The Need For Advanced Football Stats - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

As a sports fan living in America, you're bombarded with statistics of increasing complexity across every sport except football (or soccer, as the US calls it). Media analysis of football still relies on the same statistics we've seen for years, which are generally cumulative totals.

Canadian author James Grossi writes for The Blizzard and at his blog, Partially Obstructed View.

As MLS grows towards its twentieth club in the coming years there is a risk of losing the balanced schedule. Comments by Commissioner Don Garber intimated that perhaps such a pure form would have to be set aside in order to accommodate the expanded league.

This design could best accommodate the sporting public's thirst for more consistent drama and contemporary strategies in Soccer.
New American-style Rules compliment the field's look and extract as much common sense as possible.

FOX television broadcasting company announced Thursday that three EPL tape-delayed matches will be partnered with NFL games on Sundays this fall and one live match on Super Bowl Sunday. "Soccer is moving into the mainstream of American sports," said FOX Soccer general manager David Nathanson.

What is the role of the American sports fan supposed to be for U.S. Soccer Men's National Team friendlies? In the perfect scenario, sports fans would come in droves to see the team play, nationalism would see an increase and TV ratings would prove to be invaluable.

This is really one of the biggest questions in the minds of Arsenal fans these days what should we make of Financial Fair Play? As I wrote in my last blog, and as everyone already knew anyway, we most certainly don't have a sugar daddy type owner. At the same time, we also know that our club makes a ton of revenue, and would compete pretty well with the giants in Europe if every club lived within its means.

It's time to accept that this is who Philadelphia Union is right now:

They're good enough to beat bad teams, draw mediocre teams, and lose to good ones.

The Union have won one game in the last two months and just two in the last three months. Their record since June 1: 2 wins, 4 losses and 8 draws.

If there is one voice in American soccer concerning concussions, it is Taylor Twellman. It is a voice that he understands grates on players and fans at times, but one that he will not stop using. He is currently moving from his personal Twitter and media crusade to raise awareness to the creation of a clearinghouse website for concussion related information, data and resources at ThinkTaylor.

Great news! In an article printed on Monday by Sporting News, MLS president Mark Abbott stated that there are currently no plans to expand beyond 20 MLS teams. Here's the exact quote:

"Our focus right now is the 20th team in New York and we have not yet set a timeline for expansion beyond that, or even (determined) if we're going to expand beyond that.

If you want to waste time and frustrate yourself, start a conversation/debate about soccer-football positions, what you call them, what that means, and what that implies about their roles.

This is probably why there is so little intelligent discussion about these things in the English-speaking world, if for no other reason than the fact that the very people who are purported to have invented the game long ago decided that tactics talk was somehow inherently cynical and have always seemingly been a half-step behind the rest of the world (and explains the rather off-putting nationalism that takes over the English sporting press any time a major international tournament rolls around).

- Jason Davis
As one of those interminable people constantly worried about the popularity of soccer in the United States, I should be thrilled that Fox is giving the sport a run on their flagship over-the-air behemoth of a network starting this Sunday. Manchester United and Chelsea will be shown, on tape delay, right smack in the middle of the usual National Football League window.

This weekend, Port Vale's board are due to publish answers to 141(141!) questions from fans about a proposed multi-million pound investment by American ‘sports construction' firm ‘Blue Sky International.' A full Vale article on this site will follow that publication. But there was a Vale vignette this week, demonstrating the mistrust which pervades the club and looks likely to do so for a while yet, whatever the investment.

Welcome to TGIF, Thank Gooner it's Friday, which was derailed by a major computer crash courtesy of Microsoft windows 7 Ultimate, which even they were unable to fix. But seeing as it Saturday, perhaps I should use Berg10's suggestion of TGIS! TGIt's Saturday? There is so with so much going on in the world at the moment, but I am going to concentrate yet again upon the plight of Arsenal Football Club and it's beleaguered Board, as they retreat into the Laager.

Uh oh, the hand is going to the back pocket, is he really...

No way!

While ejections exist in the traditional American sports, their versions have nothing quite like the impact of soccer's red card, because they all allow you to replace the ejected player. That means that despite the loss of the player, the team can still carry on with standard play.