Matt

@morphosis7

Father, coder, geek, and increasingly uncertain. He/him

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Matt@morphosis7· 16h

Dug into my backups tonight and pulled out (and rebuilt) the "trophies" summary for MLS. This is a very rough prototype - not sure if I want to continue polishing this one. The alt text here has a _lot_ more information, if you're curious.

A screenshot of a multi-panel spreadsheet comparing which teams around MLS have won which trophies in what years. There have been 30 seasons of soccer between 1996 and 2025. During that time, there have been 33 teams to have competed for (or won) one of the six trophies that MLS* teams have competed in.

The six trophies are MLS Cup, the Supporters Shield, the Open Cup, the Canadian Cup, the Leagues Cup, and the CONCACAF championship.

At the top is a panel showing which team won each trophy in a given year (not all trophies were contested in every year). The main panel is a comparison of teams and how many trophies they won each year. To the right is a panel summarizing how many years each team has competed, how many trophies they've won in that time, and what their "trophy rate" is (trophies per year). At bottom is a panel showing how many teams competed that year, and how many trophies were awarded.

(The asterisk by "MLS" is because in 1999 the lower division Rochester Rhinos won the US Open Cup. They are the 33rd team included in this spreadsheet)

Matt@morphosis7· 2d

I think their data provider went down around the 82nd minute tonight - the data stopped updating for our game before Brooks Lennon came on as a sub, and they still list Cincy as leading 1-0.

A current (10:25 PM Eastern) screenshot of the Leagues Cup website, showing Columbus - Pumas in the 83rd minute and Cincy - Atlas in the 56th. Both games are already finished, for at least 15 minutes.

Matt@morphosis7· 2d

Rudy Camacho was given a yellow card for this play on Keylor Navas. #Crew96

Pumas goalkeeper Keylor Navas being injured by his own defender sliding into him, while Camacho also was in the vicinity - but not making contact with Navas in any way.

Matt@morphosis7· 6d

Ok, here's the latest design, with data updated through tonight's #Crew96 game. If you've been following along (see quoted posts), you'll see some changes here. 1/4 Added transfer dates, and Abou Ali's injury 2/ Added a header block, with some iffy color coding

Matt@morphosis7· 8d

Took a few minutes at lunch to try out what a horizontal layout would look like, with groupings by position (sorted by minutes played). I only got the goalkeepers and defenders done, which... doesn't show much because that's not where the churn was (largely). Thoughts, #Crew96 folk? More to come.

A different spreadsheet showing the same underlying data as was shared yesterday - a comparison of Columbus Crew games and players. The layout is flipped, with players as rows and games as columns - so you can see whether a player played, was an unused sub, or was left off the roster entirely by reading across in a row.

Players are grouped by position, and sorted by playing time in 2026.

For a position like goalkeeper, the trend is blindingly obvious - Schulte plays league games, while Hagen is given other games (Open Cup and Leagues Cup so far).

For defenders, you can see a similar deployment-by-competition, with the Open Cup and Leagues Cup games getting heavily rotated - while certain players like Zawadzki and Camacho play nearly every league game. Amundsen and Herrera started the season playing a lot of games, but mostly have been left on the bench since the second Open Cup game. Players like Cheberko, Ruvalcaba, and Presthus were usually on the game day roster but rarely saw the field outside of Open Cup games.

This is a pretty rough prototype, and some key information - like player availability due to injury or contract status - is not yet included in the graphic.

Matt@morphosis7· 8d

At one point I used a market concentration metric (a Herfindahl-Hirschman index) to calculate the degree to which playing time was monopolized or spread around the roster. Repeating that would require a bit of recovery after a hard drive failure, but it led to graphics like these (from ~2015)

A plot showing each of the players from the 2015 Columbus Crew team, drawing a line for each player to illustrate how much of the available minutes each player received at every game through the season. A player who played every minute of every game would have a straight line across the top of the graph, while a player who never appeared in any game would have a line across the bottom. A player who played the entire first game and then never saw the field again would have a line that started at the top on the left side, then decayed gradually to near-zero by the time it reached the left side.

A plot of cumulative Herfindahl Index values for two teams (in this case, Columbus and DC) - which was useful to preview a game between the two teams, to get a sense for whether one team had seen a more stable roster of players than the other. This type of churn through rosters can be caused by many things (injuries, poor results, transfers, etc) - so it isn't a clear signal of quality. However, consistent groups of players seeing time together is generally indicative of good chemistry, so a higher number is probably better.

Matt@morphosis7· 8d

I finished off the #Crew96 infographic that I started working on yesterday. This shows all games that the team has played in 2026, along with which players played what role. I'll thread some observations from here, but my big question is whether you find this interesting? Worth doing more of?

A spreadsheet showing Columbus Crew games and players from the 2026 season. A total of 34 players have made a game day roster at least once this year (30 have seen game action). The team has played 22 games across three competitions (18 league games, three open cup games, and one so far in the leagues cup).

More information about the data in this graphic can be found in the thread which follows this post.

Matt@morphosis7· 9d

Alright, this is as far as I'm going tonight - got about half the 2026 season done, and the design is slightly refined. You can see the two Open Cup games pretty obviously via wholesale squad rotation, and you can also see the shift from Abou Ali to Gazdag when WAA went down injured.

A similar screenshot of a spreadsheet as the last post, now with about the first half of the games included (13 of 22 played through tonight).

With this many games, you can start to see patterns emerging - which players are every-game starters, which players are frequently-used subs. As the team struggled under Rydström, you can also start to see some players' stock rising and falling - or the impact of injuries and other absences.

Matt@morphosis7· 9d

Excel is a lot harder to work with when you have a sleeping cat on your lap. There are many design questions around this task of "visualize the players used in every game" - but for the moment, this is the prototype. Only three games (because cat).

A screenshot of a spreadsheet of players and games for the 2026 Columbus Crew. Each row is a game played by the team this year (across three competitions - the league, open cup, and now leagues cup). Each column is a player who at least made a game day roster. Each cell is thus how many minutes that player got in that game.

Only three games' of data is filled in - so the sheet is mostly empty.

Matt@morphosis7· 12d

Live look at the #Crew96 lateral attacking formation in the first half...

A fictional spaceship design by the artist Chris Foss, showing an asymmetrical craft with a massive claw on its right flank, balanced by nothing on the left side.

A heatmap for the Crew's attacking five players (Thiare, Gazdag, Habroune, Farsi, and Picard) - there is a significant skew towards the right flank, as Habroune spent most of the first half on the right flank when Columbus were in possession. The result is that there's a bright splotch of color along the right touchline, while on the left there is only a small dot - and that dot is pretty far away from the left touchline.

Matt@morphosis7· 12d

Trying to anticipate how #Crew96 are going to occupy space based on tonight's lineup. Am I missing something? Maybe pull Taha into the middle and play with an asymmetrical shape? Can Picard handle those defensive duties?

A possible formation for Columbus based on the announced players. Thiare starts as the center forward, with Gazdag and Picard flanking him on the right and left respectively. Farsi runs the right flank while Habroune takes the left, while Chambost and Gomes hold down the middle of the field. Center backs are Zawadzki, Camacho, and Moreira - with Schulte in goal

Matt@morphosis7· Jun 26

I wish I could say that I was surprised at the USMNT losing their final group stage game. That would be a lie, however. We have qualified for nine tournaments going back to 1990. Of those nine group stages, we have lost the final game seven times.

A graphic summarizing the US Men's National Team records after two group games in every World Cup they've qualified for in the modern era (going back to 1990). The final column in this table is their result in the final group game.

Over nine tournaments, the US Men have lost seven group stage finales. The only exceptions were 2010 and 2022.

Matt@morphosis7· Jun 21

Yep, fiendish. Flat edges are not trustworthy as being the edge of the puzzle.

All the jigsaw pieces, sorted by the number of flat surfaces.

There are five pieces with two parallel flat surfaces, and 21 with two adjacent flat surfaces.

This is five and 17 too many such pieces, respectively, for a traditional jigsaw puzzle.

Matt@morphosis7· Jun 21

My child got me what may be my favorite Father's Day present. This thing seems fiendish...

A pile of jigsaw puzzle pieces on a flat surface. The pieces are all transparent plastic. There is no picture, no clues other than the geometry of the pieces.

Matt@morphosis7· Jun 10

Ah yes, how generous. Making all these category 4 seats available and expecting praise for his benevolence. Stadium capacity: ~65,000 Category 4 tickets: 470 (yes, I counted them) How's this: Mamdani sold 100% of the seats he could for $50. Infantino made less than 1% of his seats this affordable.

A seating diagram for Gillette (Boston) Stadium showing how each of the four seating categories were distributed through the stadium.

Category 4, which was initially announced as $60 seats, is relegated to two sections on the end of the upper deck. Out of a stadium capacity of 65,000 seats, there are fewer than 500 available in this category.

Matt@morphosis7· Jun 2

This is a cat check point. Relinquish your most recent cat picture on your phone. #ProofOfCat

A tuxedo cat sits quietly in a large navy blue papasan chair, her eyes closed as she contemplates a nap.

Matt@morphosis7· May 2

Post your warning sign I first saw this sign someone posted in the laser cutting lab at the Ohio State School of Architecture (not an official sign, but I was amused and decided to keep it up). Here the sign is posted below a scanner for an HTC Vive headset, because I still found it funny.

A triangular yellow sign with a bold black outline, showing a laser beam striking a black silhouette that is lying prone on the ground.

A large block of text below the triangle reads "BIG SCARY LASER - Do not look into beam with remaining eye"

Matt@morphosis7· Apr 29

This is my best guess about the formation, given these players. Not sure I've got Ruvalcaba and Herrera on the correct sides, though - but I'm guessing that Cheberko is going in the middle, along with Presthus?

A 4-4-2 lineup graphic, showing players in the following positions:

Hagen in goal
Four across the back, left to right: Ruvalcaba, Cheberko, Presthus, and Herrera

Sejdic and Bangoura in central midfield
Picard on the left wing, Akhundzada on the right wing
Forwards are Gazdag and Thiare

Matt@morphosis7· Apr 6

Growing up I had a poster of a picture of the Earth taken by one of the Apollo missions. The poster read "Someday I want to stand on the Moon, look through a quarter million miles of empty space, and think to myself 'there certainly is a beautiful Earth out tonight'." #ArtemisII

A partial screenshot of the Artemis II realtime dashboard, showing the spacecraft is now 250,003 miles from Earth (and climbing)

Matt@morphosis7· Apr 1

Very happy to be wearing a #NASA T-shirt today while keeping an eye on the live stream for Artemis II. Launch is currently scheduled for 6:24 PM Eastern tonight. www.youtube.com/live/m3kR2KK...

Matt@morphosis7· Nov 26

I've been wanting to try making pizzelles over the last few weeks, and tonight I finally found the energy to just try a batch after dinner. This was fun, and apparently I'm encouraged enough to sign up for my department's cookie fest next month. Gulp...

A cooling tray with about 8 1/2 pizzelles coming on it, at varying stages of browned. This is very much a work in progress, rather than the output of a seasoned baker.

Matt@morphosis7· Nov 4

Who looks at a collection of three subplots, in an image like this, and talks about "that axes in the middle" or "look at these three axes"? How? Why? This is a too-clever-by-half naming convention that trips up users new to the ecosystem. Eventually I'll get used to it, I guess. But why?

A figure of three scatterplots of Formula 1 data, displayed in a single row. Each scatterplot focuses on a single practice session for the 2025 Silvestone grand prix (the left is on the first practice, the middle on second practice, and the right on third practice).

Each scatterplot illustrates data points along two axes, with the vertical axis showing individual drivers' lap times, while the horizontal axis shows the time during the hour-long session at which that lap time started. The general progression of dots, both within each scatterplot and across the series of all three, shows that lap times steadily decrease as the cars get faster and faster, and the drivers get more used to the limits of the track.

Matt@morphosis7· Aug 24

How many times did we see this pattern of play tonight? All ten Revolution players are within 25 yards of their own end line, we have the ball wider than all of them, and there are 4-5 players between the ball and the near post.

The Columbus Crew attempting to build an attack tonight, (August 23, 2025) in a home game against the New England Revolution. They have possession, at the top of the right channel deep in the New England half. All ten Revolution field players are in the frame, between the six yard box and the top of the penalty arc.

Matt@morphosis7· Aug 19

It's a shame the carousel on their website doesn't show the view out of the other corner of the field, though - but seriously, this backdrop for a game is phenomenal.

A rendering of the proposed Riverhounds stadium expansion, showing taller stands flanking three sides of the playing field with the river and skyline behind the fourth side.

Matt@morphosis7· Jul 30

I'd love to know how this system is calibrated, because I'm very very surprised that from this camera angle, that line is parallel to the end line with that much slope. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. But it's surprising.

Matt@morphosis7· Jul 29

This offside ruling in Toluca - #Crew96 makes no sense. Why drop a line to account for body lean by the attacker, but not for the defender? The result benefits Columbus, but if this is the standard it's only a matter of time before the broken process penalizes them.

A screenshot of the Apple TV broadcast showing a virtual offside line used to waive off a penalty for Toluca prior to the foul. A Toluca attacker is shown between two Columbus defenders, with an annotation attempting to show the shoulder of the Toluca attacker is behind the Columbus defenders.

However, one Columbus defender is leaning just as much as the Toluca attacker, yet no correction is made for the position of his shoulder.

Matt@morphosis7· Jul 6

A bit more tweaking, and this is the result. Added color coding for which league the nation participated in, and the size of the text showing promotions and relegations gets smaller. The lines delineating each tournament also make more sense now. Feedback is welcome - there's room for improvement.

An updated infographics for the CONCACAF Nations League. The overall design of the graphic is the same as the earlier image: every nation in CONCACAF gets its own row, while every edition of the Nations League has its own column. Results from the Finals stage appear within each column, as do promotions and relegations.

Whereas before the graphic just showed the first few rows, this version includes all 41 nations of CONCACAF. The changes noted in the post text are also present, so this chart is a lot more colorful (although the color coding switches between pale blue for League C, pale orange for League B, and pale green for League A - so the colors are muted).

Matt@morphosis7· Jul 6

Following up on my earlier efforts at an infographic about the CONCACAF Gold Cup, I'm now turning my attention to the Nations League. Here's a snippet of the prototype. A thorough description is in the alt text, but the summary is that this is prototype, and more work is needed.

A partial screenshot of an infographic showing how the nations of CONCACAF have performed in the four editions of the Nations League to have been played so far.

Every nation in CONCACAF has a row in the graphic. Every edition of the tournament is a column, which is divided into two halves. The first half identifies which level of the Nations League the country participates in (A, B, or C). The second half of the column flags whether countries at the top of the A league advanced to the finals tournament, and how far they advanced. Additionally, if a nation was promoted or relegated between one of the three leagues, this is noted as well.

The overall impression of the chart is pretty busy, and some clarity is needed for an immediately legible graphic design.

Matt@morphosis7· Jun 23

Something else I got done this weekend which helped with *waves at the news*... Recipe is "Best Fudge Brownies (with Crackly Tops)" - bakerbynature.com/the-best-coc... I probably over mixed the batter, but these are still worth making again.

A tray of chocolate brownies, sitting on a kitchen counter

Matt@morphosis7· Jun 22

Further refinements: - Adding a title and a legend - Adding darker eye guides every third row and column to assist legibility when scanning - Adding a slight border around each cell (in part because of the guides mentioned above)