football

Thailand coach Peter Reid: staying put?

August 31, 2009

More on the confusion surrounding Thailand soccer coach Peter Reid’s potential move to EPL outfit Stoke City. Today’s Bangkok Post has this item:

Peter Reid will continue as the national team coach, according to Football Association of Thailand (FAT) president Worawi Makudi.

Worawi’s statement came after he met the Englishman at a Thai restaurant in Manchester on Saturday night.

English Premeir League chairman Sir David Richards, who introduced Reid to Worawi, was also at the meeting.

Worawi and Reid shook hands in front of Thai journalists to signal an end to the will-he-stay-or-go saga.

“Everything has become clear. We have reached a conclusion that Reid will remain as Thailand’s coach. He is likely to return to Thailand this week,” Worawi told England-based Thai reporters.

Reid worked as assistant to Stoke City manager Tony Pulis last week but Worawi said this was not a serious matter because Reid had asked for his permission.

“He did not sign a contract with Stoke,” said Worawi.

“He just helped his friend. He cannot go anywhere at the moment because he is still under contract with the FAT.”

Once again, stay tuned…

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Confusion over Thailand coach Peter Reid

August 28, 2009

Many foreign news organizations are reporting that Peter Reid, who has coached Thailand’s national soccer team for the past year, is leaving to take the assistant’s job at English Premier League outfit Stoke City.1

Here are stories from BBC Sport (“Reid content with assistant role”) and PA (“Reid claims agreement over Stoke move”). And there’s this ESPN Soccernet piece (“Reid ready for back-seat role under Pulis at Stoke”), which cites quotes from Reid that ran on BBC Radio Stoke.

But today’s Bangkok Post has this story — “Worawi says Reid will stay”:

The Peter Reid saga continued yesterday when Thai football chief Worawi Makudi insisted that he will remain as Thailand’s national team coach.

Worawi, who is in England as guest of the English FA, said he had talked to the former Sunderland and Leeds manager who confirmed he will return to Thailand.

“I have talked to him on the phone and he says he wants to continue as Thailand’s coach,” said the president of the Football Association of Thailand (FAT).

Reid, 53, has been quoted as saying in the English media that he is leaving Thailand and will become Stoke City manager Tony Pulis’ assistant.

And:

Worawi said he will meet Reid in Manchester tomorrow to get a clear-cut answer from him in person.

“I will ask him to make it clear. It will be an end to the confusing matter if he says he wants to continue coaching Thailand,” Worawi said.

“But if he wants to terminate the contract, then I can’t do anything.”

Stay tuned…

(Thanks to @bangkokbugle for the tip.)

  1. If you’re wondering where Stoke is located, consult this handy map of English Premier League teams that I mentioned earlier. [↩]

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Newcastle and Thai PM Abhisit

May 25, 2009

Newcastle United have been relegated from the English Premier League after 16 years in the top flight. The side lost 1-0 at Aston Villa last night, meaning Newcastle will play in England’s second tier next season.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who was born in Newcastle and is a passionate fan of the club,1 is surely feeling down.

Nation: “Newcastle till I die: Abhisit.”

After watching his favourite football club, Newcastle United, lose their last Premier League game and get relegated in the process, Abhisit went to bed Sunday night with hope in his heart. And he wore a Newcastle necktie to work Monday morning to display his unwavering support for the club.

“Newcastle will be promoted back to the Premier League next year,” Abhisit told reporters Monday morning. “I’m still having strong faith in the club.”

Abhisit confirmed reports that he had intended to call Newcastle manager Alan Shearer. He hasn’t made such a call, though, probably because of Sunday’s heartbreaking result or because of uncertainties surrounding Shearer’s future.

And there’s this:

Meanwhile, Manchester City, which were owned briefly by his political rival, Thaksin Shinawatra, ended their League campaign right in the middle of the 20-team table, after beating Bolton Wanderers 1-0 on Sunday.

The AP also has a story: “Thai PM will still support Newcastle“:

Abhisit, sporting a tie bearing a Newcastle logo on Monday, says he watched the match and was not shocked by the result considering the team had so many injuries. He had planned to call the manager Shearer if the team won, but decided not to after the loss.

“I will continue to support the team and I believe they will make it back,” Abhisit said. “I still have faith in Newcastle.”

  1. Upon taking office, Abhisit received a Newcastle shirt from Britain’s ambassador to Thailand. [↩]

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Man U: Now sponsored by the US Fed

January 14, 2009

There was a time when it bothered me that most Americans don’t appreciate football (soccer). I love the game. I always have. Why, I wondered, doesn’t everyone in the US think it’s the Best Sport Ever Created?

These days, though, I’m not hung up on the issue. As Dave Eggers wrote in his contribution to the excellent book The Thinking Fan’s Guide to the World Cup, the game is doing just fine without America. Soccer doesn’t need the United States.

In an interesting twist, however, the US government has now effectively become the official sponsor of Manchester United, perhaps the world’s biggest and most successful soccer club.

How is that, you ask?

Well, in September, 2008, insurance behemoth AIG was given a US$85 billion bailout by the US federal reserve. AIG is Manchester United’s “principal sponsor,” and the AIG logo is emblazoned on the Man U shirt (see above). It’s a four-year deal in which AIG pays Manchester United US$102.9 million in total, or roughly US$25 million per year.

So, here’s some back of the envelope math: Man U pays Cristiano Ronaldo, 2008′s FIFA world player of the year, approximately US$9 million per year in wages as part of a five-year contract. So the AIG money — which now comes from what could be argued is essentially a nationalized US asset — represents almost three times Ronaldo’s yearly salary.

Who’d have seen that coming?

I might have to switch my allegiance from Arsenal to Man U. It would be the patriotic thing to do.

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Map of Premier League Teams

December 19, 2008

Speaking of soccer (football), if you enjoy the English Premier League but wonder where some of the more obscure teams are located, check out this helpful map. While most non-British fans know which teams are in London and which are in Liverpool and Manchester, fewer are familiar with the locations of teams like Stoke City, West Bromwich Albion, and Hull City.

You can find more geographic/sporting goodness1 on the Sport Map World home page.

(Link via my college teammate Danny S. at The New York Fitness Institute blog.)

  1. Other leagues that are mapped out here include various soccer leagues, the US’s big four — MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL — as well as…the European Poker Tour. [↩]

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“Goalkeeper Science” in the NYT’s 2008 Year in Ideas

December 16, 2008

As I may have mentioned in the past, I’ve been a soccer (football) goalkeeper since the age of 7. I can’t get enough of the game, and I absolutely love goalkeeping. (I still play regularly today.)1 So I was delighted to see that, according to the New York Times, one of 2008′s big ideas that begin with the letter “g” — along with topics like genopolics, gallons per mile, and the guaranteed retirement account — is goalkeeper science:

What’s the best way to stop a penalty kick? Do nothing: just stand in the center of the goal and don’t move.

That is the surprising conclusion of “Action Bias Among Elite Soccer Goalkeepers: The Case of Penalty Kicks,” a paper published by a team of Israeli scientists in Journal of Economic Psychology that attracted attention earlier this year. The academics analyzed 286 penalty kicks and found that 94 percent of the time the goalies dived to the right or the left — even though the chances of stopping the ball were highest when the goalie stayed in the center.

If that’s true, why do goalies almost always dive off to one side? Because, the academics theorized, the goalies are afraid of looking as if they’re doing nothing — and then missing the ball…

(To read the rest of the entry, visit the link above and then choose “g” in the navigation bar. Sadly, there’s no direct link.)

For more on this subject, I recommend this blog post: “The Rationality of Soccer Goalkeepers”23

This study illustrates the tension between internal(subjective) and external (objective) rationality discussed in my last post: statistically speaking, as a rule for winning games, to jump is (externally) suboptimal; but given the social norm and the associated emotional feeling, jumping is (internally) rational.

(Hat tip to B.L. for the NYT link. Image credit: Flickr.)

  1. A few of my favorite goalkeeper-related Web sites include The Glove Bag — an exceptional online community of goalkeepers — and the news blogs The Goalkeepers’ Union and JB Goalkeeping Blog. And if you’re seriously into the philosophy of goalkeeping, I recommend this manual: “The Art of Goalkeeping or The Seven Principles of the Masters.” [↩]
  2. Insert joke about all goalkeepers being necessarily — and perhaps genetically — irrational here. [↩]
  3. And if you want to see a photo of yours truly saving a penalty kick several years ago in Taiwan — and I apologize in advance for the tight goalkeeping pants, but it was cold and the pitch was terrible — click here. [↩]

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Messi’s Argentina Advance in Olympics

August 20, 2008

Lionel Messi [image via Wikipedia]

Speaking of football (soccer), here’s a New York Times interactive feature called “An Argentine Advance.” It’s about Argentina’s pint-sized playmaker Lionel Messi (Wikipedia page, highlights on YouTube) and his team’s dominant performance at the Olympics yesterday. The masterful Argentines beat rivals Brazil 3-0 (match report here) to book their place in Saturday’s final against Nigeria. Messi, who plays his club football at FC Barcelona, figured in all three goals.

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Yahoo English Premier League Fantasy Football

August 16, 2008

Fantasy Football (Soccer) [not my image]

If you’d like to join our annual Yahoo English Premier League Fantasy Football (soccer) group, you can find more info on the game here. It’s free. And entertaining.

If you’re interested, email me (newley [at] gmail.com) and I’ll give you our group name and password. The deadline to compete in the first week is…before today’s fixtures kick off. You can participate after today, but you’ll miss out on the first week’s points. (Which, given the length of the season, isn’t entirely important.)

As ever, we’ve got a geographically diverse group of participants, with folks from the US, Thailand, Hong Kong, and the UK joining in the fun.

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Euro 2008 So Far

June 19, 2008

Euro 2008 Team of the Tournament So Far

You’ve gotta love the beautiful game, diving and all.

The Euro 2008 group matches have now concluded and it’s on the quarterfinals. First up is Germany v. Portugal, which kicks off in six hours or so. Then Croatia take on Turkey tomorrow. On the other side of the bracket, Holland meet Russia and then Spain play Italy.

My gut tells me that the winner of tonight’s contest — which I think will be Portugal — will have what it takes to defeat the winners of Croatia-Turkey (I like the latter) and get through to the June 29th final. I’d bet on Holland overpowering Russia, and then I think Spain will out-class an aging Italy but then fall to the Dutch. Holland are playing some scintillating football; a Portugal-Holland final would pit two attacking sides against one another, and while my heart would like Holland to win, I’d bet on the Portuguese taking home the title. We shall see.

Here’s some recent news coverage:

Rob Hughes in the IHT: “Russia grabs last quarterfinal slot, beating Sweden, 2-0.”

The final piece of the Euro 2008 fell neatly into place Wednesday when Russia comprehensively beat Sweden, 2-0, to claim a place in the quarterfinals of the competition.

With goals in each half, but with many more created and spurned, the Russians were too swift on the ground, too eager, and too darned young for Sweden’s aging team to hold.

The victory at Tivoli Neu stadium in Innsbruck, Austria, makes this the first time that Russia, as opposed to the former Soviet Union, has reached this far in European competition. How far will it go?

A question for the Dutch – indeed a double Dutch question because Russia next meets the Netherlands at St. Jakob Park in Basel, Switzerland, on Saturday, meaning that the coach now converting the Russians to be newcomers on the grand stage must find the tactics to outwit his own countrymen.

Sport, of course, is for players to win or lose, yet if ever there was a coach who finds a way to instill a way of playing in men from cultures and tongues so very far from his own, it is the Dutchman Guus Hiddink.

Telegraph.co.uk: “Euro 2008 Winter’s Word: Team of the tournament – so far”

A tournament so good that Michel Platini describes it as “sizzling”, Euro 2008 produced a multitude of terrific individual displays in the just-concluded group stage which deserve the formation of a Dream Team XI.

Time: “Euro 2008: The Energy and the Agony”

“Expect Emotions” goes the slogan to Euro 2008. We’ve certainly experienced some. First there was the realization that having ourselves arrived in Europe on Friday, our tickets for a Sunday match would be delivered promptly the following Tuesday. A visceral, sinking feeling, that — something Sweden must have endured in the waning seconds of its last gasp loss to Spain. Then we nearly got trampled by Russian fans swarming on to a stadium shuttle bus-a frightening feeling. That could well describe Italy’s experience when the Dutch ran riot over them in their opening match, 3-0. We also got hauled off the road in Salzburg by a motorcycle cop who insisted, in German, that our license plate was illegal. We nervously nodded and nodded in English and waited and waited until, just like the Greek team, he gave up and went home.

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