Without a doubt, the book that Simon Kuper (British author and Financial Times sportswriter) is most famous for is Soccernomics. Soccernomics takes a look at the analytical side of the sport; the statistics, the psychology, and the economics behind why certain trends and results in soccer are the way they are.

- Maxi Rodriguez

With news of Fabio Capello's departure from the England post yesterday came the expected flood of "experts" speculating on potential replacements based on nothing more than years' old rumors. With names ranging from the seemingly pre-agreed upon alternate Harry Redknapp, to Ian Holloway, Stuart Pearce and Guus Hiddink, there was a disturbing trend towards the English manager.

It's now officially four crucial months to the Euro 2012 and following Fabio Capello's resignation last night, England has no manager to lead them to glory! That's exactly what Jack Wilshere groaned about ("Euro's is just around the corner and we have no manager?

There were two things we learnt about Zlatan Ibrahimovic this week. One was that in his youth, he was "easily in the top five of the most unruly pupils" his school's headmistress had ever seen. The second was that he used to lock himself up in his apartment after a bad game when 50,000 fans whistled at him.

Simon Kuper is the preeminent intellectual football author of our time. His works such as Football Against the Enemy, and Soccernomics (aka Why England Lose) need no introduction to many fans of the beautiful game. His columns in publications such...
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Out of wide array of matches being played and televised today (a bunch of international friendlies, a few South American World Cup qualifying matches, and the final four qualifying playoff matches for Euro 2012), the one to watch is a friendly in Hamburg:

Germany-Netherlands (2:30pmET, ESPN Classic, ESPN3.

By Tony Edwards - San Jose, CA (Sep 20, 2011) US Soccer Players -- In this edition of the 5 Questions, Tony wonders what connects Freddy Adu and Moneyball's Billy Beane and Brad Friedel's status in England. What two Americans are interviewed by Simon Kuper for his engaging new book, Soccer Men? Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey, right?

Book review by guest editor Paul Demko.
Interviews with professional athletes are, as a general rule, terrible. Most players have become so jaded by the insatiable need of sports reporters for interesting (i.e. controversial) material that they inevitably revert to a tedious torrent of cliches.

Simon Kuper, Sigi Schmid and Arlo White

Yeah, that's a kick ass night at Town Hall. Tickets are only 5$ for the 11 October evening event.

Good to see Olaf Mellberg again, it's been a while. In case you hadn't guessed, I am watching Arsenal vs. Olympiokos on DVR as I write this column. I figured I'd better watch because I need to catch up on all the midweek excitement that I started missing out on yesterday while I was on the road for work.

Scouting, statistics and rice: the rise and fall of Arsène Wenger - FT.com: I don't think any of the themes about Arsene Wenger that Simon Kuper covers in this article will surprise any of the readers of this blog. I'm mostly posting this link (free sign-up required) because one of the most (the most?

A number of fairly random things that had been swirling around in my head all came together a bit for me this past Saturday night. A few friends and I had just come from the DC United match against the Philadelphia Union and were hanging out for a beer or two post-game at the Capitol Lounge. If you'd have asked me, I'd probably have told you than if/when my mind wandered at that point, I'd be

Fee-fi-fo-fum!
I smell the blood of an Englishman?
Hmm, smells like pound sterling....

In a more recent piece for the Financial Times, Simon Kuper informs us that top flight football clubs have rapidly turned the business of player evaluation into a quantifiable pursuit.

It seems to me there are three distinct types of football writing.
First, we have the straight-up, journalistic, newspaper style match-report. There are some intriguing variations on this approach, like Michael Cox's Zonal Marking with its intense tactical hermeneutics, or the florid style you might sometimes find in a strange place like the Mirror, incorporating all sorts of colourful, often mixed metaphors that end up featured in the opening pages of When Saturday Comes.

The Financial Times is carrying an interesting Simon Kuper article about how every tiny aspect of a football match is now recorded and scrutinised; and specifically how the likes of Sam Allardyce have been in the vanguard of this quiet revolution. Kuper describes a recent visit to Manchester City's tranquil training ground in the village of Carrington.

Orange Slices is our game day, catch-all post that we update during the day before the match. Don't accept substitutes, imitators or copycats! Ask for fresh, wholesome Orange Slices by name.

Orange Slices! US vs. Panama

Hello and welcome to game day!

The United States Men's National finds itself one game away from a possible Gold Cup final showdown against Mexico.

Every data point (pass, cross, offside, out of play etc) mapped in these two hemispheres (one for each half) between Man Utd and Barca in the Champions League finals.

Simon Kuper's fascinating article in the FT about how the data revolution is slowly changing the face of soccer. There might be a time when quants will emerge from their gray shadows and take their rightful place on the cover of Four Four Two.

Here are some quick hitters from around the world of business and American soccer. We'll start with this piece from Simon Kuper in the Financial Times. Following a theme we have touched on over the last week (both through our interview with Mr.Kuper and our excellent guest post from Dave Laidig), the new Kuper article looks at the growing impact of statistics in club soccer.

UEFA U21 tournament

England v Spain Herning 20:45 CET

The motherland of football has had a sobering year.

The national team has yet to recover from a 4-1 drubbing from a rampant young Germany at the World Cup in South Africa last summer.

A week ago England found themselves 0-2 down at home to Switzerland in their Euro 2012 qualification campaign, before salvaging a draw and a chance to breathe again, despite registering a fifth failure to win at home on the trot.

Simon Kuper's 1994 book 'Football Against the Enemy' hit just the right note in English-language football literature just at the time the English game was beginning to open up to the world.
The sports-travelogue cum cultural study tapped into a widespread desire for intelligent and wide-ranging football writing that had yet to be properly satisfied by publishers.

The end of the domestic football season can be a tough time for anybody that works in the game. As contracts expire, many players are left with their livelihoods hanging by a thread and, for the adulation afforded to Paul Scholes upon his recent retirement, there will be dozens upon dozens that slide from view, seldom thought of by anyone apart from their nearest and dearest.

Simon Kuper's new book "The Football Men" tries to take us beyond what we know of the football superstars on TV and media.

Some insights. Most of them glorify their family turning it into a warm cocoon which is a reaction from a later life governed by mercantilism and ulterior motives.

We've been digesting Saturday's Real Madrid-Barcelona 1-1 draw at the Bernabeu just the first installment of this month's 4-part El Clásico series; the second is coming up this Wednesday with the Copa del Rey final, to be contested on neutral turf at the Mestalla in Valencia. In the meantime, it's always entertaining to see how Madridista tabloid Marca spins the latest big result.

In a way, that's exactly what Barca have done. As ball boy, trainee, player, captain and now coach, they've shaped the skinny kid from a small town into the charming, well-spoken man in a sharp suit he is today.
In recent years, everyone from players, club management, Catalan politicians, entertainers of all stripes and Jose Mourinho have called him the perfect manager for Barca.