Iceland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!
Watching a few of the Euro 2016 qualifiers. Some surprising results.
I recall one or two Italy/Pirlo fans [maybe CDu?] on Off Topic. I myself am much more a Pirlo than an Azzurri devotee. Here's an interesting take on Pirlo's return and possible participation in Euro 2016. I'd be interested in any response from Azzurri cognoscenti.
http://www.espnfc.us/team/italy/162/...zzurris-future
Iceland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!
A movie is not about what it's about; it's about how it's about it.
---Roger Ebert
Some questions cannot be answered
Who’s gonna bury who
We need a love like Johnny, Johnny and June
---Over the Rhine
I am indeed one of the Italy (and Pirlo) fans. Part of me is excited to hear that Pirlo will be a potential participant in 2016. I mean, how could I not enjoy seeing his moments of brilliance for a bit longer? However, I think the article you've linked nicely summarizes the concerns. At some point, the Azzurri have to figure out if Verratti is a suitable replacement in the playmaker role. But that can't happen if they keep plugging Pirlo in that spot. The two players don't work well in tandem, so if Pirlo is in then Verratti needs to be out (and vice versa).
I can't help but think that, at 37, Pirlo may be too old to be a regular contributor. He will surely still be magnificent on set pieces and creating for others when given space. But I do fear that with age he will become more and more susceptible to being taken out of the game by heavy marking as he may not have the energy to hunt out open space.
I highly doubt that Verratti has the same magic that Pirlo has (honestly, very few players ever have the vision and skill that Pirlo has), but he's younger and in better shape, and as such may offer more to the team moving forward even though he can't match the set piece/creative brilliance that Pirlo can offer.
As an aside from the main topic, I'm not sure I agree with Conte that De Rossi is also in the playmaker mix. I have always felt he was better suited for more of Michael Bradley type of role as a box-to-box midfielder rather than a playmaker. I could easily see him thriving next to either Pirlo or Verratti in midfield.
It is going to be an interesting time for Italy in the next few years. They are about to lose Pirlo and Buffon to age. Those two guys have been the centerpieces of the Italian side for the past decade-plus. How Italy manages the transition to the future at both deep-lying playmaker and keeper is going to be a huge issue for them.
I was watching BIH-BEL yesterday.
There's a woman from Bosnia in my 12:30 class, because of course there is--this is Saint Louis. But there is also, for the first time, ever, a gal from Belgium too.
Fortunately, all of the jokes never made it out of my head
A movie is not about what it's about; it's about how it's about it.
---Roger Ebert
Some questions cannot be answered
Who’s gonna bury who
We need a love like Johnny, Johnny and June
---Over the Rhine
The number of teams that qualify reduces some of the drama in these qualifiers.
Unless we are talking about Serbia-Albania...
Don't want to start a new thread, but fellow football fans might be interested in Billy Beane's new interest.
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/201...seball-oakland
That was nuts. I wonder if the dude got his drone back?
The last couple of years have seen a skyrocketing of statistics-based soccer micro-blogging. There's a relatively small, but rapidly growing (and collaborating) group of guys trying to figure out how to best quantify a sport as fluid as soccer. Interestingly, a hockey concept - PDO - has become heavily used and discussed. Statsbomb.com has a number of excellent writers that put out a lot of quality content. So does James Grayson. Point being...soccer is far from infantile on the statistics front. I'm not sure Billy Beane would have a tremendous amount to add...especially in a sport he's not nearly as familiar with as baseball.
Oh and this happened the other day:
http://www.theguardian.com/football/...-data-analysts
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013