SportsDataTutorials
10 tutorials

Soccer

Free event data from StatsBomb plus xG from Understat let you analyse matches like a pro - no paid feed required.

The xG explainers come first — they're the language of everything else. Then the StatsBomb event-data tutorials show you how professional match data is actually structured, and the World Cup scoring tutorial applies one groupby to the complete 2026 tournament. Soccer's bundled data includes every real 2026 World Cup result, so every claim is checkable from the files you downloaded.

Level:
A team's completed passes drawn as arrows on a proper pitch with mplsoccer.
Soccer Intermediate

Draw a Pass Map with mplsoccer

Filter a match's passes from StatsBomb event data and draw them as arrows on a correctly-proportioned pitch using mplsoccer, with StatsBomb attribution.

~7 min
Both teams' shots on a pitch, sized by xG and marked for goals.
Soccer Intermediate

Build a Match Shot Map with Expected Goals

Plot every shot from a real match on an mplsoccer pitch, sized by its expected-goals value with goals highlighted — the most useful soccer viz there is.

~8 min
A heatmap of where one player was involved across a match.
Soccer Intermediate

Draw a Player Heatmap from Event Data

Collect every action a player took from StatsBomb event data and turn the locations into a smooth territory heatmap on the pitch, showing where they did their work.

~7 min
A team's passing network: average positions and who links with whom.
Soccer Advanced

Build a Team Pass Network

Combine players' average positions with their pass combinations to draw a pass network - the chart that reveals a team's shape and its most important connections.

~9 min