Eric!

That's all for this week. I'm sure you'll agree a fantastic collection on show and we look forward to sharing the latest and greatest sporting visualisations with you next week.

Simon & the #SportsVizSunday team