Author
Mateo Rivas
Modern tactical analyst
Match breakdowns and video analysis across La Liga and European competition.
he/him · Barcelona
- Video analysis
- Pressing triggers
- La Liga
- Sequence breakdowns
Mateo Rivas is a tactical analyst based in Barcelona who specializes in video breakdowns of pressing triggers, spacing, rotations, and the decisions players make before the pass or shot. He worked in academy analysis before moving into public match writing and has contributed breakdown threads and longer pieces to several Spanish and European football outlets.
His work at Upon Review focuses on sequence-level explanation: what a team was trying to build, where the structure held, and where recognition or spacing broke down. He covers La Liga weekly and European competition on a match-by-match basis.
Rivas writes in English and Spanish and is a regular on Upon Review's soccer desk.
Articles
- Sweden - Tunisia
Isak and Gyökeres Set the Table. Ayari Ate Everything.
Sweden beat Tunisia 5-1 not through possession dominance but through a central transition spine: two forwards combining in fast breaks, a midfielder converting chances a model would miss nineteen times out of twenty, and a bench that arrived ready to finish the job.
ByMateo Rivas
- Mexico - South Africa
Two Routes, One Red Card, and the Transition Problem Neither Team Could Hide
Mexico beat South Africa 2-0 through two distinct progression sequences — then both sides revealed the same rest-defense flaw when transitions turned dangerous in the final stretch.
ByMateo Rivas
