2026-07-27, 03:15 AM - Word count:
I've Always heard the term "Defence wins championships" in sporting circles, particularly in those of basketball and hockey, but I was curious to find out how the investment of TPE into a team's defence affects their performances in SSL games. At the end I will also attempt to find which teams currently have the best and worst performing defences based on their TPE investments. I likely spent much too much time on this testing, and decided to measure a million different things, so I hope you all enjoy the ride with me!
First of all, I decided to go to the rosters of every organization and find the TPE of all their defensive players. To count a "defensive player", I looked at the obvious positions of DL/DC/DR, but I also counted WBL/WBR in the cases of teams that opt to use a formation that has a 3 at the back. Then I went out to find a single average TPE of each team's defence, and this is how the ranking came out:
1 - United Sao Paulo -1877.6
2 - Reykjavik United - 1727
3 - Shanghai Dragons - 1695.75
4 - Hollywood FC - 1690.75
5 - CD Techochtitlan - 1643.8
6 - CF Catalunya - 1600.25
7 - Liffeyside Celtic FC - 1513
8 - Shwartzwalder FV - 1336.25
9 - Xelaju Cosmico FC - 1327.5
10 - CA Buenos Aires - 1245.25
11 - Tokyo SC - 1224.5
12 - AC Romana - 1194.4
13 - AS Paris - 1153
14 - Krung Thep FC - 956
15 - Athenai FC - 832
16 - CS Rova Mpanjaka - 824.75
17 - Rapid Magyar SC - 823.25
18 - Montreal United - 717.5
19 - Seoul MFC - 717
20 - North Shore United - 711
21 - Inter London - 709
22 - AF Masques Sacres - 630.25
23 - Cairo City - 616.5
24 - FC Kaapstad - 583.5
Now, using this ranking, I decided to find which teams are currently performing better or worse than their defence would have you expect. To do this, I created a metric called League Rankings, which is simply a team ranking system based on where they currently are in the standings. However, I acted as if this positional ranking was in a league where all divisions are stitched together, with the total ranking being achieved by sorting the leagues by how they stand in the SSL. To put it simply, because Liffeyside Celtic FC currently sit first in the Majors 1st Division, they will be ranked as #1. AC Romana, who sits 2nd in the Majors 2nd Division will be ranked #8, as they are ranked after every single Majors 1st Division team, and also are second in their own division
Now that that is out of the way, I subtracted every team's League Ranking from their TPE Ranking to find which defences sit lower in the league than their TPE would make you believe
Overperforming:
1 - FC Kaapstad (+8)
T2 - North Shore United (+6)
T2 - Liffeyside Centic FC (+6)
4 - AC Romana (+4)
5 - Inter London (+3)
Underperforming:
1 - Athenai FC (-9)
T2 - Seoul MFC (-4)
T2 - Shanghai Dragons FC (-4)
4 - CS Rova Mpanjaka (-3)
T5 - Montreal United, Xelaju Cosmico FC, Shwartzwalder FV, Reykjavik United, United Sao Paulo (-2)
Now, while I believe that this metric is interesting, it is undeniably flawed. It does not take into account the difference between divisions, nor the organizational feature of promotion and demotion that we have in the SSL. Thus, of course it wasn't enough for me to be satisfied with.
Next, I decided to take the average TPE of every team's defence, and subtract it by the average TPE of the defence of every team in their respective division. For example, the average TPE in the defensive players in the 1st Majors Division is 1675.4, while the same metric in the 2nd Majors Division sits 300 lower at 1337.28
Most TPE ABOVE Divisional Average:
1. Shanghai Dragons FC (358.48)
2. AS Paris (330.38)
3. United Sao Paulo (202.20)
4. Krung Thep FC (133.38)
5. Athenai FC (109.00)
Most TPE BELOW Divisional Average:
1. FC Kaapstad (-239.13)
2. Liffeyside Celtic FC (-162.40)
3. AC Romana (-142.88)
4. Inter London (-113.63)
5. Tokyo SC (-112.78)
I used the values created by this metric to then create another ranking of 1-24, With Shanghai Dragons FC sitting at #1, and FC Kaapstad at #24, to create a simple string of numbers to help us calculate a portion you'll see in the near future
But before then, we have to have a look at goals. Really, we can talk about TPE as much as we like, but it doesn't matter without teams scoring. Thus, I decided to record the goals scored against every team, and do another 1-24 ranking based on the average divisional scoring in every game.
A bit off topic, but this led me to an interesting fact. The average number of goals allowed for every team so far in the season differs heavily between which league they play in. The 1st Majors division seems to have a very defensively minded style of play, with every team allowing an average of 19.83 goals. This contrasts heavily with the 2nd Majors division, which has an extraordinarily high 27.67 average goals allowed. Meanwhile, the Minors divisions both sit at around 22 goals allowed, with the 1st Minors Division's average being brought down significantly by AS Paris only allowing 6 goals.
Back to the main subject now, we have 2 sets of 1-24 team rankings, with one recording their Goals Allowed Above Average, and the second being the Team's Defensive TPE Above Divisional Average. As the culmination of this analysis, I will create one more final metric, called Defensive Efficiency to find which teams have gotten the most out of their defensive investments. To summarize, a High TPE Defence that allows a lot of goals, ends with a low defensive efficiency. A Low TPE defence that allows very few goals ends with a high defensive efficiency. Now, let's get to the rankings.
Defensive Efficiency
1. Liffeyside Celtic FC (+20)
2. AC Romana (+17)
3. FC Kaapstad (+11)
4. CA Buenos Aires (+10)
5. Cairo City (+6)
6. CS Rova Mpanjaka (+4)
T7. CD Tecochtitlan (+3)
T7. North Shore United (+3)
T7. Montreal United (+3)
10. AS Paris (+1)
11. AF Masques Sacres (0)
T12. Hollywood FC (-2)
T12. Tokyo SC (-2)
T12. Seoul MFC (-2)
T15. Shanghai Dragons FC (-3)
T15. Krung Thep FC (-3)
T15. Inter London (-3)
T18. United Sao Paulo (-6)
T18. Xelaju Cosmico FC (-6)
T18. CF Catalunya (-6)
T21. Reykjavik United (-8)
T21. Shwartzwalder FV (-8)
23. Rapid Magyar SC (-11)
24. Athenai FC (-18)
First of all, I decided to go to the rosters of every organization and find the TPE of all their defensive players. To count a "defensive player", I looked at the obvious positions of DL/DC/DR, but I also counted WBL/WBR in the cases of teams that opt to use a formation that has a 3 at the back. Then I went out to find a single average TPE of each team's defence, and this is how the ranking came out:
1 - United Sao Paulo -1877.6
2 - Reykjavik United - 1727
3 - Shanghai Dragons - 1695.75
4 - Hollywood FC - 1690.75
5 - CD Techochtitlan - 1643.8
6 - CF Catalunya - 1600.25
7 - Liffeyside Celtic FC - 1513
8 - Shwartzwalder FV - 1336.25
9 - Xelaju Cosmico FC - 1327.5
10 - CA Buenos Aires - 1245.25
11 - Tokyo SC - 1224.5
12 - AC Romana - 1194.4
13 - AS Paris - 1153
14 - Krung Thep FC - 956
15 - Athenai FC - 832
16 - CS Rova Mpanjaka - 824.75
17 - Rapid Magyar SC - 823.25
18 - Montreal United - 717.5
19 - Seoul MFC - 717
20 - North Shore United - 711
21 - Inter London - 709
22 - AF Masques Sacres - 630.25
23 - Cairo City - 616.5
24 - FC Kaapstad - 583.5
Now, using this ranking, I decided to find which teams are currently performing better or worse than their defence would have you expect. To do this, I created a metric called League Rankings, which is simply a team ranking system based on where they currently are in the standings. However, I acted as if this positional ranking was in a league where all divisions are stitched together, with the total ranking being achieved by sorting the leagues by how they stand in the SSL. To put it simply, because Liffeyside Celtic FC currently sit first in the Majors 1st Division, they will be ranked as #1. AC Romana, who sits 2nd in the Majors 2nd Division will be ranked #8, as they are ranked after every single Majors 1st Division team, and also are second in their own division
Now that that is out of the way, I subtracted every team's League Ranking from their TPE Ranking to find which defences sit lower in the league than their TPE would make you believe
Overperforming:
1 - FC Kaapstad (+8)
T2 - North Shore United (+6)
T2 - Liffeyside Centic FC (+6)
4 - AC Romana (+4)
5 - Inter London (+3)
Underperforming:
1 - Athenai FC (-9)
T2 - Seoul MFC (-4)
T2 - Shanghai Dragons FC (-4)
4 - CS Rova Mpanjaka (-3)
T5 - Montreal United, Xelaju Cosmico FC, Shwartzwalder FV, Reykjavik United, United Sao Paulo (-2)
Now, while I believe that this metric is interesting, it is undeniably flawed. It does not take into account the difference between divisions, nor the organizational feature of promotion and demotion that we have in the SSL. Thus, of course it wasn't enough for me to be satisfied with.
Next, I decided to take the average TPE of every team's defence, and subtract it by the average TPE of the defence of every team in their respective division. For example, the average TPE in the defensive players in the 1st Majors Division is 1675.4, while the same metric in the 2nd Majors Division sits 300 lower at 1337.28
Most TPE ABOVE Divisional Average:
1. Shanghai Dragons FC (358.48)
2. AS Paris (330.38)
3. United Sao Paulo (202.20)
4. Krung Thep FC (133.38)
5. Athenai FC (109.00)
Most TPE BELOW Divisional Average:
1. FC Kaapstad (-239.13)
2. Liffeyside Celtic FC (-162.40)
3. AC Romana (-142.88)
4. Inter London (-113.63)
5. Tokyo SC (-112.78)
I used the values created by this metric to then create another ranking of 1-24, With Shanghai Dragons FC sitting at #1, and FC Kaapstad at #24, to create a simple string of numbers to help us calculate a portion you'll see in the near future
But before then, we have to have a look at goals. Really, we can talk about TPE as much as we like, but it doesn't matter without teams scoring. Thus, I decided to record the goals scored against every team, and do another 1-24 ranking based on the average divisional scoring in every game.
A bit off topic, but this led me to an interesting fact. The average number of goals allowed for every team so far in the season differs heavily between which league they play in. The 1st Majors division seems to have a very defensively minded style of play, with every team allowing an average of 19.83 goals. This contrasts heavily with the 2nd Majors division, which has an extraordinarily high 27.67 average goals allowed. Meanwhile, the Minors divisions both sit at around 22 goals allowed, with the 1st Minors Division's average being brought down significantly by AS Paris only allowing 6 goals.
Back to the main subject now, we have 2 sets of 1-24 team rankings, with one recording their Goals Allowed Above Average, and the second being the Team's Defensive TPE Above Divisional Average. As the culmination of this analysis, I will create one more final metric, called Defensive Efficiency to find which teams have gotten the most out of their defensive investments. To summarize, a High TPE Defence that allows a lot of goals, ends with a low defensive efficiency. A Low TPE defence that allows very few goals ends with a high defensive efficiency. Now, let's get to the rankings.
Defensive Efficiency
1. Liffeyside Celtic FC (+20)
2. AC Romana (+17)
3. FC Kaapstad (+11)
4. CA Buenos Aires (+10)
5. Cairo City (+6)
6. CS Rova Mpanjaka (+4)
T7. CD Tecochtitlan (+3)
T7. North Shore United (+3)
T7. Montreal United (+3)
10. AS Paris (+1)
11. AF Masques Sacres (0)
T12. Hollywood FC (-2)
T12. Tokyo SC (-2)
T12. Seoul MFC (-2)
T15. Shanghai Dragons FC (-3)
T15. Krung Thep FC (-3)
T15. Inter London (-3)
T18. United Sao Paulo (-6)
T18. Xelaju Cosmico FC (-6)
T18. CF Catalunya (-6)
T21. Reykjavik United (-8)
T21. Shwartzwalder FV (-8)
23. Rapid Magyar SC (-11)
24. Athenai FC (-18)
![[Image: lisfor-3.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/sDzJYqYM/lisfor-3.png)
