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| Where NASL teams have been tweeted world wide! |
As promised earlier this year, we present to you the #NASLMap International Edition. The results discussed in this blog are based on all geo located tweets from a list of every known country since April 1st 2016. There are some surprises and some not so surprising, we will highlight the interesting. Before we do let's break down exactly who owns what, the world map is large so it's difficult to display things easily in one graphic.
- Indy Eleven (10 countries) - USA, Uruguay, Ghana, India, Greece, Rep. Of Ireland, Philippines, Netherlands, Denmark and New Zealand
- New York Cosmos (9 countries) - Australia, Venezuela, Indonesia, Uganda, Switzerland, Belgium, Hungary, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates
- Miami FC (5 countries) - Argentina, Spain, Italy, Germany and Poland
- Carolina Railhawks (4 countries) - Mexico, Algeria, South Africa and Slovakia
- Ottawa Fury (4 countries) - Canada, Peru, France and Serbia
- Jacksonville Armada (3 countries) - Russia, Malaysia and Chile
- Minnesota United FC - Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Uganda
- FTL Strikers (2 countries) - China and Costa Rica
- Tampa Bay Rowdies (2 countries) - United Kingdom and Ecuador
- FC Edmonton (1 country) - Brazil
- Rayo OKC (1 country) - Austria
- Puerto Rico FC - (0 countries)
There are some interesting contrasts between the regular #NASLMap and the international, despite having a commanding lead in territories won by Minnesota United FC in North America, Indy Eleven own the United States by sheer volume of tweets in the country. Likewise in Canada, FC Edmonton own a larger number of areas than Ottawa Fury, but many more Fury fans are actually tweeting about their team.
We'll take a look at some of the more interesting parts of the world map shortly but for those of you with any doubts about who is the most tweeted about team in the world, I am afraid to tell you it is in fact at this moment in time Indy Eleven, mostly because of the volume of tweets made in the USA alone. Some of you may find this surprising, to be honest we do as well, we know from the time of starting this fun project that the Cosmos normally dominate when it comes to total tweets. Indy Eleven have surpassed them this year.
We'll take a look at some of the more interesting parts of the world map shortly but for those of you with any doubts about who is the most tweeted about team in the world, I am afraid to tell you it is in fact at this moment in time Indy Eleven, mostly because of the volume of tweets made in the USA alone. Some of you may find this surprising, to be honest we do as well, we know from the time of starting this fun project that the Cosmos normally dominate when it comes to total tweets. Indy Eleven have surpassed them this year.
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| All global located tweets since April 1st 2016 |
The not so surprising.....
The twitter data collected is a combination of adoring fans tweeting about their team as they go on their travels, and also tweets made from teams and sports media themselves. Some country occupations are more obvious than others....
China - It is no big secret that the Fort Lauderdale Strikers made a trip to China in Preseason 2016. The Strikers played matches against Sichuan Longfa, Chengdu Qianbao and Beijing Qihang in March bring them plenty of twitter attention.
Italy - Miami FC could probably take the title of highest FIFA ranking team on the map. With the likes of Argentina, Italy, Spain, Germany and Poland they can boat holding on to four world champion nations. Italy is an obvious choice though after the much publicized involvement of two of the most famous Italian internationals in history. Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Nesta.
United Kingdom - Tampa Bay Rowdies, not really surprising, but also you would not be surprised to find out this is mainly through tweets in England, if we were to break the UK up as many would like to do, Tampa would not hold Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. The signing of former Chelsea star Joe Cole made quite a stir and the map reflects it, his mom has been really busy!
United States - Indy Eleven controls, even without having the most territories on the regular map, if you have followed our most tweeted about teams this season you will know that Indy Eleven has been dominating in that respect. They were high in the standings in 2015 but success on the field has pushed them head and shoulders above every other team domestically and on the world map.
Canada - Not surprising because of overall popularity, Ottawa Fury controls Canada in overall volume of tweets, maybe surprising to followers of #NASLMap who know FC Edmonton control more territories (and many of them like to play our little game) but despite not straying too far from home The Fury supporters heavily outnumber the Eddies in geo located tweets. Perhaps surprising though as shown in Fig.2 above, FC Edmonton has more tweets within the USA than Ottawa Fury has.
The somewhat surprising....
Mexico - Carolina Railhawks hold Mexico by a very narrow margin over Indy Eleven, thought Indy might have this one because of all the hype over Gerardo Torraddo signing from Cruz Azul, and perhaps Minnesota could have been in with a shout with their connections to Ibarra and Leon but their count was very low. Railhawks had a boost in "twaction" (I made that word up, but it's probably already made up though) after the signing of Omar Bravo from Guadalajara.
Algeria - Carolina Railhawks, they don't have any Algerian players and the tweets were not made by supporters on vacation. Carolina Railhawks actually own Algeria through supporters of West Ham player Sofiane Feghouli that were wishing him luck before their friendly in Cary this summer.
Australia - New York Cosmos, only mentioning it because it's the largest nation the Cosmos have acquired and only barely, but also none of the other captured nations make much sense either. On an international level the Cosmos twitter action is down a lot compared to 2015 where they controlled the United Kingdom as well. Kind of thought they might have nabbed Croatia with the signing of Niko Kranjčar but no tweets at all from there.
The very surprising, the weird and also the funny....
Austria - Rayo OKC, how does an Oklahoma team end up taking Austria? An interesting one, and after a little research a conversation between two Vallecano fans asking about the number of supporters Rayo OKC might have and how much is a ticket. It was a two way conversation between Getafe in Spain and Graz in Austria where one Vallecano fan had relocated to.
Russia - Jacksonville Armada, this one is plain weird, we have ran the data pull three times now and each time the Armada returns a result for Russia, we can neither find the tweet in the code or on the live World map? We suspect it may be Putin thinking he is keeping track of the US Fleet and has somehow managed to hide the tweets from us. Watch out you folks in Jacksonville, there may be some Russian Subs in the waters near you? We'll give it to ya anyway, also apparently there is a futsal team in Malaysia called Armada FC as well, so you better send them some thanks!
Brazil - FC Edmonton, yes we all know Edmonton is very similar to Brazil, carnival atmosphere, great beaches, incredibly skillful football and inordinate amount of beautifully tanned women. Ah wait, none of that is true, especially the skillful football part. Honestly we don't know how they managed that as we can't understand a word of the tweets but suspect it is in relationship to playing the Strikers and Eddies handle got more mentions during the conversations as it is very close between the two. The biggest surprise is that Fort Lauderdale don't own Brazil?
Egypt, Saudia Arabia and Uganda - Minnesota United FC, this is probably the most hilarious of the whole lot, all of the tweets in all these countries counted for the Loons, were all made by Manchester United fans having problems with hash tag spelling, this is no joke. If we eliminated typo tweets from Manchester United fans, Minnesota United would actually have no countries at all!
Not much change in the regular NASL Map, we will be bringing you a new update later this week. The updated map for this week is below. FC Edmonton have taken Alaska from Fort Lauderdale and Minnesota pinched from Indy Eleven again, this time Washington State.
United Kingdom - Tampa Bay Rowdies, not really surprising, but also you would not be surprised to find out this is mainly through tweets in England, if we were to break the UK up as many would like to do, Tampa would not hold Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. The signing of former Chelsea star Joe Cole made quite a stir and the map reflects it, his mom has been really busy!
United States - Indy Eleven controls, even without having the most territories on the regular map, if you have followed our most tweeted about teams this season you will know that Indy Eleven has been dominating in that respect. They were high in the standings in 2015 but success on the field has pushed them head and shoulders above every other team domestically and on the world map.
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| From dark to light in order, share of located tweets in the USA |
Canada - Not surprising because of overall popularity, Ottawa Fury controls Canada in overall volume of tweets, maybe surprising to followers of #NASLMap who know FC Edmonton control more territories (and many of them like to play our little game) but despite not straying too far from home The Fury supporters heavily outnumber the Eddies in geo located tweets. Perhaps surprising though as shown in Fig.2 above, FC Edmonton has more tweets within the USA than Ottawa Fury has.
The somewhat surprising....
Mexico - Carolina Railhawks hold Mexico by a very narrow margin over Indy Eleven, thought Indy might have this one because of all the hype over Gerardo Torraddo signing from Cruz Azul, and perhaps Minnesota could have been in with a shout with their connections to Ibarra and Leon but their count was very low. Railhawks had a boost in "twaction" (I made that word up, but it's probably already made up though) after the signing of Omar Bravo from Guadalajara.
Algeria - Carolina Railhawks, they don't have any Algerian players and the tweets were not made by supporters on vacation. Carolina Railhawks actually own Algeria through supporters of West Ham player Sofiane Feghouli that were wishing him luck before their friendly in Cary this summer.
Australia - New York Cosmos, only mentioning it because it's the largest nation the Cosmos have acquired and only barely, but also none of the other captured nations make much sense either. On an international level the Cosmos twitter action is down a lot compared to 2015 where they controlled the United Kingdom as well. Kind of thought they might have nabbed Croatia with the signing of Niko Kranjčar but no tweets at all from there.
The very surprising, the weird and also the funny....
Austria - Rayo OKC, how does an Oklahoma team end up taking Austria? An interesting one, and after a little research a conversation between two Vallecano fans asking about the number of supporters Rayo OKC might have and how much is a ticket. It was a two way conversation between Getafe in Spain and Graz in Austria where one Vallecano fan had relocated to.
Russia - Jacksonville Armada, this one is plain weird, we have ran the data pull three times now and each time the Armada returns a result for Russia, we can neither find the tweet in the code or on the live World map? We suspect it may be Putin thinking he is keeping track of the US Fleet and has somehow managed to hide the tweets from us. Watch out you folks in Jacksonville, there may be some Russian Subs in the waters near you? We'll give it to ya anyway, also apparently there is a futsal team in Malaysia called Armada FC as well, so you better send them some thanks!
Brazil - FC Edmonton, yes we all know Edmonton is very similar to Brazil, carnival atmosphere, great beaches, incredibly skillful football and inordinate amount of beautifully tanned women. Ah wait, none of that is true, especially the skillful football part. Honestly we don't know how they managed that as we can't understand a word of the tweets but suspect it is in relationship to playing the Strikers and Eddies handle got more mentions during the conversations as it is very close between the two. The biggest surprise is that Fort Lauderdale don't own Brazil?
Egypt, Saudia Arabia and Uganda - Minnesota United FC, this is probably the most hilarious of the whole lot, all of the tweets in all these countries counted for the Loons, were all made by Manchester United fans having problems with hash tag spelling, this is no joke. If we eliminated typo tweets from Manchester United fans, Minnesota United would actually have no countries at all!
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Not much change in the regular NASL Map, we will be bringing you a new update later this week. The updated map for this week is below. FC Edmonton have taken Alaska from Fort Lauderdale and Minnesota pinched from Indy Eleven again, this time Washington State.
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| Minnesota and FC Edmonton gain at expense of Indy and the Strikers |
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