2012/13 Soccer Thread

In class... have to say in chrome on my nexus 7 its hell to quote and post.

Just a quick note on my commercial jab at Arsenal. Besides the factual handcuff they have with current deals the boards excuse has been 'well united has more people employed working on that'. So pretty much admitting they suck and hadn't been building the brand in Asia until now and were doing a poor job of chasing lucrative commercial partnerships.

So I'm joking that it wouldn't surprise me in a couple years as stats in soccer get refined that they also trot out the same excuse. Stats? O we weren't working on any of those really and are catching up.

Examples in other fields would be say the supposed medical team at AC Milan or the insane network Porto has with apparently 250 scouts.

Would be nice to hear Arsenal are at the cutting edge of something besides flipping players :p best resellers in the history of the game!

Re: meaningless possession: what about action zones? Track where the ball is, and then it's easy to make distinction between teams knocking ball between defenders (Arsenal) and actually going forward (good teams ;])

I remember reading a story a couple years ago about how Opta tracked possession and I wish I had bookmarked it. Originally they basically had something like a chess clock system but they found that it wasn't entirely accurate. They now use formulas based upon their on-field data.

I think the statistics are best employed when you're using multiple stats and working them together. So to see whether a side dominated a match you look at possession to start with, then you build upon that with through balls/chances created/action zones to see whether they were pragmatic with it (the "meaningless possession") or whether they had the opposition under siege.

I say all this as somebody who doesn't follow soccer analytics at all though.

BTW

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/aYFRj.jpg)

It's not how many shots you take, it's which, and how you take them.

Full Mourinho interview

and!!!! Rod Stewart crying.

I'm betting Stewart's reaction was much more restrained than Tom Waits' reaction upon hearing the talentless Jock clown massacre 'Tom Traubert's Blues'.

And that pretty much sums up Arteta's day...

yikes. Don't deserve this pk....

edit: and it didn't matter.

What a save...

Not a great call for the pk, but a very exciting match overall.

Double post!

Phil Dowd is a really bad referee. Happy Arsenal didn't score from that.

UCRC wrote:

Phil Dowd is a really bad referee. Happy Arsenal didn't score from that.

Will you feel like that if Arsenal need them 2 points at the end of the season ?

Okay, happy isn't the word, but I don't want those points. Not like that.

As for the end of the season... a) right now it doesn't really look like two extra points are going to make a difference ;), b) I'm not particularly concerned about the results themselves. I guess I would be, if this was a team capable of fighting for title, but there's no danger of that, is there?

Arsenal 3 - Berbatov 3.

Prederick wrote:

Arsenal 3 - Berbatov 3.

SHOULD OF TAKEN THAT PLANE TO FIORENTINA!!!! OR JUVE OR MARS!)#*(*)!(#*!)#*!)

edit: or was it Lazio? f*ckKKK

Nice three points there - murdered them second half.

And how exactly did Adebayor stay on the pitch after his 'challenge' on Zab ?

Still, according to David Pleat, he 'made a meal of it'. So, care to explain where the blood on his face came from then, or are you too busy bemoaning City's move from Moss Side, as you aren't sure of where the best kerbcrawling spots are on this side of town ?

Damn.

Why on earth is there a midweek international friendly this week?

Not quite sure - there are a couple of WC qualifier games for teams in the largest groups, so it might be that the week date was reserved before the draws were made. On the other hand, there are PL games this weekend.

God knows, in other words. I do know that Rudi Voller was going bonkers about Germany playing Holland...the term 'friendly' does not really apply to that fixture. England are playing Sweden to open a new stadium in Stockholm, apparently.

USA vs Russia tomorrow!

IMAGE(https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQcGDzVZevvu07yHxJNbT2uH-HyAQmCwb873-138BcG3DowRaVF)

Wow. US with the tying goal in the 93rd minute.

That was fun to watch. And much better than losing.

Stele wrote:

Wow. US with the tying goal in the 93rd minute.

That was fun to watch. And much better than losing.

US seemed completely outclassed in the first half, but better in the second. Not sure we really deserved the tie, but Howard played his heart out, and it is good to see them pull it out at the end.

Russia definitely deserved the win. We were simply terrible tonight.

Some glimmers of hope from our younger players, and was thrilled to see Chandler in a US jersey again.

Apart from that (and Tim Howard, who needs to start wearing a cape), terrible.

Yeah I only caught the last half hour, but the announcers gave the impression that Tim Howard kept us from losing 6-2 or something.

Dimmerswitch wrote:

Russia definitely deserved the win. We were simply terrible tonight.

Some glimmers of hope from our younger players, and was thrilled to see Chandler in a US jersey again.

Apart from that (and Tim Howard, who needs to start wearing a cape), terrible.

This reminds me of the inevitable conundrum about advertising U.S. Soccer. In general, we've been the (or among the) best at any sports we've ever been genuinely concerned with. However, with Soccer, while we can pull off some shock results (Italy, Spain, nearly Brazil) we're still a team for whom making it to the knock-out stages of the World Cup is a success, and who lacks the overall technical skills (something I partially blame NCAA soccer for) to really go out there and dominate matches against teams of quality. Most of the time, when I've seen us play against a team or merit, we're putting nine men behind the ball, defending our hearts out and looking to score on the counter-attack or from a set-piece. And despite the fact that Russia is, flatly, a better team than us, the USSF has to present to potential fans that the US is capable, or on the cusp of being the next major player on the international stage.

Also, Ibracadabra indeed.

Stele wrote:

Yeah I only caught the last half hour, but the announcers gave the impression that Tim Howard kept us from losing 6-2 or something.

Most definitely. In fact, Howard can blame both goals on terrible plays from his team. I am assuming you saw the second goal, but the first was just ridiculous. We turned a free kick for US into a goal for Russia. I had actually looked away just long enough to not understand how finally getting a free kick and I assumed a chance at possession turned into a Russian goal.

I can't be the only one who died laughing at the USA v Russia halftime commentary with Alexi's movember stache.

This wasn't taken from that match but I found it on google image search

IMAGE(http://steeshes.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/alexi-lalas-mustache.png?w=584&h=403)

Bert turns up in disguise to today's news conference, after the media halfwits moaned about him ignoring them over the last few weeks.

IMAGE(http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01621/mancini_1621306a.jpg)

Given David Platt's fish-like visage, this was amusingly referred to on one City forum as Roberto's "Trout Mask Replica".

Obviously only those of us of a certain vintage or level of hip-ness will get it

For the removal of any doubt, my qualifying characteristic is age.