Exploration of the Soccer World!
One of the best parts of every weekend is turning on the tv and putting on a soccer game. There are tons of them, but we focus the most on games in the Premier League (England), La Liga (Spain), and the Bundesliga (Germany). These are three of the five biggest soccer leagues in Europe and attract lots of fans every weekend.
After years of looking at these games and seeing our favorite players, we began to wonder which nations make up these leagues. How many nations are represented in each league and which one is the most represented? Using a dataset from Kaggle, we decided to create interactive maps that show the makeup of each league during the 2021-22 regular season.
These questions then had us thinking about the interactions between clubs in each league. Do you ever look at the standings online and wish it gave you more information about the amount of goals each club has scored between each other? Well you are in luck because that is a frustration we had and decided to explore. First, we created a giant network connection for each league where each arrow represents the total number of goals one team scored on the other team in the regular 2021-22 season. However, these connections were extremely large and messy, so we decided to create another network connection for each team that ended in first at the end of the regular season (2021-22). We know that the team ended up in first because they had a great amount of wins, but by how much did they outscore their opponents? Which opponent did they have the hardest time scoring on?
Maps
On all three maps, you can hover over any area on the map, zoom in and out to better visualize the countries, and as you hover, you can see the number of players that come from each country.
La Liga
From this map, we can observe that many players in this league originally come from Spain. This is because La Liga is a Spanish league.
Premier League
From this map, we can observe that many players in this league originally come from England. This can be explained by the fact that Premier league is an English league, so many players are English.
Bundesliga
From this map, we can observe that many players in this league originally come from Germany. This is because Bundesliga league is a German league.
Networks
In the regular season, each team plays each other twice: once at home and once away. Therefore, we took the results of each game and summed up the results to see how many goals each club scored on each other in total. For example, when Arsenal played Chelsea at home, they lost 2-0. However, when Arsenal played Chelsea away, they won 4-2. Therefore, both teams scored 4 goals on each other during the 2021/22 regular season. In our network connections (both large and small), each arrow represents the amount of goals one team has scored on the other in the regular season.
Our large network connections show that there are connections between every team in each league. While it may be hard to interpret these connections, we can definitely still gather some results. For example, Everton, Norwich City, and Southampton in the Premier League all seem to have lots of goals scored on them. In fact, these teams were among the top teams in the Premier League with the highest number of goals against (goals scored on them). We can see similar results in the large network connections for La Liga and the Bundesliga.
As for the smaller network connections, these explore the relationship between the team that ended in first place at the end of the regular season in 2021/22 and the rest of the other teams. While one or two teams may be questionable, it is evident that Manchester City outscored virtually all of their opponents in the Premier League. We see a similar trend with Real Madrid in La Liga and Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga. Now, these are results we should expect, but it is interesting to see them laid out this way as opposed to in the typical standings chart.
La Liga
Goals scored between teams in La Liga at home games. Each arrow represents the amount of goals a home team has scored on the away team.
La Liga - Real Madrid
Goals scored between Real Madrid and other teams in La Liga. The arrows from Real Madrid to other teams represent the goals Real Madrid scored on that team when Real Madrid was the home team. The arrows from the other teams to Real Madrid are the goals Real Madrid conceded when playing away.
Premier League
Goals scored between teams in the Premier League at home games. Each arrow represents the amount of goals a home team has scored on the away team.
Premier League - Manchester City
Goals scored between Manchester City and other teams in the Premier League. The arrows from Manchester City to other teams represent the goals Manchester City scored on that team when Manchester City was the home team. The arrows from the other teams to Manchester City are the goals Manchester City conceded when playing away
Bundesliga
Goals scored between teams in the Bundesliga at home games. Each arrow represents the amount of goals a home team has scored on the away team.
Bundesliga - Bayern Munich
Goals scored between Bayern Munich and other teams in the Bundesliga. The arrows from Bayern Munich to other teams represent the goals Bayern Munich scored on that team when Bayern Munich was the home team. The arrows from the other teams to Bayern Munich are the goals Bayern Munich conceded when playing away.
Hopefully this blog gave you some insight into the Premier League, La Liga, and the Bundesliga in ways that are not typically shown. It is easy to know where some of your favorite players in each league come from, but it is interesting to see the distribution of players around the world. It was not surprising that each league had the most players from the country in which the league is based, but perhaps you saw some countries represented that you did not expect to see.
As for the network connections, they are a fun way to easily explore how teams scored against each other (overall). You may have easily known that Manchester City scored the most goals during the regular season, but the network connection for Manchester City lets you easily see how those goals break down between the clubs. .
References
Datasets
- Network Data: https://www.insidesport.in/bundesliga-edges-past-laliga-in-european-football-league-revenues/
- Maps Data: https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/kriegsmaschine/soccer-players-values-and-their-statistics
Images
- https://www.insidesport.in/bundesliga-edges-past-laliga-in-european-football-league-revenues/
- https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmakeagif.com%2Fgif%2Fwayne-rooney-bicycle-kick-goal-vs-manchester-city-Kxt1cf&psig=AOvVaw19HWX4gUirPOREd-40zoBx&ust=1702423188421000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBEQjRxqFwoTCNjCvN3CiIMDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD
- https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftenor.com%2Fview%2Flingard-excited-dance-gif-13119889&psig=AOvVaw3Ub04eDKzgm7CmRRVZCjQd&ust=1702423017411000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBEQjRxqFwoTCNiR74zCiIMDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD