Fantasy Football Group Chat

Hello, everyone, this is Data Head from Fantasy Football Stats. I wanted to remind you that the Yahoo! Fantasy Football (YFF) season, just like that of La Liga, is fast approaching. If you ever need help getting your team in order, you can swing by my blog for weekly articles and analysis. I have also been speaking with Elisa about setting up a group chat, a time right before the deadline (usually on Saturday morning) when we could all come together, discuss player picks, ask questions, or simply chit-chat, so that by the end of the evening, we could go to bed feeling comfortable with our player selections. The best that I could do would be on Friday evening, at 11.00pm EDT, or 8.00pm if you live on the West Coast. You can either participate in the discussion at my blog, or you can go directly to the chat room page:

http://yffstats.chatango.com

My hope is that people will keep coming into the conversation as the evening progresses, perhaps to the point that the dialogue can be carried on without me (so that I can get some sleep!). Of course, you may feel free to leave comments in the chat room at any point throughout the week, but I will make sure I am available for at least half an hour on Friday evenings. If you are more the quiet type but still wish to know what others think, you can still visit the chat room and "listen in." There is no login required.

In addition to the chat room, I encourage all of you to participate in the weekly Blog Team polls on my site. By selecting 11 players from the list (in a valid formation), you will be letting all other readers know which players you think will make good picks, and you will in turn be able to see the votes cast from all other readers, many of whom live in Spain and are quite knowledgeable about La Liga. The more votes, the more confidence you can have in the Blog Team consensus.

Finally, I would like to take this last opportunity before the season begins to explain the Head-to-Head blog league. If you signed up for the YFF group (again, that's Group ID# 272, Password yffstats1, and can be accessed at http://uk.superliga.fantasysports.yahoo.com), then I've already enrolled your team. In short, you don't have to do anything to participate except play YFF, but this league will be run on the same points system as the one for La Liga. For example, if Real Elisa meets my team, Fantasy Football Stats, in week 1, and scores 92.00 points, while mine scores 89.00, then Real Elisa is declared the winner of the match and will be awarded 3 points in the league table. Repeat the process 37 times so that each team plays the others twice, and you will have a complete season. Now, I understand that each of us may have a different level of YFF experience, so I have come up with a jersey system to give everyone something to play for. The same information below can be found on my site at the Blog Leagues page.

Jerseys:

The Yellow Jersey will go to the manager who leads in the overall Points column. If there is a tie, then the manager with more or the most YFF Points will be awarded the golden fleece.

The White Jersey, or Best Young Player jersey, will go to the manager with 0-3 years of experience who leads in the overall Points column. Again, if there is a tie, then cumulative YFF Points will be used to determine the winner. Note: For YFF Superliga, the number of years of experience will be 0 instead.

The Green Jersey, or Sprint Jersey, will be awarded to the manager who wins the most individual weeks in terms of YFF Points. In the event of a tie, the margin of victory in YFF points during weeks won will be used to determine the winner.

The Polka Dot Jersey, or King of the Mountains Jersey, will go to the manager who earns 100.00+ points the most times throughout the season. In case of a tie, then cumulative YFF points during those 100.00-point weeks will be used to determine the winner.

I hope to see you all in the Friday chat room, and I'll sign off by saying, "Let the competition begin!"

Eduardo Alvarez from ESPN Soccernet: Podcast#160

In this pod we have a special guest, Eduardo Alvarez of ESPN Soccernet from Brazil. Eduardo discusses all the current topics of La Liga and as usual, gives his insightful view points. You may read Eduardo's weekly columns on ESPN Soccernet.

Listen, enjoy and let us know what do you think about it.

Download this episode (right click and save)

Segment#1 16min

1. The impact of the 'Big Two' stockpiling talent and turning into factories of loans.
2. Why do they prefer to have a Hamit Altintop in the squad rather than a canterano.
3. The cases of Sergio Canales and Oriol Romeu.
4. Can Barcelona survive without any new signings on the defence and solely depending on the cantera?

Segment#2 24min

1. The madness of the new kick-off times of La Liga and if this will be a successful move for LFP.
2. Ley Concursal: The financial mess in La Liga.
3. Why the financial fair-play code of UEFA wont have the desired effect on the Spanish clubs.
4. The nefarious business of powerful agents like Jorge Mendes and how they are making matters worse for running football business.
5. The uncanny similarities between the the causes for the economic meltdown of 08/09 and football in general and spanish football in particular.

Segment #3 24 min

1. Eduardo covered the recently concluded Copa America extensively. He talks about the performance of Diego Forlán and the rest of La Liga players
2. The summer of discontent between Forlán and Atlético
3. He also touched upon some promising youngsters like Adrián Luna (Espanyol) and James Rodriguez (Porto)
4. We round off the show with some La Liga small talk: The Basque teams, Bielsa, Málaga, Super Cup
5. Eduardo gives us his Top 5 and the relegation candidates for the upcoming season

Yahoo! Fantasy Football is here!

Hello, all, this is Data Head, resident Yahoo! Fantasy Football (YFF) fanatic. For the better part of the year, I live and breathe this game in the same way some of you might enjoy the Beautiful Game. Not only are the two games (real and fantastical) complementary, but I would argue that participating in the fantasy game will enhance your appreciation of what transpires on the pitch week after week. Have you ever heard of Ernesto Galán, or Leonardo Ponzio? Well, until I started playing YFF Superliga, I certainly hadn't, but by the end of the season, the pair were like aces up my sleeves, racking up points at a low cost while allowing me to splurge elsewhere on star players such as Messi or Agüero. During broadcasts of the games, I not only knew the names of the players, but I knew the bench as well, which players were likely to be swapped for which later in the game, and, of course, who was most likely to perform (and earn my fantasy team points).

If YFF sounds intimidating, or if you think you have to be a seasoned veteran to enjoy the game, then consider this: I have a mere half a season under my belt. And my fellow YFF Superliga blogger, "Johnson" over at Fantasy Football: La Liga, has, from what I can tell, two. But make no mistake about it, we know Primera players like the backs of our hands. Fortunately for our readers, we enjoy sharing our knowledge and enthusiasm. So it is in this frame of mind that I now extend to you an invitation to play the game, and beyond that, to join a Blog League that unites my blog -- Fantasy Football Stats -- Johnson's blog, and this one.

Again, it is not as hard as you might think to join in. First, go to the YFF homepage:

http://uk.superliga.fantasysports.yahoo.com/football

Or, if you are a purist, a bilingual, or a native Spanish speaker, you can visit the YFF España homepage:

http://es.superliga.fantasysports.yahoo.com/football

They actually link to the same game, and you can toggle between any of thirteen languages at any time by clicking on the appropriate link at the bottom of the screen there.

Next, click on the yellow "Create a team" button. If you have a Yahoo! account, then signing up will be simple. Just accept the terms of service, come up with a team name, select your time zone, etc. (It's all right there on the same screen.) Then select your favorite team, which will place you in a larger "Fans of" group, and click "Continue." If everything looks all right to you, then click "Create Team," and your team will be registered. That's it! You are now ready to start exploring a truly enriching game.

But if you want to take your participation a bit further, to take the red pill, as it were, then I would encourage you to join the Blog League, where the private adventure begins (a members-only discussion board for chit-chat, words of counsel, or trash talk). Click "Join a Group."

[cue lightning]

You will be prompted to enter a Group ID# and Password. Your key to the exclusive group "YFF Stats - Superliga" is:

Group ID#: 272
Password: yffstats1

Now you will be in the company of your blog authors, one another, and other eager managers from different parts of the globe. If space runs out, or if the number of teams in the group hits 100, then I'll simply create another group and the process of filling the slots will start all over.

If you are not overwhelmed by all this pigeonholing, of joining a group within a group, then I would ask you to take one final step and join our head-to-head blog league, run in conjunction with YFF. To add an extra dimension to the game, I thought it would be fun to run a league just like the real Primera, with twenty teams to a division, based on YFF experience, in which each team would play the others twice over the course of the season. The points system would be the same (i.e. 3 for a win, 1 for a draw, and 0 for a loss), and would be based on weekly performance in terms of YFF points. There could be a Champions League, relegation zone, and everything.
But wait! Before I get too carried away, I almost forgot to tell you how to play. The rules, which I encourage you to read and reread, can be found here.
The CliffsNotes version is this: You must select eleven players in a valid formation within the allotted budget, then save your team. (You do all this within the "Team Manager" tab you will see upon logging in.) If you want tips, opinions, and analysis, that is where Johnson and I can help out. Again, his blog is Fantasy Football: La Liga, and mine is Fantasy Football Stats. As you can glean from the title of his blog, it deals exclusively with La Liga. Mine covers both the Primera and the English Premier League, with a microscopic view on YFF. (You may feel free to join the YFF EPL group as well.) In fact, each week before the deadline, I create a user-generated Blog Team based entirely on votes in a poll that I put up on my site. In this way, you can see players that other managers think represent good picks. In addition, you can ask questions in the chat room, leave a comment, etc. Our mission is to create a community, and for Johnson and me, our vehicle for promoting the Beautiful Game is decidedly Yahoo! Fantasy Football.

I hope to see you in the Blog League(s) soon! Many thanks to Elisa for allowing us to align the interests of the three blogs.

PS Yours truly Elisa will be playing this year as "Real Elisa" so get on board!!

Forza Futbol 144: A Fantasy League

On today´s episode Elisa is joined by Laurence Alexander of Fantasy Football: La Liga, a site that helps in understanding Spain's Primera Liga through opta stats and the highs and lows of contesting Yahoo's Fantasy Football Liga competition.

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Can WAGs and team rankings provide reliable statistics?

Let me set one thing straight: I deal in stats -- cold, objective data. Anything you can think to track about a sport, I find interesting. I'm not talking about just the basics, such as how many passes were completed or who scored and assisted. I'm talking about the nitty-gritty, the kind of information you can't believe found its way onto paper. For example, Ronaldo hasn't scored (a goal) since his girlfriend, Irina Shayk, pictured more modestly here, landed the SI Swimsuit cover. Has his mind been too preoccupied for his body to perform on the pitch? I'll let you decide, but it certainly adds a story to the mix. And it's something that can be tracked.

Nothing delights me more than to think I have an original idea. I started a blog, Yahoo Fantasy Football Stats, because I couldn't find a site that covered the info I wanted. And with my passion for stats, I found ways to extract data from data sets, to highlight some arcane matter in hopes of finding perfection, that ever elusive correlation coefficient of 1.00. A stat I find unique to my site that has shown some fascinating patterns is team performance against other teams ranked whatever: 1-5, 6-10, 11-15, 16-20. The implications of this one stat could influence casual fans, fantasy football managers, and gamblers alike.

Take Barcelona and their performance across the season. Now that their home winning steak is over, where are you supposed to turn for certainty, insofar as stats may be able to provide it? Would it surprise you to learn that Barca have won every match, home or away, against opposition not ranked 11-15? It's true, the three times they have slipped up this season, they've done so to teams ranked 11-15, losing at home to no. 14 Hercules in week 2, drawing at home to no. 11 Mallorca in week 6, and drawing away at no. 13 Sporting Gijon in week 23.

Coincidence, perhaps? Could be. But take a look at some other coincidences, if so:

- Athletic Bilbao have earned just 1 win but 6 losses against opponents ranked 1-5; 2 wins, 2 losses against those 6-10; 5 wins, 1 draw, and 2 losses against those 11-15; and 4 wins and 1 draw against those 16-20. The results form a clear-cut pattern of wins, draws, and losses.
- Atlético Madrid are 0-1-5 (W-D-L) against opponents 1-5.
- Espanyol have lost all five matches against opponents 1-5, but have won all six against those 6-10.
- Mallorca buck the trend against opponents 1-5, with a fairly even and respectable 3-2-3 record. But against those 6-10, they're 0-0-4.
- Real Madrid remain perfect against one set of opponents, those ranked 6-10: 9-0-0.
- Real Sociedad against opponents 1-5: 0-0-5.
- Sporting Gijon have not won a match against the lowest-ranked set of opponents, 16-20, earning 3 draws and 1 loss. Against the next highest group, 11-15, they're 1-4-1. So why might Gijon be flirting with relegation? Answer: They can't put away teams in the bottom half of the table!

The same trends occur in the English Premier League, the other league I track. Some notable results:

- Arsenal appear to struggle with opponents ranked 6-10, with a pedestrian 2-3-3 record, but they look stellar against bottom dwellers, winning 8 and drawing 1, with 0 losses.
- Chelsea have earned just 1 win in four matches against opponents 11-15.
- Fulham have lost only one match all season to a team ranked 6-10, 11-15, or 16-20. In other words, they're rubbish against the top quarter of the table, with an 0-4-5 record.
- Liverpool have the opposite problem and have lost merely once to opponents 1-5 or 6-10. They struggle with the bottom bracket of teams, apparent again recently versus West Ham, with a 2-2-4 record.
- Man City have earned 22 of 24 points against opponents 6-10.
- Man U's record against top-five oppositions, in order: WDWDW. I'd say they're in for a draw against Chelsea. Any takers?
- Tottenham, like Liverpool, struggle with bottom teams -- they're 1-1-3. But against opponents 6-10, they're the bullies of the schoolyard: 7-2-0.
- West Brom have 0 wins in eight matches against opponents 16-20, with an 0-4-4 record. Their companions in misery, Wolverhampton Wanderers, have fared about as well against the same set of opponents, with an 0-3-3 record. Are these abysmal records foreboding, in terms of the teams' prospects of avoiding relegation?

Why don't professional sports journalists track these data, if they're so useful? My guess is that it has to do with the fluctuating nature of the rankings, and to be fair, I should point out that I base rank on how things stand prior to the first match of a game week. To the skeptics out there, I will say that it's true, sometimes a team's performance against a certain set of opponents yields a hodgepodge of results. Case in point: Deportivo's record against opponents 16-20 is 2 wins, 2 draws, and 3 losses. But this only serves to illustrate the shortcomings of blind devotion to any one statistic. If Deportivo were coming up against a bottom-quarter team, how would I make a call? This is where other stats -- goal differential, home/away record of each team, last five results, and more -- come into consideration, providing a composite correlation that casts a metaphoric stone into one pan or the other . As a season plays out, the stats grow more reliable. Or at least, that's what any responsible stats-tracker goes for, picking up threads along the way and dropping others as they become less promising. For now, I'll let the jury be out on WAGs' influence on scoring (or defending), the impact of shooting a work-placement student, and the many other bizarre elements of football. One way or the other, you can be sure it won't stop me from taking note.

Forza Futbol 128: Segunda Focus

On today´s episode of the Forza Futbol Virtual Spanish Pub, we have an old friend on with ours on, Arch Bell from La Liga Weekly´s Segunda Focus, and we talk about the second division of the Spanish League.

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Forza Futbol: La Liga Fantasy League

It´s almost time for the season to start in Spain, I can smell the air changing, getting a little crisper in the morning, and what does that mean usually? Fantasy Football.

So if you´re so inclined, sign up for our league by clicking here, or by clicking on the picture on the left. Fill out your squad, choose carefully because once the season starts it´s hard to stay up on injuries and suspensions.

Once you do that, click on the leagues tab and search for Forza Futbol. Join our league and you´re in.

The winner of the league will get my copy of White Storm, the History of Real Madrid shipped to them.