Greetings from frigid Mississippi!
Here's your weekly dose of my favorite soccer-related material on the web, fueled this week by fried green tomatoes and crawfish tails (yes, I ate both for the first time last night). You know what they say, when in Rome...
- This is a pretty simple post, but it does warrant a mention given the tardiness: MLS finally announced their complete schedule, and I now know when my Sounders will be playing that inferior team from the state of Oregon. First up - a revenge match against the LA Galaxy, who embarrassed us at home last year. I've already got my tickets! Meanwhile, Fanhouse explains why the delay in announcing the playoff format is bad news for MLS fans.
- I can't go without mentioning 7AM Kickoff, especially after Tim helped provide the data beyond my highly trafficked post on Phil Dowd's bias. Tim comes back with another great statistical look at why RvP would be the MVP of the Premier League if he could just kick the injury bug.
- Soccer by the Numbers has had several great posts, two of which I neglected to mention last week. The links from last week spent a good bit of time examining offensive and defensive efficiency. Based upon the data, it appears as if the keeper really is what's holding Arsenal back. This week, Chris took on attendance figures. I may love the EPL and it may have a wider TV audience, but clearly the Bundesliga has the best attendance figures at the stadium.
- EPL Talk makes the argument that perhaps Premier League teams should be looking to create their own TV content given the limited and cluttered broadcast/cable TV markets.
- Socceronomist highlights a study that estimates that the Big Four American sports - football, baseball, basketball, and hockey - are missing out on $370M per year of revenue by forgoing jersey sponsorship found in professional soccer.
- Having watched the exciting and heartbreaking 4-4 Arsenal/Newcastle United draw, I can completely concur with Run of Play's analysis on the psychology behind trying to recount such an event. Why is it our recollections of such once-in-a-lifetime events never measures up to the excitement and ups-and-downs felt in the moment?
- Run of Play then followed that post with another superb piece of writing, which provides a cultural examination of the US and European soccer fan relationship. I freely admit - I fall into that Europhile category.
- Finally, a blog post near-and-dear to my heart: In Bed With Maradona's "Does My Daughter Need to Love [Soccer]"?
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