Players›Emily Sams
Emily Sams
- Position:
- Defender
- Nationality:
- USA
- Born:
- 1999-07-01 (age 27)
- Height:
- 170 cm
Career (2023–, regular seasons; 2020 excluded): 90 GP · 7,937 min · 2 goals · 4 assists
Composite 2026: 0.593 — ranked 71 of 385 Composite page →
Standard Stats
Advanced Stats
| Expected | VAEP | Threat | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Season ▴ | Team | Min | Gls | xG | G−xG | xG/90 | VAEP | Off | Def | VAEP/90 | xT | xT/90 | DAxT |
| 1 | 2023 | Pride | 1977 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.89 | 1.98 | -1.09 | 0.04 | 2.97 | 0.14 | 0.407 |
| 2 | 2024 | Pride | 2455 | 1 | 0.07 | 0.93 | 0.00 | 2.09 | 4.43 | -2.35 | 0.08 | 3.95 | 0.14 | 0.676 |
| 3 | 2025 | Pride | 2362 | 0 | 0.03 | -0.03 | 0.00 | 3.39 | 3.76 | -0.37 | 0.13 | 5.34 | 0.20 | 0.625 |
| 4 | 2026 | Angel City | 1143 | 1 | 0.73 | 0.27 | 0.06 | 0.99 | 2.29 | -1.29 | 0.08 | 4.49 | 0.35 | 0.170 |
| 4 Yrs | 7937 | 2 | 0.83 | 1.17 | 0.01 | 7.36 | 12.46 | -5.10 | 0.08 | 16.75 | 0.19 | 1.878 | ||
Composite Rating
Our overall player rating, unique to this site: five components — xG, ball carries, passes into the box, defensive value, and goalkeeping — combined into one score and averaged across every selection-model run of the season. Rank is her place among all rated players that year.
| Components | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Season ▴ | xG | Carries | Box Passes | Defense | GK | Composite | Rank | Pool |
| 1 | 2023 | 1.058 | 0.672 | -0.388 | 0.346 | 95 | 240 | ||
| 2 | 2025 | 1.060 | 0.515 | 1.738 | -1.797 | 0.100 | 171 | 258 | |
| 3 | 2026 | 1.063 | 0.590 | 2.313 | -0.544 | 0.023 | 0.593 | 71 | 385 |
Structural Roles
Start counts by role, per season — twice. Explicit is where the team sheet wrote her; Inferredis what a model reading only her on-ball events made of each start. The Read column states each season's verdict from the two most common roles.
| Explicit (Team Sheet) | Inferred (Event Data) | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Season ▴ | Starts | GK | FB | CB | DM | CM | AM | W | ST | GK | FB | CB | DM | CM | AM | W | ST | Read |
| 1 | 2023 | 27 | 2 | 25 | 2 | 25 | played her role | ||||||||||||
| 2 | 2024 | 27 | 5 | 22 | 4 | 23 | played her role | ||||||||||||
| 3 | 2025 | 27 | 6 | 21 | 2 | 23 | 2 | played her role | |||||||||||
| 4 | 2026 | 13 | 13 | 13 | played her role | ||||||||||||||
| 4 Yrs | 94 | 13 | 81 | 8 | 84 | 2 | played her role | ||||||||||||
Similar Players
Nearest neighbors by playing-style embedding (most recent embedded season). Similarity is cosine distance in style space, not quality.
| Rk | Player | Team | Season | Pos | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Abby Dahlkemper | Bay | 2025 | Defender | 0.816 |
| 2 | Sarah Gorden | Angel City | 2023 | Defender | 0.774 |
| 3 | Kate Del Fava | Royals | 2025 | Defender | 0.750 |
| 4 | Emily Menges | Thorns | 2021 | Defender | 0.748 |
| 5 | Kennedy Wesley | San Diego Wave | 2026 | Defender | 0.746 |
| 6 | Megan Montefusco | Pride | 2023 | Defender | 0.742 |
| 7 | Sierra Enge | San Diego Wave | 2024 | Midfielder | 0.726 |
| 8 | Sam Hiatt | Thorns | 2025 | Defender | 0.707 |
| 9 | Gina Loren Lewandowski | Gotham FC | 2021 | Defender | 0.701 |
| 10 | Kaleigh Kurtz | Courage | 2023 | Defender | 0.698 |