Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Videos: Turkish Süper Lig Top Scorers

Goal Compilation videos of the top scorers in the last three Süper Lig seasons in Turkey.

2009/2010 - 21 goals - Ariza Makukula (Kayserispor)


2008/2009 - 20 goals - Milan Baroš (Galatasaray)


2007/2008 - 17 goals - Semih Şentürk (Fenerbahçe)

Monday, November 29, 2010

Blackburn Rovers - Player Birthplace Map

A map showing the birthplaces of the first team players currently at Blackburn Rovers FC.


View Blackburn Rovers Player Birthplace Map - Nov 2010 in a larger map

Friday, November 26, 2010

La Liga: Average Squad Age - Nov 2010

The average age of the current Spanish Primera División (La Liga) squads.


24.38 - Espanyol
24.43 - Athletic Bilbao
24.51 - Atlético Madrid
24.95 - Real Madrid
25.05 - Getafe
25.11 - Barcelona
25.43 - Real Sociedad
25.48 - Mallorca
25.67 - Real Zaragoza
25.70 - Deportivo la Coruña
25.76 - Sevilla
25.88 - Villarreal
25.99 - Málaga
26.15 - Almería
26.15 - Sporting Gijón
26.51 - Valencia
26.70 - Racing Santander
26.90 - Levante
28.39 - Osasuna
28.51 - Hércules



Stats from Soccerway.com

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Videos: Nagoya Grampus - J-League Champions 2010

A collection of videos profiling the 2010 J-League champions, Nagoya Grampus (名古屋グランパス, Nagoya Guranpasu) (formerly Nagoya Grampus Eight)

2010 J-League Champions - Celebrations and Highlights 1


2010 J-League Champions - Celebrations and Highlights 2


1993-2010 Nagoya Grampus - Highlights from Club History


THK Coverage of J-League Champs


Feature on Australian Forward Josh Kennedy


Chant for Josh Kennedy
'He is the Jesus Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh
Go Joshua Kennedy Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh'


Former Manager Arsene Wenger's Farewell Speech


Former Player Gary Lineker in a Japanese Drink Commercial

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Supporter Videos: Indonesia Super League

A few of the impressive supporters groups from the Indonesia Super League.


Aksi Bonek (Persebaya)


The Jak (Jakarta)


Aremania (Arema FC)


Persitara


Persikabo


Ultras Persija


Persija vs Arema

Monday, November 22, 2010

Premier League: Average Squad Age - Nov 2010

The average age of the current English Premier League squads.


24.24 - Arsenal
24.77 - Newcastle United
25.27 - West Bromwich Albion
25.39 - Everton
25.47 - Wolverhampton Wanderers
25.48 - Sunderland
25.67 - Wigan Athletic
25.73 - Manchester City
25.82 - West Ham United
25.89 - Chelsea
26.10 - Liverpool
26.11 - Blackpool
26.32 - Aston Villa
26.35 - Blackburn Rovers
26.42 - Manchester United
27.15 - Tottenham Hotspur
27.53 - Birmingham City
27.62 - Bolton Wanderers
28.53 - Stoke City
28.78 - Fulham


Stats from Soccerway.com

Friday, November 19, 2010

Qatar National Team - Naturalized Players

A map and list of the many naturalized players called up to Qatar's National team in the last couple of years.

Qatar is the country that offered Brazilian player Aílton, who was the top scorer in the Bundesliga at the time, a sum of $1,000,000+ to become a naturalized Qatari so he could help their push towards the 2006 World Cup. That didn't work out (FIFA blocked the move), but as can be seen from this list, Qatar has been very open to naturalizing players from other countries to improve their national team.




View Qatar National Team in a larger map


BRAZIL
Marcio Emerson
Marcone
Fábio César

GHANA
George Kwasi

GUINEA
Daniel Gouma

IRAQ
Ali Mejbel

KUWAIT
Talal Al-Bloushi
Wesam Rizik

SAUDI ARABIA
Mohamed Saqr
Majdi Siddiq
Saad Al Shammari

SENEGAL
Qasem Burhan
Abdulla Koni

URUGUAY
Sebastián Soria

YEMEN
Mesaad Al-Hamad

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Average FIFA Rank of Top 30 Nations - Nov 2006 to Nov 2010

FIFA ranking stats of the nations currently ranked in the top 30 - from November 2006 to November 2010.

Avg Rank Nation Current Rank Highest Rank Lowest Rank
2.688 Brazil 3 1 6
3.688 Spain 1 1 12
4.188 Italy 14 1 16
4.292 Germany 4 2 6
4.688 Argentina 5 1 9
5.063 Netherlands 2 2 10
8.729 Portugal 8 3 17
8.833 England 6 5 15
9.063 France 21 2 27
10.000 Croatia 9 5 15
13.708 Greece 11 8 20
15.792 Russia 13 6 27
20.292 USA 24 11 31
20.625 Mexico 28 10 33
21.250 Uruguay 7 6 30
22.875 Turkey 29 10 42
24.729 Paraguay 23 13 37
25.208 Serbia 25 13 40
25.542 Cote d'Ivoire 19 16 38
27.188 Egypt 10 9 43
27.333 Switzerland 21 13 48
28.375 Ghana 17 14 47
28.750 Denmark 27 15 38
31.521 Chile 16 10 53
33.063 Australia 20 14 52
35.875 Norway 12 12 59
37.771 Japan 30 30 47
43.042 Slovakia 18 16 67
59.813 Slovenia 15 15 94
117.000 Montenegro 26 26 199

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

If They Mated: American Soccer Names and UK Cities

It's been a while since I've posted a 'fun' topic so when I had this idea that nobody seemed to care about on twitter last night I naturally thought I should expand on it here.

The Kansas City Wizards changing their name to Sporting KC is just the most recent example of American soccer teams mysteriously trying to sound more 'legitimate' with Euro-style names. In this post I flipped that idea around and have combined real American-style team names from MLS, NASL, USL, etc. with cities in the United Kingdom. Oh, and you may notice that I find alliterative team names amusing...


Aberdeen Apollos
Belfast Boomers
Birmingham Burn
Burnley Burn*
Bolton Battery
Brighton Rhinos
Bristol Blizzard
Cambridge Kickers
Cardiff Cougars
Charlton Battery*
Colchester Clash
Coventry Cosmos
Crewe Crew
Derby Dynamo
Dundee Darts
Edinburgh Earthquakes
Exeter Express
Glasgow Galaxy
Huddersfield Hurricane
Inverness Invaders*
Ipswich Impact -or- Ipswich Wiz*
Kilmarnock Manic
Leeds Lynx
Leicester Lancers
Liverpool Dips
Manchester Mutiny
Middlesbrough Metrostars
Newcastle Kicks
Nottingham Timbers
Oxford Olympique
Portsmouth Thunder
Reading Revolution
Sheffield Fusion
Southend-on-Sea Whitecaps
Stockport Strikers
Stoke Fire -or- Stoke Stokers
Sunderland Sounders
Swansea Silverbacks
Watford Wizards
Yeovil Union*


Well, that was actually pretty fun...(for me at least)
Feel free to join in if you think of more Ameri-Kingdom combos

*Thanks to Jeremy for his contributions to the list

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Supporter Videos: Chinese Super League

Supporter Videos from a few teams in the Chinese Super League


Beijing Guoan


Changchun Yatai


Shanghai Shenhua


Shandong Luneng


Dalian Shide

Monday, November 15, 2010

Distance between MLS Cup Final Teams - 1996-2010

Last night, when Dallas progressed to the MLS Cup final to face Colorado, I wondered what the closest (in miles) 'rivalry' in a final game has been. These are the distances between the cities of the MLS cup finalists since 1996.


1996 - DC v LA - 2293 miles
1997 - DC v COL - 1488 miles
1998 - CHI v DC - 594 miles
1999 - DC v LA - 2293 miles
2000 - KC v CHI - 410 miles
2001 - SJ v LA - 306 miles
2002 - LA v NE - 2589 miles
2003 - SJ v CHI - 1836 miles
2004 - DC v KC - 940 miles
2005 - LA v NE - 2589 miles
2006 - HOU v NE - 1602 miles
2007 - HOU v NE - 1602 miles
2008 - CLB v NY - 476 miles
2009 - RSL v LA - 579 miles
2010 - DAL vs COL - 799 miles

Shortest Distance: 306 miles (SJ v LA)
Longest Distance: 2589 miles (LA v NE)
Average Distance: 1358 miles


The closest distance between possible MLS Cup finalists would of course be 0 miles if LA Galaxy and Chivas USA were to meet. With the current setup allowing teams to switch conferences for the playoffs there are a few current and incoming rivalries that could make a potential 200 miles or less MLS Cup final.

0 Miles - CHV v LA
80 Miles - PHI v NY
120 Miles - SEA v VAN
124 Miles - DC v PHI
145 Miles - SEA v POR
190 miles - NE v NY


A couple of related thoughts:

Distance between the current longest PL road trips from London to Newcastle: about 250 miles

Distance from London to Moscow - 1552 miles, over 1000 miles less than the distance between New England and Los Angeles

It's probably somewhat out of date now, but a couple years ago I did the world's longest soccer road trips within the same league. (link)

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Castrol Index: Top 5 EPL Players from Each Confederation (Nov 2010)

The top 5 Premier League players from each FIFA confederation using the newly released Nov 2010 Castrol Index rankings.


Africa
9 - Didier Drogba (Cote d'Ivoire)
74 - Alexandre Song (Cameroon)
75 - Marouane Chamakh (Morocco)
115 - Yaya Toure (Cote d'Ivoire)
170 - Steven Pienaar (South Africa)

Asia
64 - Tim Cahill (Australia)
77 - Mark Schwarzer (Australia)
392 - Chung-Yong Lee (South Korea)
697 - Ji-Sung Park (South Korea)
1006 - Brett Emerton (Australia)

CONCACAF
28 - Marcus Hahnemann (USA)
86 - Clint Dempsey (USA)
113 - Brad Friedel (USA)
398 - Tim Howard (USA)
458 - Kenwyne Jones (Trinidad & Tobago)

South America
15 - Alex (Brazil)
18 - Carlos Tevez (Argentina)
32 - Heurelho Gomes (Brazil)
54 - Antonio Valencia (Ecuador)
165 - Maxi Rodriguez (Argentina)

Oceania
294 - Ryan Nelsen (New Zealand)
2087 - Winston Reid (New Zealand)

UK
4 - Wayne Rooney (England)
6 - Frank Lampard (England)
24 - Jermain Defoe (England)
60 - John Terry (England)
63 - Paul Robinson (England)

Europe (non-UK)
7 - Rafael van der Vaart (Netherlands)
9 - Florent Malouda (France)
18 - Nani (Portugal)
21 - Andrei Arshavin (Russia)
25 - Nicolas Anelka (France)

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

US National Team Results by State since 2000

A list of US National Team home game results by state since 2000. The games are in chronological order with the most recent game in each state listed first.

Alabama (2-1-0)
2-0 - Guatemala (WCQ'06)
1-0 - Ecuador
1-1 - Tunisia

Arizona (1-0-0)
2-0 - Mexico

California (16-4-2)
1-3 - Honduras
8-0 - Barbados (WCQ'10)
2-0 - Sweden
2-0 - Trinidad & Tobago (GC'07)
1-0 - Guatemala (GC'07)
4-1 - China
3-1 - Denmark
3-2 - Japan
5-0 - Norway
0-0 - Canada
3-0 - Colombia
1-1 - Denmark
2-0 - Wales
2-0 - Costa Rica (GC'02)
0-0 - Canada (GC'02; 4-2 PK)
4-0 - El Salvador (GC'02)
1-0 - Cuba (GC'02)
2-1 - South Korea (GC'02)
1-2 - Brazil
2-1 - China
2-0 - Mexico
1-1 - Iran

Colorado (2-0-0)
2-0 - Guatemala (WCQ'10)
1-0 - Mexico

Connecticut (2-0-1)
2-4 - Czech Republic
1-0 - Latvia
1-0 - Trinidad & Tobago (WCQ'06)

Florida (6-2-3)
2-1 - El Salvador
3-1 - Ecuador
1-1 - Haiti
3-2 - Costa Rica (GC'03)
1-2 - Brazil (GC'03)
0-1 - Argentina
4-0 - Canada
0-1 - Colombia
2-2 - Colombia (GC'00; 1-2 PK)
1-0 - Peru (GC'00)
3-0 - Haiti (GC'00)


Illinois (5-2-2)
2-2 - Poland
2-0 - Honduras (GC'09)
2-1 - Honduras (WCQ'10)
3-0 - Trinidad & Tobago (WCQ'10)
2-4 - Brazil 
2-1 - Mexico (GC'07)
2-1 - Canada (GC'07)
1-2 - England
1-1 - Poland

Massachusetts (11-2-1)
2-2 - Haiti (GC'09)
2-1 - Panama (GC'07)
4-0 - El Salvador (GC'07)
2-0 - Panama (WCQ'06)
3-1 - Jamaica (GC'05)
0-0 - Costa Rica (GC'05)
2-0 - El Salvador (WCQ'06)
4-0 - Honduras
5-0 - Cuba (GC'03)
2-0 - Martinique (GC'03)
2-0 - El Salvador (GC'03)
0-2 - Netherlands
2-1 - Jamaica (WCQ'02)
2-0 - Trindad & Tobago (WCQ'02)
7-0 - Barbados (WCQ'02)
1-1 - Ireland

Missouri (1-0-0)
1-0 - Costa Rica (WCQ'02)

New Jersey (3-2-2)
0-2 - Brazil
0-5 - Mexico
0-0 - Argentina
0-0 - Panama (GC'05; 3-1 PK)
2-1 - Honduras
5-0 - Jamaica
3-0 - Mexico

New Mexico (1-0-0)
1-0 - Honduras

Ohio (6-3-0)
2-0 - Mexico (WCQ'10)
2-0 - Venezuela
2-0 - Mexico (WCQ'06)
1-1 - Jamaica (WCQ'06)
3-0 - Grenada (WCQ'06)
2-0 - Paraguay
0-0 - Ecuador
2-0 - Mexico (WCQ'02)
0-0 - Costa Rica (WCQ'02)

Pennsylvania (2-1-0)
0-0 - Colombia
2-1 - Turkey
2-1 - Panama (GC'09)

Tennessee (1-0-1)
3-0 - Trinidad & Tobago (WCQ'10)
0-1 - Morocco

Texas (2-3-0)
2-2 - Mexico
0-0 - Guatemala
4-0 - Guatemala
1-0 - Mexico
0-0 - Mexico

Utah (2-0-0)
2-1 - El Salvador (WCQ'10)
3-0 - Costa Rica (WCQ'06)

Virginia (1-0-0)
2-1 - New Zealand

Washington (5-0-0)
4-0 - Grenada (GC'09)
2-0 - Canada (GC'05)
4-1 - Cuba (GC'05)
2-0 - Venezuela
4-0 - Honduras 

Washington DC (7-1-1)
2-2 - Costa Rica (WCQ'10)
2-0 - Honduras (GC'09)
6-1 - Cuba (WCQ'10)
6-0 - Panama (WCQ'06)
2-0 - El Salvador
2-1 - Uruguay
2-3 - Honduras (WCQ'02)
1-0 - Guatemala (WCQ'02)
4-0 - South Africa

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Europe: Domestic Based Top Scorer List

Players in Europe who led their homeland's domestic league in scoring in the last completed season.

Goals - Player - Nation - Club

17 - Daniel Xhafaj - Albania - KS Besa
17 - Arthur Kocharyan - Armenia - Ulisses FC
16 - Farid Guliyev - Azerbaijan - Standard Sumgayit
15 - Romelo Lukaku - Belgium - RSC Anderlecht
16 - Fedja Dudić - Bosnia-Herzegovina - NK Travnik
12 - Michal Ordoš - Czech Republic - Sigma Olomouc
24 - Sander Post - Estonia - Flora Tallinn
22 - Arnbjørn Hansen - Faroe Islands - EB/Streymur
16 - Hermanni Vuorinen - Finland - FC Honka
14 - Atli Björnsson - Iceland - FH Hafnarfjördur
14 - Alfreð Finnbogason - Iceland - Breidablik
28 - Shlomi Arbeitman - Israel - Maccabi Haifa
29 - Antonio Di Natale - Italy - Udinese
30 - Kristaps Grebis - Latvia - Liepajas Metalurgs
19 - Valdas Trakys - Lithuania - FK Ekranas
22 - Daniel Huss - Luxembourg - CS Grevenmacher
15 - Bobi Božinovski - Macedonia - Rabotnički
13 - Aleksandru Maksimov - Moldova - FC Milmami
24 - Ivan Bošković - Montenegro - FK Grbalj Radanovići
30 - Rory Patterson - Northern Ireland - Coleraine FC
18 - Robert Lewandowski - Poland - Lech Poznań
16 - Andrei Cristea - Romania - Dinamo Bucuresti
23 - Kris Boyd - Scotland - Rangers FC
22 - Dragan Mrđa - Serbia - Vojvodina
18 - Robert Rak - Slovakia - FC Nitra
23 - Milan Osterc - Slovenia - ND Gorica
18 - Tobias Hysén - Sweden - IFK Göteborg
17 - Artem Milevskiy - Ukraine - Dinamo Kiev
30 - Rhys Griffiths - Wales - Llanelli AFC

Monday, November 8, 2010

CONMEBOL: All-Time Average FIFA Rankings

The all-time average FIFA rankings of the CONMEBOL nations (South America) -- from Aug 1993 to Nov 2010


Average Ranking Nation Highest
Rank
Lowest
Rank
1.582 Brazil 1 8
6.186 Argentina 1 24
23.660 Colombia 4 51
29.211 Uruguay 6 76
30.443 Paraguay 8 103
40.696 Chile 6 84
44.268 Ecuador 24 76
61.299 Peru 34 91
69.876 Bolivia 18 114
85.634 Venezuela 47 129

Friday, November 5, 2010

FA Logos: Former Soviet Republics

Logos of the Current UEFA and AFC Nations that were formerly Socialist Republics of the Soviet Union.




Uzbekistan


Ukraine


Turkmenistan


Tajikistan

Russia

Moldova


Kyrgyzstan


Kazakhstan

Georgia

Belarus

Azerbaijan


Armenia

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Europe: 30 League Goals in a Season since 1996


These players have all scored at least 30 league goals in a single season in one of Europe's top 10 leagues according to UEFA coefficient. (since 1996-1997)


Goals Player Club Season
42 Mário Jardel Sporting CP 2001-02
38 Mário Jardel FC Porto 1999-00
38 Hakan Şükür Galatasaray 1996-97
36 Mário Jardel FC Porto 1998-99
35 Mateja Kezman PSV Eindhoven 2002-03
35 Luis Suárez Ajax 2009-10
34 Lionel Messi Barcelona 2009-10
34 Afonso Alves SC Heerenveen 2006-07
34 Nikos Mahlas Vitesse 1997-98
34 Ronaldo Barcelona 1996-97
33 Klaas Jan Huntelaar Heerenveen/Ajax 2005-06
33 Klaas Jan Huntelaar Ajax 2007-08
32 Diego Forlan Atletico Madrid 2008-09
31 Cristiano Ronaldo Manchester United 2007-08
31 Luca Toni Fiorentina 2005-06
31 Ruud van Nistelrooy PSV Eindhoven 1998-99
31 Fatih Tekke Trabzonspor 2003-04
31 Mateja Kezman PSV Eindhoven 2002-03
30 Samuel Eto'o FC Barcelona 2008-09
30 Thierry Henry Arsenal 2003-04
30 Mário Jardel FC Porto 1996-97
30 Kevin Phillips Sunderland 1999-00
30 Serkan Aykut Samsunspor 1999-00

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

MLS Results on Halloween


Happy Halloween!  (Sorry, I'm a couple days late on this due to some health issues at TB11 HQ.  Hopefully you all had a better weekend than I did)

There have now been five playoff games on 10/31 in the history of MLS. Here are the results of those games along with the goal scorers.

October 31, 1999

Conference Final

Dallas Burn 1-2 Los Angeles Galaxy

Dallas Goal
Ariel Graziani 75'

Los Angeles Goals
Mauricio Cienfuegos 39'
Ezra Hendrickson 90'


October 31, 1999

Conference Final

Columbus Crew 1-2 DC United

Columbus Goal
Jeff Cunningham 76'

DC United Goals
Jaime Moreno 15'
Ben Olsen 72'


October 31, 2004

Conference SemiFinals

New England Revolution 1-1 Columbus Crew
New England Advanced with 2-1 aggregate score

New England Goal
Twellman 81'

Columbus Goal
Edson Buddle 90+2'



October 31, 2009

Conference SemiFinals

Columbus Crew 0-1 Real Salt Lake

Real Salt Lake Goal
Robbie Findley '88


October 31, 2010

Conference SemiFinals

Los Angelese Galaxy 1-0 Seattle Sounders

Los Angeles Goal
Edson Buddle 38'



Image from flickr