Parker Smith
@dparks.world
1.1K followers 1.3K following 2.1K posts
soccer fan, gamer man | he/him ATL → Tallahassee → Charleston → Boston Occasionally making fun graphs & writing about ⚽️ at @90collective.bsky.social
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dparks.world
48 hours out from kickoff, my Gold Cup analytics guide is out! stats compiled on every team that i truly dont think you can find anywhere else, plus a lot of my own words on each from the data & a lot of watching them

full guide in this link - also can scroll this quoted acct to see them all
90collective.bsky.social
My finalized 2025 Gold Cup Analytics Guide!

i will be posting images of every page on this account, but if you want to scroll through all of them like a digital magazine the link is here!
2025GoldCup.pdf
drive.google.com
Reposted by Parker Smith
stevengoff.bsky.social
In 2026, five of the eight UFL teams (spring football) will play in soccer stadiums:

Washington
Houston
Dallas/Frisco
Orlando
Louisville

And one former soccer venue, Historic Crew Stadium in Columbus

(St Louis was spared)
Reposted by Parker Smith
dparks.world
made a guide to this men's international break in this thread! dozens of vital world cup qualifiers from 4 different continents!
90collective.bsky.social
2026 World Cup Qualifying: a guide for everything in the upcoming Men's International Window. While CONCACAF & UEFA have big games in the penultimate window of their current round, AFC & CAF have the final window of their respective rounds - giant drama to be had in Asia & Africa this October
Reposted by Parker Smith
brendelbored.bsky.social
We really hit on something with the 12 year old theory of governance because that’s really the entire political project. It’s being 12 years old and not even normal 12 year olds but real pieces of shit 12 year olds
Texas GOP candidate
Shelley Luther complains that students can't make fun of transgender children
By Jay Root, Staff Writer
Updated Feb 9, 2022 6:02 a.m.
Reposted by Parker Smith
dparks.world
"bari weiss" officially muted 🫡
dparks.world
catching the coach on the way in for halftime is less of an opportunity cost than what you could be watching, compared to the end of a game, but i still dont think i have ever felt enlightened or taken away anything from those quotes. always just feel it's pointless extra broadcast space
dparks.world
hot take but i really dont care for on-field personnel interviews in sports, midgame or postgame. i think its lame how you only get maybe 30 seconds of celebratory scenes at the end of a football game before the broadcast forces you to watch the coach & QB talk into a mic with the most NPC dialogue
Reposted by Parker Smith
dreyesceron.bsky.social
love to have NWSL's broadcast partner CBS running a whole CarMax ad during a player substitution and proceed to miss an entire goal by KC Current

absolute amateur hour
dparks.world
Obviously when you consider the math of how many people are doing other prompts vs video, how often, a full picture gets painted & it all factors in significantly.

But at an individual person level, the video dweebs should be the first to get tomatoes bombarded at them
dparks.world
Using ChatGPT to write & speak for you is pathetic, but somebody could use it to write a massive novel & all of the energy they’ve tapped into could still be eclipsed by one person generating a 2 minute video or something.

The people doing videos are overwhelmingly responsible for ai energy suck
dparks.world
For those who didn’t know, GenAI Video is EONS worse on the environment than other uses.

Generated text responses are estimated to be equivalent to 5-10 seconds of running a microwave

A 5-SECOND generated video? Over an hour of running a microwave
Reposted by Parker Smith
quantian.bsky.social
Sora is not the real problem here. The real problem is that in 12, at most 24 months, there will be a Sora clone from Tencent or Alibaba that is just as good and can be run by anybody with a 5099, at which point everyone in society needs to rapidly agree to treat all digital video as fake, period.
Reposted by Parker Smith
kickbackcommittee.bsky.social
It all comes down to ONE game 👀🔥

With both Messi and Denis Bouanga called up for international duty, they’ll miss their clubs’ matches this week, leaving them with just one final MLS game to battle for the Golden Boot 🏆⚽
Reposted by Parker Smith
Reposted by Parker Smith
jonarnoldfc.bsky.social
One of the finest drivers to ever do it.
Reposted by Parker Smith
mattdoyle.bsky.social
Even moreso now that Nagbe is retiring at the end of the year.
mattdoyle.bsky.social
I am so deadly serious about Columbus needing to bring Emeka Eneli home this winter. Cashfer, GAM, whatever it takes.
Reposted by Parker Smith
jeffrueter.bsky.social
The greatest number 8 in MLS history, certainly since the expansion era kicked off.

A centerpiece on four different MLS Cup winners - very few players of any position can claim that status, but nobody else did it at three different clubs.
tombogert.bsky.social
BREAKING: Columbus Crew midfielder and MLS legend Darlington Nagbe is retiring after the 2025 MLS season, per sources.

Nagbe, 35, is a four-time MLS Cup winner (2015, 2018, 2020, 2023) with three clubs (Portland, Atlanta, Columbus).

One of MLS's best-ever midfielders 👏
Reposted by Parker Smith
tombogert.bsky.social
What a career Darlington Nagbe has had.

After the Crew won MLS Cup in 2023 I was covering the celebrations in the locker room.

Two different champagne-soaked Crew staffers made sure to tell me:

“He’s the best fucking player this league has seen. You can fucking tweet that.”
tombogert.bsky.social
BREAKING: Columbus Crew midfielder and MLS legend Darlington Nagbe is retiring after the 2025 MLS season, per sources.

Nagbe, 35, is a four-time MLS Cup winner (2015, 2018, 2020, 2023) with three clubs (Portland, Atlanta, Columbus).

One of MLS's best-ever midfielders 👏
dparks.world
Right around the time I was finally like “damn I need to get a Nagbe kit” the Crew went & changed their crest to that current abomination. So I’ll spend the rest of my days hunting down a Nagbe kit, any Nagbe kit, from before then
dparks.world
I gave Nagbe my little award for being my favorite MLS Player of 2023 after he lifted that MLS Cup, here’s what I wrote about him in that piece

“Darlington was, and forever will be, the singular player that taught me the most about interpreting the game.”
Golden Ball: Darlington Nagbe, Columbus Crew
I have a lot of words about Darlington. While I'm sure I've really established my expertise in the game by being a random guy on twitter, first you should hear it from somebody whose words might have a bit more value than mine, Diego Valeri:
Darlington
Selfishness doesn't fit into team sports. The ball must be shared. However, Darlington Nagbe could very well keep it at his feet for an entire match, and I bet no one would take it away. The captain of Columbus is a humble soul and an outstanding football player.
I met him 10 years ago, and he was a dazzling right winger with a scoring touch. Today, he's a midfielder who understands everything his team needs.
Because this is "his" team.
The quiet little man empowers himself when he plays. That's how he speaks. In silence, he mourns injustices and savors the candies of pain. This profession has its gray clouds. Nagbe is a sun. He grows on the field, his smile shines on the stage, holding a trophy in his hands, as he did in every club he played for.
If I ever have grandchildren and they ask about soccer in the United States, I will tell them that I played with him. If I ever have grandchildren and they ask me about soccer in the United States, I will tell them that I played with him.
That is an unbelievable quote. Fuck it, I'm posting it again for emphasis.
If I ever have grandchildren and they ask me about soccer in the United States, I will tell them that I played with him.
Atlanta United was my catalyst into MLS soccer, and even in year 1 of 2017 I was only watching the 5 Stripes — not the rest of the league and not really any MLS prior. In 2016 I watched Nagbe dribble exactly 1 guy in midfield while playing for the United States, and after querying that massive sample size with some classic Goal + Assist stats, my
20-year-old self came to the brilliant conclusion that Portland had been misusing him in central midfield. I arrogantly claimed he was a winger and was disappointed to see him lining up centrally when I saw him in an ATL lineup announcement for the very first time. If a person finds their passion for soccer as early as their adolescence, their understanding of it is likely to mature just as much as one's mental and behavioral traits do throughout youth-to-young adulthood. If you're in that group, there's probably certain players you can attribute to being significant in your maturation of understanding the game.
Darlington was, and forever will be, the singular player that taught me the most about interpreting the game.
His brilliance and grace in midfield is something that hides from those who see the game as a binary
"attack or defense". Despite his fun annual goal of the season, even those don't properly showcase what he does best. Numbers don't do it any justice.
Words of witnesses might do it a little bit. But ultimately it's something that only eyes can understand. From 2006 until that Atlanta United kickoff in 2017, my only soccer teams were the men's side of both the United States and Liverpool FC. Across that period, I witnessed plenty of players that were better defenders than Nagbe. Better dribblers.
Better goalscorers. Better passers. Better athletes.
Better workhorses.
But I only witnessed one player for any of my teams that was wiser on the pitch than Darlington, and his name is Xabi Alonso.
I'm lucky enough not only to have coincided with the career of Darlington Nagbe, but also see him wear both the crest of my country as well as one of my club teams in that time.
To put my spin on Diego Valeri's words...
If I ever have grandchildren and they ask about soccer in the United States, I will tell them that I watched him.
dparks.world
One of my favorite ever moments on Twitter
Felicia Nagbe liked my tweet about her husband “Darlington Nagbe is so fucking good”
dparks.world
Diego Valeri wrote about Nagbe “If I ever have grandchildren and they ask about soccer in the United States, I will tell them that I played with him”

If I ever have grandchildren, I will tell them that I watched him
Darlington Nagbe with 2023 MLS Cup in Diego Valeri’s post Darlington
El egoísmo no encaja en el deporte colectivo. Hay que compartir la pelota. Sin embargo, Darlington Nagbe bien podría quedársela un partido entero y apuesto que nadie se la sacaría.
El capitán de Columbus es un alma humilde y un soberbio jugador de fútbol. Hace 10 años lo conocí y era un wing derecho desequilibrante con gol. Hoy es un mediocampista que entiende todo lo que necesita su equipo.
Porque este es "su" equipo.
El pequeño hombre silencioso se empodera cuando juega. Así habla. En el silencio llora las injusticias y mastica los caramelos del dolor. Esta profesión tiene sus nubes grises. Nagbe es un sol. Se hace grande en el campo de juego, su sonrisa brilla en el escenario, levanta un trofeo más como lo hizo en cada club en el que jugó.
Si algún día tengo nietos, y me preguntan del fútbol de Estados Unidos, voy a contarles que jugué con él.
Darlington
Selfishness doesn't fit into team sports. The ball must be shared. However, Darlington Nagbe could very well keep it at his feet for an entire match, and I bet no one would take it away.
The captain of Columbus is a humble soul and an outstanding
football player.
I met him 10 years ago, and he was a dazzling right winger with a scoring touch. Today, he's a midfielder who understands everything his team needs. Because this is "his" team.
The quiet little man empowers himself when he plays. That's how he speaks. In silence, he mourns injustices and savors the candies of pain. This profession has its gray clouds. Nagbe is a sun. He grows on the field, his smile shines on the stage, holding a trophy in his hands, as he did in every club he played for.
If I ever have grandchildren and they ask about soccer in the
United States, I will tell them that I played with him.
dparks.world
Goddamn, looks like im writing an Ode to Darlington at some point in the next few months
tombogert.bsky.social
BREAKING: Columbus Crew midfielder and MLS legend Darlington Nagbe is retiring after the 2025 MLS season, per sources.

Nagbe, 35, is a four-time MLS Cup winner (2015, 2018, 2020, 2023) with three clubs (Portland, Atlanta, Columbus).

One of MLS's best-ever midfielders 👏