AMERICA'S GAME:

Unlike the huge soccer multinationals led by Manchester City and Red Bull, who believe their rivals are Disney and Amazon rather than other soccer teams, PMG focuses on much more modest outfits. Those clubs are in Esbjerg in Denmark, Nancy in France, Oostende in Belgium, and Thun in Switzerland. Barnsley--population 240,000--is twice as big as any of them.

"It's quite a socialist area. So overseas capitalists coming in and taking over your club, it doesn't really fit with the ethos," says Simon Biltcliffe, chairman of the Barnsley-affiliated charity called Reds in the Community, of his hometown in Britain's historic coal-mining country. "But it is a fact of life."

Biltcliffe and others, however, have been pleasantly surprised. Barnsley's approach has delivered them a young, hungry team under managers they've never heard of, and their highest league finish this century. And they've learned that everything starts with the two algorithms that are transforming their club.

One was developed by the son of the former owner over the course of the past four years. The other comes from Beane's consulting group, which serves an advisory role. Both are closely guarded -- Barnsley's entire economic model depends on it. (Beane didn't respond to a request for comment.)

That's how Barnsley knew that they were onto something when Murphy learned that a kid he had watched at his alma mater, the University of Virginia, might be available midway through the season. Just 20 years old, Daryl Dike fit closely enough with Barnsley's modeling that the club felt he might just have what it takes to leap from Orlando City in Major League Soccer to the rough-and-tumble Championship.

After a last-minute loan deal, Dike boarded a flight to the U.K. for the first time in his life midway through the season. As it turned out, Dike was precisely the piece Barnsley's hard-running, always suffocating approach had been missing. The team doesn't build around keeping the ball--it ranked 17th in the Championship in possession this year--but focuses instead on forcing turnovers high up the field and capitalizing on mistakes. 

When Dike arrived, Barnsley had been in 12th place. Nineteen games and nine goals later, the club was in fifth with a berth in the playoffs. 

"We've climbed the table and we have momentum because of our style of play," Dike said. "Being able to stress opponents. Being able to play a constant press." 

Which certainly beats where Barnsley was this time last year. The club only escaped relegation from the Championship with a 91st minute goal on the final day of the season. Barnsley breathed a collective sigh of relief when they were saved, but Murphy and the fans now understand that those moments come with the experiment too. 

"If you try to tiptoe around the hard truths," Murphy says, "they're going to see right through you." 

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