...and It's On

Just wanted to take a moment and acknowledge the fact that, with the start of the new Barclay's Premier League season, I've about spent 8 straight hours watching a white spherical thing get kicked around and I still have a couple more to go (hours and drinks, if I must).

10:00 AM: Liverpool v. Sunderland
Draw. 2 goals scored. I was re-calibrating my eyes to EPL pace the whole game. After brushing aside the tears of joy, double rainbows and Irish Coffee I think I witnessed Liverpool coming out of the gates guns ah blazing but Sunderland hanging in there. The consensus here at Helltown is that Liverpool will finish in the top 4. In the first 45 they showed that ability.

12:30 PM: Newcastle v. Arsenal
Draw. No goals scored. Barton goes all mental? Newcastle fans booo him. Arsenal looked very average in this game. Very. The league needs players like Barton. England needs a player like Barton. What does that country think soccer is anyway? Cricket? I heard those guys got number 1 in the world playing that sport today. You want gentlemen, watch Cricket. You want the opposite? watch soccer. I'm a dumb American and know this. Seriously. Newcastle locals boooing Barton? Where is a mirror.

2:uh something PM: Norwich v. Wigan
I liked this game. A lot. 1-1 Draw. Blood. Guts. Hard fought. Norwich Canaries pull out a point when I think they could have gotten 3. This was "English Football" as I've come to know it after doing some Football League watching over the past couple years. Hard tackling, opportunity driven, Route 1 soccer. Going to be fun to watch Norwich this year. Stoke game is going to be a big brother / little brother fist fight.

In other PL news, I heard Bolton beat up on QPR today, biggest time. Nice work!

For Nana

"Broom People" in London organizing and taking back control of the city in a way that only England knows how. Photo credit for the tea on a riot shield image (taken in Camden Town, London) here. Things seem a little calmer this evening. Hoping everyone is safe for games this weekend. Season Previews on Liverpool, Bolton and Stoke upcoming? Hope so!

Liverpool LeBron

Or LeBron "Red" Liverpool is now a minority owner of the team. I don't like LeBron. Booooo. But... this is a good thing. I'll get to that in a minute.

The Reds have won 18 division championships in the club's 119-year history. And on that: To quoteth "The King" LeBron on his new minority ownership of a silly English football team:

"Eighteen championships, I see myself trying to do the same things they have."

What an egotistical jackasshole.

What am I even suppose to think of that statement. I mean... to assume that LeBron has any comprehension of how long 119 years is would be a stretch and... oh, why bother.

LeBron's high school buddy (LRMR Chief Exec, Maverick Carter) help close this deal.

Now. Why this is a good thing? LeBron brings attention and loves attention. Just the mere fact that soccer is on this dudes radar means that the sport has made massive inroads around the USA.

While Liverpool just gained a million jerks as fans, the sport as a hole just moved the popularity needle. Sorry Liverpool, but it may be for the greater good. Even if it means that I might get FSC in HD out here.

Brent Woodpeckers

What a wealth of data the Barclay's fantasy soccer league provides. Deep diving into how well we are doing against the "Average" of all players that have participated on the official site.

I'm taking the things I've learnt at work to try and determine how well each of us are doing individually and as a collective group. 1st off; to smooth out the data a little I'm looking at four week averages instead of week to week. There is enough data now to look at it that way. So if you look at the graph you'll notice it starts at week 4.

I know that any good graph should explain its self. I hope that works. There are a few statistically significant events.

1. Smitty's above average production between week 10 and 16.

2. My below average production during the same spell.

3. Matt's sky rocketing point production in the last 4 weeks.

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Liverpool.

Today at lunch, whilst taking a break (of course). I decided to use the powerful statistical software called Minitab to look at the goal production of Liverpool this season.

Why? They have been noticeably better since New England Sports Ventures group took over the club. What I wanted to see was if it was statistically better. The team is getting better.

In the image look at the chart on the right. It it a Moving Range by month. Which means point 1 on the chart is August. Point 7 is February. It shows goal difference in their games during each month. So basically, "up" is good. Above zero means they are winning. Pretty amazing that each month they have been improving. The red lines above and below are upper and lower confidence levels. Meaning: the closer those are the more predictable the result. The 'telescoping' together as the season goes on means the goal difference result is more predictable.
The chart on the left is just for fun. It's a pareto that shows the frequency in goal difference. +1 is most often at 23.1%. 2nd most likely occurrence is -1, which isn't strange in the Premier League.

Bottom line. The Brent Woodpeckers are improving just as Liverpool is this season. The numbers are telling me so. Were these numbers I was looking at in regards to production of a department at work I'd say that both are doing very well improving significantly.

Brent Woodpeckers Liverpool!