The Guardianâs extensive profile and Q&A with Arsène Wenger, legendary Arsenal manager.
âArsenal had a style of play that was criticised, but there was a style of play,â he says. âI can understand that people want only to win, but you need to have the desire to transform the team expression into art. When the supporter wakes up in the morning, he has to think: âOh, maybe Iâll have a fantastic experience today!â He wants to win the game but as well to see something beautiful.â
Combining baseball and maps? Sign me up. The MLB has a plan to âimproveâ the MiLB system costs, standards, compensation, and other things through shuttering 42 ball clubs around the country. In this piece for FanGraphs, the authors use some GIS tactics to analyze how this shakes out for baseball fans falling within those markets:
So how many Americans would see their ability to watch affiliated baseball in person disappear under MLBâs proposal? And how many would see their primary point of access shift from the relatively affordable games of the minor leagues to major league ones? To work out how the closure of these minor league teams will affect access to baseball, we went to the map. More specifically, we took the geographical center of each ZCTA (a close relative of ZIP Codes used by the Census Bureau). We calculated the distance as the crow flies from each ZCTA to each ballpark in America, both in 2019 and in MLBâs proposed new landscape.
Seems like a strange move for transit agencies to sell the naming rights to entire stations to private entities. Would it really raise revenues enough to make a dent in paying for operations or improving systems? Seems like the downsides outweigh the upsides here. Iâm all for experimentation in improving public services, but this seems like a lazy method for raising a few million bucks.
I did learn a new handy phrase here:
Thereâs a phrase that urban geographers use for this private rebranding of public space: âtoponymic commodification.â
I didnât get to watch the match live yesterday, but Liverpoolâs 4-0 trouncing of Barcelona at Anfield in the second leg of the Champions League semi might be the biggest (most improbable) win Iâve seen. Goals from Origi at 7â and 79â, Wijnaldum at 54â and 56â, and a nerve-rattling final 10 minutes put the Reds over the top:
Coincidentally I ran across this piece from Ryan OâHanlon earlier in the day that broke down Liverpoolâs odds of a win thusly:
Liverpool, almost definitely, will not be playing in the Champions League final. Sure, they might beat Barcelona today. In fact, they probably will. FiveThirtyEight gives them a 49-percent chance of winning, while the implied betting odds on a win for the Reds are 41 percent. Liverpool are one of the best teams in the world, theyâre playing at home, and so theyâre favorites â even with Lionel Messi on the other side.
Messiâs, of course, the reason why a Liverpool win will get washed away by the aggregate scoreline. After Barcelonaâs 3-0 win in Spain last week, Liverpoolâs odds of advancing are five percent by the models and eight percent by the betting markets. The former is not even taking into account the fact Liverpool will be without Naby Keita, Roberto Firmino, and Mohamed Salah against Barca. They need to score at least three goals to have a chance of advancing ⌠and theyâll be without two of their top three attackers and their most proficient midfielder on the attacking end. Oh, and they have to score all of those goals without conceding any. One Barcelona goal, and theyâll need five; two, and theyâll need six.
5% odds of advancing to the final, and they did it. All that wouldâve had to happen was a single Messi or SuĂĄrez dagger in the final seconds to finish them, but they powered through.
Gary Nevilleâs thoughts on the rumors of a Jose Mourinho firing:
The Premier Leagueâs fickleness with management is astonishing. It would be unbelievable to see the same level of volatility and shortsightedness in other professional sports that you have in European football clubs. A United legend calling out the leadership of the club directly is incredible, but unfortunately it probably wonât change anything. Iâm not a United fan, but I would love to see the club stick it out with Mourinho and to stop perpetuating the impatient lack of logic that exists in the League.
The Premier League season is now a couple of months in, and the usual suspects are top of the table â City, Liverpool, Chelsea.
What I didnât expect was Arsenal in the top four, especially after losing the first two weeks. Turns out new guy Unai Emeryâs found his footing.
Arsenal have put up 9 wins in a row (all competitions: league, Carabao, Europa League, FA Cup). There have been some skeptics with the new squad and management, but Emery is well on his way to silencing them. The next few weeks look winnable on the schedule. Leicester, Sporting, Palace, and Blackpool, then Liverpool to the Emirates. Emeryâs done some experimenting with the starting XIs, but honestly everyone on the roster has been solid.
He is the only player to have scored a hat-trick in the English Premier League, Championship, League One, League Two (or the divisions under their previous names), the League Cup, the FA Cup and for his country at International level.