←viz.
entry 011 · jul 21 2026 · rabbit hole ⚽

On target. Then what?

Three World Cups as a night model. Every team is placed by how often it tests the goalkeeper and how often the keeper loses. Teams that went deep rise off the glass. Drag to walk around the model, or lay it flat and scrub through time. Click any flag to follow a nation.

rotate or drag the model. Vertical drag tilts.

Conversion means goals per shot on target, per-match averages from FotMob. Height above the glass is how deep the run went: champions rise highest on gold stems. 2026 is complete: Spain lifted the trophy on July 19, beating Argentina 1-0 in extra time. Teams that went out early played only three or four matches, so read their angles gently.

The finishers · 2026

On target. Then who?

The stack measured teams. This measures the men who took the shots. Every player placed against the chances they got: above the line they scored more than expected, below it they left goals on the grass.

Clinical — outscored their chances Wasteful — fewer goals than chances scored exactly their expected goals

Expected goals (xG) is a per-shot estimate. A model gives every chance a scoring probability from its distance, angle and type, and a player's xG is the sum across their shots. The diagonal is where goals equal xG; distance above it is overperformance. xG models only reach back to 2022, which is why this view is 2026 alone. Data and portraits: FotMob.

Kobalto, Koby's mascot, reading a book out loud
One more rabbit hole, read aloud…

When I'm not falling down a rabbit hole like this one, I build Koby. It turns ebooks you already own into audiobooks, and it can even read comics and describe charts out loud. It's free to try.

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