Ben Wylie

⏪️ I watch a lot of sporting highlight reels on YouTube — and, for a while, I’ve been meaning to start a thread of videos that have brought me considerable joy. Today's as good a day as any to get started, so: here are a few recent favourites. (I’ll keep adding to it as things catch my eye.)

The full piece with McFarland here "You can have all the talent, but I think the main thing for us is to play a bit more games with them and build ourselves leading into the World Cup" #RWC2027 sports.yahoo.com/articles/sam...

A fun fact about the Men's Rugby League World Cup, which starts this week: across the 10 teams, I count 18 players set to appear who have previously played in the tournament for a different nation.

A fun fact about the Men's Rugby League World Cup, which starts this week: across the 10 teams, I count 18 players set to appear who have previously played in the tournament for a different nation.

Why did Geoffrey Doumayrou’s appointment as the new France defence coach raise questions? THIS spat with Fabien Galthié back in 2013...

I'm out of words after I put them all into that Cavan piece, so here's a more chill newsletter with updates, links, and a couple new internship postings:

This week's newsletter is an in-depth look at team ball sports at the Asian Games. Read and subscribe below!

5 minutes into the preseason and Nikola Jokic is throwing behind the back cross-court passes... I needed the replays too

Amazing detail in @jacobwhitehead.bsky.social's piece that the initial documents City submitted 'did not allow text to be copied and pasted.' Just an incredible commitment to being as unhelpful as possible

This week's newsletter is an in-depth look at team ball sports at the Asian Games. Read and subscribe below!

Today FIFA have released the FIFA World Cup 2026™ Post-Tournament Technical Report. I'm very proud to have had a part in creating what is, without a doubt, some of the most comprehensive technical and tactical analysis we have produced to date. Have a browse, enjoy and let us know your feedback👇🏻

Asked to respond to whether his team were 'not German enough' or 'not white enough', Klopp said there was no point in giving room to 'such people and their utterances', adding: 'I have little time in everyday life for idiocy'. Story: @kateconnolly.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/football/202...

Quite a US-focused edition of the newsletter this week, with notes on men’s and women’s volleyball, women’s softball, women’s soccer and more. Read and subscribe below! 🇺🇸

New @doublepivotpodcast.bsky.social ! Talking about Manchester City, their reported violation of Premier League rules 114 times over and what comes next youtu.be/Cvao9RGU4z0?...

Quite a US-focused edition of the newsletter this week, with notes on men’s and women’s volleyball, women’s softball, women’s soccer and more. Read and subscribe below! 🇺🇸

This will be the first time since 1976 that there hasn't been a WI regional men's 50 over competition, and comes on the back of last season's drastic reduction of men's First Class cricket, and cancellation of the women's Test. In short, West Indies cricket is in last roll of the dice territory.

Wrote about Klopp, Xavi, our Cape Verdean friends, the MLS Kids, the one non-toxic window for following the USMNT and the 10 international matches I'm most looking forward to in this big window. (Ronaldo still clogging the Portugal attack? You betcha!) www.espn.com/soccer/story...

No striker, no problem. Barcelona are 8 for 8 with a +24 goal difference and 4.5 goals a game, and they did it without replacing Lewandowski or Ferran Torres. • Rodri's arrival freeing up Pedri • Yamal's improved movement • Raphinha's 14 goals leading the line Plus: How long can this last?

Football v pseudoscience: 'It’s the science-practice gap, which is widening in my experience,' Dr Claire-Marie Roberts tells @samcunningham.bsky.social. 'I think it’s getting much worse. There’s so much sparkly marketing behind all these things. It’s bordering on exploitation'

Rayan Cherki you disgusting little man

This is probably right but people who only like good soccer when it's their team don't really like soccer

Fernando Tatis Jr. As Statistics Lesson blogs.fangraphs.com/fernando-tat...

Joao Cancelo just scored these two goals less than half an hour apart, please send help

It was a really busy week of international sport last week. In today’s edition of the newsletter, I’ve written about the FIBA World Cup final, some 3×3 basketball, beach soccer and much more. You can read in full and subscribe at the link below:

If you’re awake for today’s FIBA World Cup quarterfinals, which start in about 25 minutes with the U.S. and Hungary, I’ve got a preview of the whole four-game slate for you at the Post Presence the-post-presence.beehiiv.com/p/world-cup-...

Mikhail Yegorov has been one of my favorite goalies to speak with, even before he built out his own public stats site to track his season. My latest for @eliteprospects.com on the Devils prospect and his search for a fuller picture of his game www.eliteprospects.com/news/ncaa/be...

They’ve sold more than 58,000 tickets for Saturday’s game at the 70,000 capacity ground Decent going

Can't stop thinking about this play in the lede. This was literally his first ever national team practice and he pulled out this shit, kid is different

For years Cavan Sullivan has been more a prophecy than a player. That changed this summer. We have pro data on him now and it's very, very exciting — by some measures he might already be the best teenager MLS has ever seen. Wrote about his game for @theguardian.com:

This week’s newsletter is out now! For any Americans considering watching the All Blacks take on the Springboks in Baltimore this weekend: I wrote about what sort of rugby you should expect to see from each team. That — and much more — at the link below:

The regular season is over, so I'm looking at the best and the worst players of the NRL this season in my advanced statistics wrap up for 2026. www.rugbyleagueeyetest.com/2026/09/07/t...