There is a saying in Turkish: “The mountain gave birth to a mouse.” Well, I am not here to teach you Turkish sayings, but I feel it fits in well with the subject material. This sayingis used when someone has high expectations from an occasion and gets nothing or very little at the end. Just […]
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Multi-dimensional analysis of the USMNT roster
The roster U.S. Soccer announced for the first USMNT game in2020 consisted of 22 players. The roster was missing most of our players playing abroad, like Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie and TylerAdams as well as some seasoned players like Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore in MLS. The roster was mainly made up of young players playing here at […]
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FC Cincinnati: An unmitigated disaster
On the business side, FC Cincinnati has been anundisputed success. It came out of nowhere to earn an MLS expansion franchise after smashing attendance records in its three USL seasons. In its first MLS season, FC Cincinnati averaged27,336 fans a game to rank third in the League. But that’s been overshadowed by problems on the […]
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Dissent management tips for referees
Dissent as a noun is defined by Cambridge Dictionary as “strong difference of opinion; disagreement especially about official decisions” and as a verb as“to disagree with other people about something”. The Laws of the Game (LOTG) refers to dissent in Law 12: “A player is cautioned ifguilty of….….dissent by word or action…” Dissent is an important game management issue that has to be dealt in one […]
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A handball offense in soccer: The ultimate NP-complete problem (2)
In this second and final part of the series, we will discuss the solutions and problems arising from the new definition of the “handball offense”. Before we go any further, let us makesure that everybody understands that the hands/arms of a player – other than the goalkeeper in his/her own penalty area – are an […]
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NWSL: Highs and lows of the Duffy era
After almost three years at the helm of the National Women’s Soccer League, Amanda Duffy is stepping down as president to take an executive position with the Orlando Pride. Duffyjoined the NWSL as managing director of operations in December 2016, became the league’s top executive when commissioner Jeff Plush left in March 2017, and she […]
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The soccer stories we will be following in 2020 (Part 3)
American teenagers are knocking on the door at some of the biggest men’s clubs in Europe. Owen Otasowie and Indiana Vassilev have debuted for English Premier League clubs innon-league competitions while Richie Ledezma, Gio Reyna, Chris Richards and Travian Sousa joined their first teams for winter training camp. Uly Llanez,one of the youngest Americans in Europe, was called […]
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The soccer stories we will be following in 2020 (Part 2)
U.S. pro leagues continue to grow unabated. Barring any last-minute changes, the five men’s and women’s pro leagues will kick off 2020 with 90 teams in the United States and Canada. 90 teams! A decadeearlier, there were only 41. The future of the pro men’s game in the lower divisions was uncertain — U.S. Soccer […]
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A handball offense in soccer: The ultimate NP-complete problem (1)
An NP-Complete problem in Computational Theory is a solvable problem for which no efficientsolution algorithm has been found. It might require nearly infinite amount of resources. The decision whether the contact between the hand and the ball is an offense turned into aNP-Complete problem with the recent changes to the Laws of the Game (LOTG). Recently, UEFA […]
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The soccer stories we will be following in 2020 (Part 1)
The New Year begins with a flurry of activity. TheU.S. men’s national team is headed to Qatar for a three-week training camp that opens Sunday “with the confidence and anticipation of qualifying for the 2022 FIFA World Cup,” while the U.S. women openan 11-day camp Sunday in Tampa under new coach Vlatko Andonovski, who will […]