The Chelsea soap opera rages on. First they fire Jose, then they lose the Carling Cup to lowly Tottenham. All of the sudden Roman Abramovich cares about the Carling Cup and people are talking about Avram Grant getting sacked and replaced by….Frank Rijkaard. A maelstrom of rumors fly back and forth, mud is slung, denials ensue as do denials of the denials. And it all leads to this hilarious and telling quote from Rijkaard’s brother Herman, who claims that Frank is happy where he is:
“Frank has money. He can eat two or three steaks a day if he wants to.”
Watching the game today made me remember how much I love Clint Dempsey. So here’s a goal compilation in tribute to him. Read this excellent article from the Guardian newspaper to know how Deuce developed.
The sizzling, white hot, thrilling, enthralling debate about whether David Beckham will get his 100th cap for England…sizzles on, continues to be thrilling, , and a whole list of superlatives, etc., etc., etc.
The no-nonsense Fabio Capello era really got underway today as he named his first England squad. Included were the likes of Aston Villa’s on-form striker Gabriel Agbonlahor and Blackburn’s torrid winger David Bentley. The better known winger David was left out of the side because he’s not match fit, though Capello emphasized that Beckham is still very much in consideration.
This is a notable and pragmatic departure from Steve McClaren’s knee jerk decision to shake up the “culture” of the England team by leaving Becks out right after the World Cup. History serves well — Capello gave Beckham a second chance at Real Madrid, which proved to be a wise decision. I suspect that in short order history will repeat itself.
Alexandre Pato was born on September 2nd, 1989. By this time, Paolo Maldini had already made over 110 appearances for Milan, Cafu was making his debut for Sao Paulo, and Ronaldo was five years away from riding the bench as a gap-toothed teenager for Brazil at USA ‘94. Pato’s getting regular time in Milan’s first team side now, and he’s stealing the spotlight away from his older teammates.
It’s amazing how quickly the top players develop. If you take a look at any professional league, there’s sure to always be a few players who have to take the metro to training (a la 17 year old Iker Casillas in his first year at Madrid), and they are standing out at some of the top clubs in the world. Barca has Bojan and Giovanni (17 and 19). Arsenal has got so many talented youngsters that David Bentley (who will eventually relieve Becks of his spot in the England midfield) and Steve Sidwell (now at Chelsea) left the Emirates, but check out Denilson (19) and Carlos Vela (18). Manchester United’s new young signing Anderson (19) is quickly replacing Paul Scholes. The list goes on, but Pato appears ready to top them all.
I was sitting on my couch this Sunday, flipping between FSC and Gol TV when Milan came on against Genoa. Pato was playing by himself up top – mind you Gilardino and Ronaldo were on the bench – supported by Kaka, Pirlo and Seedorf. So having just turned 18, he’s leading Milan’s attack and trying to save their season. When I turned 18, I had a season of college soccer under my belt, but was spending most of my time in the dining hall taking advantage of the soft serve ice cream machine.
Genoa managed to keep Pato under wraps in the first half, but he exploded in the second, scoring twice (#1 and #2) and getting Genoa’s keeper sent off on what should have been another goal. I could feel the excitement he brought to the San Siro, and every time he touched the ball I was just waiting for him to make some magic. He’s quickly moving up my list of favorite players, especially after seeing him cry when he scored in his debut. So here’s to The Duck, may he live up to the billing and keep embarrassing players almost twice his age (except when Milan plays Arsenal in February).
Quick shoutout to Kyle Altman, my club and high school center midfield partner. Kyle went to Trinity, where he captained the team that lost to Middlebury in the D3 final. New England took him in the MLS Supplemental Draft a few days ago and I can’t wait to see him suit up.
After a hiatus of a few months, Radio CaptainU, our podcast is back in effect. In this episode, Avi talks with Kelly Shulman, one of the players on CaptainU and we hear from our EPL and European soccer critic in residence Brian Raffaele.
Eddie Johnson to Fulham! Okay, not that much of a shock, as the rumor mill has been churning for the last few weeks. That takes Fulham’s American contingent to five. FIVE! Dempsey, Keller, Bocanegra, McBride, and now EJ.
This is great news for American players, though it’s slightly undermined by the fact that Fulham is, oh, languishing in the relegation zone. You can hardly blame the Americans though. McBride and Keller have both been injured. And Deuce has arguably been Fulham’s best player. As one would expect, Bocanegra is up to his normal tricks — outrageous, career-ending tackles and the such.
I predict an EJ goalscoring tear that not only lifts Fulham out of the relegation zone, but also lands the team a Champions League berth. Okay, maybe not. But hopefully it will be a huge growth opportunity for Johnson, who has had his share of ups and downs since he burst onto the scene. And the opportunity to team up with his chum Dempsey could translate into a mouthwatering partnership for Fulham fans.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average may be down 246 points, but things are looking positively Bullish on the other side of the Hudson River. Rumors are that the Red Bulls are going to fully fund their youth development academy teams. In other words, any player who’s good enough to play in the NYRB youth system will be able to play for free.
This is an encouraging sign that the league both is eager to support the new Development Academy and that the players in the academy won’t be limited to those who can pay $5,000-$10,000 a year.
I’ve been known to rant and rave about the book Moneyball, and the Oakland A’s statistical approach to evaluating players and building winning teams on an absolute shoe-string budget. What better place to apply that methodology than MLS, where the salary cap is laughably low? Of course, soccer has always been cursed (or blessed, depending on your perspective) by the lack of obvious and meaningful statistics.
People always look at goals and assists, which are obviously important. But what about the guy who consistently makes the tackle at midfield that starts the counterattack which leads to all the goals? It’s difficult to quantify his performance.
No less, it appears that there are a number of people working to solve this problem. Among them: Billy Beane of Moneyball and A’s fame. According to a fascinating story by Jeff Carlisle of ESPN, Beane is an integral player in the reincarnated San Jose Earthquakes. And true to form, Beane has brought his statistical methods to the table, employing Match Analysis, a stats company, and relying heavily on their analysis for expansion draft decisions. (Ivan Guerrero, formerly of the Chicago Fire is an Earthquakes acquisition Carlisle discusses in depth.)
THE MORALITY OF STATISTICS IN SOCCER
Any time I start ranting about the untapped opportunity of applying statistical methods to soccer, I feel compelled to acknowledge that soccer is, at its core, a subjective game that in many ways cannot and should not be quantified. Imagine going to the Guggenheim Museum and trying to quantify all of the Mark Rothko paintings. It is argued that reducing soccer games to numbers undermines what is so cool and so unique about the game. But here’s the flip side: statistics have the potential to reveal unknown dynamics of the game.
What if we looked at a data set collected from 10,000 games and found that positioning a defensive center midfielder 10-15 yards in front of two center backs is highly correlated to scoring 2-3 counterattacks goals a game? That would be pretty powerful stuff that wouldn’t undermine the game. Rather it would deepen our understanding of how things work.
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