Moneyball meets Freakonomics in this myth-busting guide to understanding-and winning-the most popular sport on the planet.

Innovation is coming to soccer, and at the center of it all are the numbers-a way of thinking about the game that ignores the obvious in favor of how things actually are. In The Numbers Game, Chris Anderson, a former professional goalkeeper turned soccer statistics guru, teams up with behavioral analyst David Sally to uncover the numbers that really matter when it comes to predicting a winner. Investigating basic but profound questions-How valuable are corners? Which goal matters most? Is possession really nine-tenths of the law? How should a player's value be judged?-they deliver an incisive, revolutionary new way of watching and understanding soccer.