Gunners Today 19 November @ 08:02 PM EST
In some corners, this was meant to be the partnership in the Arsenal defensive
midfield. Our 'German of Africa', Song would thrive with the Albania midfield dictator and conquer
the world. Well, that was the talk anyway.
In fact at some point last season there were even calls for Arsene to sell Song, Denilson and
Diaby because none of them were worthy of Cana's shirt.
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We already knew this, but Avoiding the Drop crunches some numbers to show how Guillermo was the
most productive and economical designated player in the league last year:
He had more goals (14), more combined goals and assists (17), and – probably the
biggest factor for the Crew – was the cheapest on a per-goal basis* ($38,235).
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Luis Fabiano
What can be said about Luis Fabiano? The guy is red hot and he and everyone else in La Liga is
perfectly aware of this fact. Fabiano scored two goals this weekend against the Yellow Submarines
and Sevilla edged out the blossoming squad 3-2 thanks to the offensive performance from the
Brazilian.
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The Offside 09 November @ 11:50 AM EST
This is being billed as the fastest goal in history, and it's pretty hard to argue with that even
without the statistics right in front of you. Unless the likes of John Arne Riise or Michel Bastos
have unleashed one directly off the kickoff, chances are this is it. The fastest goal ever, via
Al-Hilal's [.
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Gunners Today 06 November @ 12:47 PM EST
Remember, Remember, blah blah November.
Apart from Bonfire Night and Thanksgiving (for you Americans only) what else makes November
stand out? You see, it turns out that Arsene Wenger doesn't like November. Are we going to jump on
this revelation and facebook 'like it' ?
The reasons for Wenger's dislike of this month are down to "the volume of games" which make it
difficult to maintain the fitness levels.
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Twice a year, Phil Gartside lays bare his most inner fears. Bolton Wanderers may some day be
relegated from the Premier League, and Phil doesn't like the idea of that. He is scared that they
will relegated and that they won't be prepared for life back in the Footbal League. He's right to
be.
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So this is probably the earliest I've ever done a match report (3 whole days in advance) and so
I can't link you to the BBC statistics report. You'll just have to go find it yourself, it'll be on
this page probably by Saturday. Like I said a little earlier, I'm going over to England and won't
have internet until I get back (I'm staying at my grandmother's house and she doesn't allow any
technology made after 1972 in), so don't expect any new posts from me until Tuesday at the earliest
(there there love, don't pine, you can always go through my archives or go read some of my posts on
England World Cup Blog if you miss me too much).
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Gunners Today 04 November @ 02:20 PM EST
Remember, Remember, blah blah November.
Apart from Bonfire Night and Thanksgiving (for you Americans only) what else makes November
stand out? You see, it turns out that Arsene Wenger doesn't like November. Are we going to jump on
this revelation and facebook 'like it' ?
The reasons for Wenger's dislike of this month are down to "the volume of games" which make it
difficult to maintain the fitness levels.
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Given the talk of how we have cooled off in recent weeks after such a torrid start to the season, I
thought it worth taking a look at just how our start this season - still considered to be exceeding
pre-season expectation - compared with those in previous years.
With assistance from mcfcstats.
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There are a few things we learned from the frustrating result Thursday. In ways they will influence
how we watch and appreciate the Sounders performance on the road next Sunday. In other ways, they
may be the same learnings that Sigi had in watching the film twice before an 11:30AM practice
Friday.
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I finally got to this. There shouldn't be any surprises, but the depth chart is obviously switched
right now. Forward: Montero, Ljungberg, Jaqua, Levesque, Le Toux Left Wing: Zakuani, Ljungberg,
Levesque, Le Toux Right Wing: Jaqua, Ljungberg, Levesque, Le Toux Center Mid: Evans, Vagenas,
Alonso Defensive Mid: Alonso, Vagenas, Ianni Left Wingback: Gonzalez, Scott, Wahl Right Wingback:
Riley, Evans, Ianni Centerbacks: Hurtado, [.
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Having a full day off I thought I would share the links that are out there of interest to Sounders
fans and those that read the site, as well as a recap of the Sounders FC weekly radio show on 710
ESPN. First TOA v NuRock is getting to a boiling point. Yep, hints of [...]
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EPL Talk 29 October @ 10:28 PM EST
Simon Kuper, bestselling and critically acclaimed author joins us on the EPL Talk Podcast to
discuss his new book. the book, titled "Why England Lose" in the UK and "Soccernomics" in the US is
a comprehensive look at all aspects of the game and evaluates insight from economics, statistics,
business and psychology to evaluate the world game.
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Before we transition to MLS Playoff Prattle (the post-season replacement for the Dogpile and Table
Talk, in case you've forgotten from last year), let's take one last look at how the final single
table shaped up in MLS this year... Just talkin' bout...
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I do like looking at statistics, so maybe you do too. With Michael Owen wanting emphasis to be
put on his performances as well as the goals he scored, I thought it would be interesting to see
how Owen compares to the top strikers in the league.
These stats are never going to give you like for like because Owen is our third choice striker
therefore gets fewer opportunities but they're interesting enough to look at.
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If form matters, then Dallas is the one team that the Sounders don't want to face. Since September
1st they earned 16 points, best in the league. Sounders though are tied for 3rd with 10 points over
that same stretch. Much of their success has been credited to one Jeff Cunningham, who [...]
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Rather than our normal rundown of points-per-game and goal scoring averages, let's start the
graceful transition from "Table Talk" to "Playoff Prattle" by outlining the current scenarios for
the various clubs... Columbus Crew vs. Revolution, 5PM...
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Soccerblog 19 October @ 08:22 AM EST
Just happened to catch Keith Costigan, Warren Burton, and Chris Miles this Sunday talk about the
economic import of the 2010 World Cup. This complex issue got about two minutes.
First, none of the three really work on this particular aspect of the sport. And it showed.
There were banalities - it is good for the host country and the fans of the qualifying countries
who go to pubs to see matches, boost the local economy.
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Sample size that is. In soccer statistics this shows up in several ways. 1 there are so few
significant events that the correlation and accuracy of the statistics will never be where they are
for baseball, or really any of the American sports. It will ever only be close with correlations in
the [.
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Paul Tomkins is one of the best writers in the football world, who puts things in perspective
especially for us Liverpool fans. He does not manipulate statistics to suit his views and does his
research extensively.Â
To read his in-depth analysis nowadays we need to subscribe, which is value for money.
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Everyone that reads this site knows how important this match is for the Sounders and their ability
to make the MLS Cup Playoffs. It is even more important for Kansas City, would be eliminated with a
loss. KC was so poor early in the season that they fired their coach, and it hasn't [...]
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There has been a lot of discussion recently over the individual merits of Fernando Torres and Wayne
Rooney. Both have had great starts to the new season, and both are vitally important to their
respective clubs...but who is the better player? It's a tough question to answer objectively, but
the following in-depth, objective analysis shows quite clearly that Torres is the more consistently
effective performer.
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OPTA's latest statistics have revealed some surprising facts about the effectiveness of two of
Liverpool's key midfielders.
According to OPTA, Javier Mascherano is the top passer in the Premiership this season, with 547
completed passes and an accuracy rate of 87%. Chelsea's Michael Essien has the same accuracy rate
but has completed a lot less passes.
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Steven Gerrard and/or Fernando Torres may not be fit for this weekend's game against Sunderland.
Panic stations, right? Wrong. Whilst the media love to spin the myth that Liverpool is a 'two-man
team' history proves otherwise, and in my view, Liverpool fans have nothing to worry about.
LIVERPOOL WITHOUT GERRARD
Liverpool do just fine without Gerrard in the side, and history proves this beyond a shadow of a
doubt.
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SoccerLens 15 October @ 11:19 AM EST
Think for a moment about the organisation of tournaments such as the UEFA Champions League or
the European Championships. How do you decide how many teams are eligible for entry into each
competition, when those teams should enter the competition or what about the fixtures of those
competitions?
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As you know by know, with the US draw against Costa Rica and the Honduran win against Trinidad
and Tobago, it put the Ticos and the Catrachos in a tie for 3rd place in CONCACAF. The tie breaker
was goal differential and Honduras finished above Costa Rica in those statistics. Honduras was
clearly one of the best teams in the region and rightly earned a ticket to the World Cup in South
Africa next summer.
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It is clear that a growing health concern in the US and many other countries is the increasing
incidence of obesity and related diseases. Over the past few years, the number of children and
adolescents who are classified as overweight and obese has increased dramatically. Unfortunately,
statistics show that these children will very likely grow up to be obese adults with a whole host
of associated
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Just a bit of shifting of the deck chairs on a notional Titanic this week as the limited slate of
games sees a minor shift amongst the chasing pack. At this point, we can be pretty sure that
everybody in the top six is pretty much in, and the...
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This evening Uruguay and Argentina are facing each other in Montevideo, Uruguay for the final
qualifying match of the South American World Cup qualifying group. Uruguay is currently on fifth
place, one point behind Argentina on the fourth place, which qualifies directly to South Africa.
Therefore, Uruguay needs a victory, while Argentina is not necessarily sure of keeping its fourth
place with a
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I'm still as certain as ever that while Sigi has been employing the Arrow formation with a
defensive midfielder and a box-to-box man the offensive woes of the team are such that finding a
way to get five offensive players on the pitch rather than the 4.5 to 6.5 ratio that exists now is
vital. [...]
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For many reading this you will be used to my writing, and the site name. For those what is new
about the site is the structure and relationship with SBNation.com and Daily Soccer Fix and more
sites to come. Sounder at Heart is now part of a network. More than just the one site you are used
to you will find news about the beautiful game, American soccer and many teams to come.
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Back in May, before I knew that academic statisticians were eavesdropping on my thoughts, I
mused on Sport Is a TV Show that "judging the footballing abilities of two football teams is so
difficult that football itself is often a bad way to do it." I was writing about matches that end
in penalty shootouts, but the thought applies just as well to matches in which one team plays
better than the other team but loses anyway.
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Project 2010 08 October @ 05:21 PM EST
We ran this post a while back, but since this topic has reared its head yet again with the
upcoming US World Cup qualifiers, we thought we should post it one more time.
In a brief September 8th article, we brought up the debate on the difficulty of CONCACAF away
Qualifiers, citing Ives Galarcep's "Hazards of road qualifiers" and Luis Bueno's "Debunking the
myth.
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