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Comparison · Infra & APIs

ggfootball vs gofedf

A side-by-side editorial comparison of ggfootball and gofedf — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.

ggfootball vs gofedf: at a glance

Featureggfootballgofedf
SectorInfra & APIsInfra & APIs
Velocity score0.00.0
Sparks · 30d00
Top themessports-analytics, r-package, data-scraping, expected-goalsgoodness-of-fit, empirical-distribution, hypothesis-testing, extensibility
Last editorial update48m ago1h ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is ggfootball?

A football-viz package just swapped scraping for an API and broke its own output to do it.

ggfootball is a small R package for plotting expected-goals and shot data, sourced from Understat. Four releases are visible. The 0.2.x line was argument tidying and dependency pruning; 0.3.0 replaced the data-acquisition layer wholesale, moving get_match_shots() from HTML parsing onto Understat's AJAX endpoints and changing the returned column names in the process.

Read the full ggfootball trajectory →

What is gofedf?

A two-test goodness-of-fit package opens itself up to any weight function

gofedf runs goodness-of-fit tests built on the empirical distribution function. Its three releases trace a short, clean arc: existence in 2023, then p-values computed from an analytical solution of the integral equation in 2024, then in 2026 a user-supplied weight function that replaces the fixed menu. Cramer-von Mises and Anderson-Darling are now two points in a family rather than the two options.

Read the full gofedf trajectory →

ggfootball vs gofedf: editorial side-by-side

G
ggfootball
INFRA · APIS
0.0

A football-viz package just swapped scraping for an API and broke its own output to do it.

◆ Current state

ggfootball is a small R package for plotting expected-goals and shot data, sourced from Understat. Four releases are visible. The 0.2.x line was argument tidying and dependency pruning; 0.3.0 replaced the data-acquisition layer wholesale, moving get_match_shots() from HTML parsing onto Understat's AJAX endpoints and changing the returned column names in the process.

◆ Where it's heading

The direction is away from scraped HTML and toward a thinner, more defensible package: four dependencies dropped in 0.3.0 on top of qdapRegex in 0.2.1, input validation added, error messages rewritten. Both breaking changes so far were accepted rather than deferred, which reads as a maintainer treating pre-1.0 as the window to get the shape right. The package is willing to break callers for structural reasons, not cosmetic ones.

◆ Prediction

With the scraper rebuilt and the dependency surface trimmed, the next releases are likely to stabilise the new column names and extend the plotting side, which has seen nothing since 0.2.0. A 1.0 would be the signal that the data structure is now considered fixed.

G
gofedf
INFRA · APIS
0.0

A two-test goodness-of-fit package opens itself up to any weight function

◆ Current state

gofedf runs goodness-of-fit tests built on the empirical distribution function. Its three releases trace a short, clean arc: existence in 2023, then p-values computed from an analytical solution of the integral equation in 2024, then in 2026 a user-supplied weight function that replaces the fixed menu. Cramer-von Mises and Anderson-Darling are now two points in a family rather than the two options.

◆ Where it's heading

The package is generalising rather than accumulating. Each release removed a hard-coded decision: first how eigenvalues are computed, offering both the analytical route and a matrix approximation; then which weight function defines the statistic at all. The maintainer's own framing in 1.1.0 is a contrast against what earlier versions would not let you do, which is the shape of a package aiming to become a framework.

◆ Prediction

An arbitrary weight function is the extensibility point that matters for EDF tests; what it lacks is calibration guidance, since Type I error behaviour was the argued benefit of the analytical eigenvalue route. Documented recommendations or diagnostics for user-chosen weights are the natural follow-up, though the entries do not announce one.

Alternatives to ggfootball and gofedf

Other Infra & APIs products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either ggfootball or gofedf.

See all ggfootball alternatives → · See all gofedf alternatives →

Recent activity from ggfootball and gofedf

Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.

  1. 4mo agogofedfUser-supplied weight functions for Cramer-von Mises tests
  2. 6mo agoggfootballggfootball 0.3.0
  3. 6mo agoggfootballggfootball 0.2.2
  4. 1y agogofedfp-values from an analytical eigenvalue solution
  5. 1y agoggfootballggfootball 0.2.1
  6. 1y agoggfootballggfootball 0.2.0
  7. 2y agogofedfFirst release of the gofedf package

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between ggfootball and gofedf?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. ggfootball and gofedf are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 0.0 vs 0.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.

Is ggfootball better than gofedf?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. ggfootball and gofedf are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 0.0 vs 0.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.

What are the best alternatives to ggfootball?

Top ggfootball alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "ggfootball alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/ggfootball for the full list with editorial commentary on each.

What are the best alternatives to gofedf?

Top gofedf alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "gofedf alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/gofedf for the full list with editorial commentary on each.