1
Tangerine dreams
One game - one game that has existed under a justified cloud of suspicion ever since the final whistle - separated Jim McLean’s Dundee United from reaching the European Cup final against Liverpool in 1984. The Scottish champions controversially lost 3-0 to Roma at the Stadio Olimpico, having won the first leg 2-0 at Tannadice Park.
McLean’s high fliers were emblematic of a fleeting but fantastic era in British football: before commercial revenue entrenched the elite, Dundee United and Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen upended the Old Firm in Scotland, rightly compared to Brian Clough’s achievements with Nottingham Forest south of the border.
McLean, who passed away this week at the age of 83, was not known as much of a man-manager. The remarkable success of his underdog team came from a fierce application of innovative tactics and systematic planning throughout the Dundee United system, from youth football to the first team, that was well ahead of its time.
Steve Finan’s analysis of McLean’s tactical astuteness offers brilliant insight into a man who foreshadowed the holistic team-building ethos of La Masia and instituted a proto form of “gegenpressing” in the unlikely location of the Scottish lowlands (wonderfully illustrated by appropriately grainy VHS footage from the 1980s). Finan explains how McLean approached that first leg against a Roma team built on patient possession.
To counter this, Jim instructed his players to “press” the Romans high up the pitch. But not only were they to press, they were asked to do it the instant they lost the ball. As well as counter-attacking, United were counter-pressing. Nowadays this has a fancy name – “gegenpressing”.
Oh, and you really didn’t want to wind McLean up the wrong way . . .
2
Human management
Sky Blue FC GM Alyse LaHue, one of the smartest and most thoughtful general managers in the game, is brilliantly transparent here about the reasoning behind trading Sarah Woldmoe to the Chicago Red Stars. More of this, execs, please.
3
You SPAC
SPAC: it’s not an insult from Little Britain, but instead, an increasingly significant segment of the sporting world’s financial landscape. Standing for “Special Purpose Acquisition Company,” they are essentially an investment vehicle to raise funds on the market for takeovers before a particular investment has actually been identified - hence why they are known as “blank checks” funds. Sportico’s primer on SPACs explains it all in far more depth than I ever could, along with a rundown of the sports-focused SPACs out there.
Why am I telling you all this? Well, in the world of soccer, this is highly relevant right now: SPAC’s like the Billy Beane-headlined RedBall Acquisition are on the prowl in European football. We’re all going to get a lot more familiar with SPACs in the coming years, especially with post-pandemic dealmaking likely to be intense.
4
The real wonder woman
Love this from Anthony DiCicco: Michelle Akers’ epic career began in 1984 at the University of Central Florida.
5
Pandemic pressures ease
Speaking of pressing, Jonathan Wilson explains that the extraordinary strain of 2020 has actually reversed the trend in recent years towards ever more relentless pressing dialed up to 11.
But the way teams are playing has clearly changed. This season each team averages 134.2 pressures per game; in 2018-19 that figure was 173.7. Teams are pressing 22.7% less than they were in the last pre-Covid season. To put that in context, nobody presses more than Leeds this season, but their 164.1 pressures per game is more than only four sides in 2018-19.
As pressing recedes, so an older form of football returns. The goalless draws between Manchester United and Chelsea, Chelsea and Tottenham, United and Manchester City and even the final stages of the 1-1 between City and Liverpool, were a throwback to two decades ago or more, with teams so reluctant to expose themselves to a possible counterattack that in effect nothing happened.
Where 2021 will take us tactically, with a football calendar that for various reasons is turned sideways through 2022, is unknown even to Wilson, just about the sharpest observer around on systemic tactical trends.
6
8 bit reality
Back in the early 1990s, I was briefly obsessed with an Amiga game called Euro Superleague.
The contintental Super League concept felt glamorous at the time, especially in an age when English teams were just returning to European competition following the Heysel-era ban - with the Champions League itself established in 1992.
Thirty years later, we’re still continually teased, or perhaps taunted, by the prospect of such a European Super League emerging. But could the pandemic of 2020 drive it closer to reality than an Amiga-simulation? Mark Doyle takes a long look at Goal.com.
7
Soccer_xg
If a “A Critical Comparison of xT and VAEP” is your thing, then you’ll enjoy Jan Van Haaren’s comprehensive compendium of data sets and commentary on soccer analytics from 2020. The depth of Jan’s list reflects what an explosive field of study this is, with fresh insights into the game now streamed out via social media by the minute.
The increased availability of free data, tutorials and tools has led to an explosion of interest in soccer analytics. The number of research papers, blog posts, webinars, podcasts and events has spiked in 2020. Access to granular data has been a privilege for data analysts and data scientists within clubs and companies until recently, but that situation is fortunately slowly changing. The release of several match event and tracking datasets has enabled more academics and amateur analysts to develop their own metrics and to perform more profound analysis.
8
Soccer for all
Let’s take the positives where we can find them right now. The acceptance and prevalence of virtual meetings and conferences (and even internships) has democratized access to events and training sessions. That seems particularly fitting for the mission of the US Soccer Foundation’s annual Urban Soccer Symposium, which in March will be free and open to the public online.
The Urban Soccer Symposium gathers community leaders and speakers from across the nation who are dedicated to improving the field of sports-based youth development. The Symposium features two days of virtual workshops and inspiring keynote presentations focused on sharing best practices and maximizing organizations' impact in their respective communities.
The conversation will center around equity – how to make sure that every child has a fair chance to reap the benefits of play, coaches, and teams. Attendees will walk away with a better understanding on how to make sure every child and community has the resources, infrastructure, and support to create sustainable and fair change.
9
Kamikaze football
Just north of the Arctic Circle, records were obliterated in 2020 (look at that goal difference!). Click the link for a great thread from FotMob on Norway’s FK Bodø/Glimt.
10
Rocco roulette
Whither the New York Cosmos? While still seemingly stuck in lawsuit limbo, a couple of interesting possible options for future stadium locations in Brooklyn and Staten Island are explored by Chris Kivlehan for the Midfield Press.
Cosmos fans will hope that Rocco Commisso has been waiting for the right opportunity to invest in the club and to build some infrastructure for a relaunch after the antitrust suit is resolved and after the COVID-19 pandemic subsides. It is hard to see a better opportunity for that coming along anytime soon than the lot at 2731 West 12th Street in Brooklyn.
11
Ghost tickets
Third-tier Dynamo Dresden doubled their stadium’s capacity in “ghost” ticket sales for their match against Darmstadt last week, with 72,112 fans purchasing tickets to support one of many lower league clubs struggling through the pandemic.