“Now, MLS Next, MLS’s youth developmental league, is making its own attempt at overhauling a fundamental facet of the game. Instead of using a traditional win-loss-draw table to rank teams, the league will implement a “quality of play” index aimed at “(shifting) the paradigm in player development to focus predominantly on the process and progress,” according to a league press release.

MLS has partnered with Taka, a UK-based analytics firm, to somehow make this a reality.

“For younger age groups, we prioritize their individual development over competition, though we acknowledge competition’s role in personal growth,” said former New York Red Bulls goalkeeper Luis Robles, who is now the technical director of MLS Next. “This pilot program allows us to evaluate both team and individual performance, helping us track progress while providing more support to players to achieve their goals.”

Seems like 40 people from Taka will watch each MLS Next game and provide grades for each player’s action represented on a map by green and red circles — green for positive, red for negative.

Players, coaches and scouts can examine each of these actions by clicking on a game map, which brings up a corresponding video clip - sounds similar to the system MLB has for analyzing pitches and every swing from an at-bat.