Soccer Rants

Ball Possession:

One of the stats that they put on soccer telecasts is percentage of ball possession.  I find the stat to be kinda annoying and kinda interesting, but what really got me was questioning how a team like FC Barcelona can consistently have 70% ball possession or above.  Really?  So I did a little research and I found out a lot more about this term "ball possession" from OptaSports as follows:

"Opta now record possession in a football match by means of an automated calculation based on the number of passes that a team has in a game."… 
"During the game, the passes for each team are totalled up and then each team's total is divided by the game total to produce a percentage figure which shows the percentage of the game that each team has accrued in possession of the ball. "

Aha, so that explains how Barcelona puts up these insane ball possession numbers.  Barcelona are the kings of short, precise and concise passing which is what Opta records ultimately as 'ball possession'.  Consequently, 'ball possession' is a misnomer.  How about some full disclosure?!  And why not just call it what it is, which is simply a stat of passes made by each team.

Corner Kicks:

Perhaps I am just ignorant but way too many corner kicks look helter-skelter to me and that just doesn't make any sense.  Here you have a real scoring opportunity in the opponents' end of the field and you would think that putting the ball in the back of their net would be a high priority.  If soccer was run like the NFL, there most definitely would be a playbook and that is just what soccer needs.  Perhaps these plays are well disguised and I'm just ignorant of that, but based on the low percentage of goals scored from corner kicks, that doesn't appear to be the case. 

Further to this point, it has been shown that a " ‘critical delivery area’ between the 6-yard box and the penalty spot has been identified" (Hughes and Petit, 2001; Taylor et al., 2005) so why not try to place the ball into that critical delivery area each and every time.

Throw-ins:

Throw-ins are fairly innocuous, until you are down by your oppositions' area of the field and then they can become something more.  I refer specifically to Rory Delap and his amazing throws into the penalty area from the sideline.  Obviously, something like this can only work under certain conditions:

1.      Must have a nice run-up on the pitch

2.      Must be close enough to the penalty box that the throw can be even attempted

3.      Must be able to make the throw

I really don't know how difficult it is, to develop the skillset that Rory Delap has.  Perhaps he is a freak of nature, perhaps not.  But having said this, it would behoove a coach to at least test his players for their long throw ability and if any of those players have that potential to develop it. 

Football Penalty Flag

Football is America's most popular sport with powerhouse TV ratings but why is it that the powers-to-be can't see the obvious and make a small tweak to the current usage of penalty flags to make the game much more enjoyable and of more interest.

That is to say, why is it in football that when an official throws the penalty flag it’s always yellow?  You would think that by now they would have some innovations to this aging and inadequate tradition.  Hey, how about this?  Why not one color flag for defense (let’s leave that yellow) and another color flag for an offensive infraction (let’s make that blue).  There, that solves the problem.  Two penalty flags--simple. Yes, it's a bit more complicated for the zebra-stripes but hey, the officials can practice this new procedure in the preseason and iron out all the kinks so to speak on the gridiron.

Will mistakes be made?  No doubt, but that can be rectified.  If the wrong flag is thrown down, the offending official should follow that up by throwing down the correct flag and then picking up the wrongly used one.  Having corrected this mistake in an expeditious manner, or, as in the much more likely case, having thrown the correct flag down to begin with should leave no doubt in the fan's mind, on which side the infraction will be called.  This means that by the time that official turns his mike on to announce to the crowd what the infraction was we will already know which team/side it was on.  That’s a really good thing.   How good?

Well, the most important thing to remember is that the game is for the fans.  It is much more satisfying to be able to enjoy the moment as opposed to worrying as to whether the penalty flag negates the play.  Especially, as every real fan knows, when it’s a big, big play.  Is there anything more exciting than when your team scores a critical touchdown?  Why mitigate that excitement?  It's not necessary and this simple adjustment will take care of that issue. 

So that we will find that in the future when the offensive player scores a touchdown or gains some serious yardage and you see a yellow flag it won’t stop the celebration because you will know that that flag is on the defense.  If, however, the flag is blue, you can suspect the very worst and not waste your time with meaningless and senseless celebrations. 

Just to make a final point, it's good toremember that other officials in other sports carry more than one color.  Think soccer. Yellow means caution and red means ejection. Simple.  Straightforward.  So it’s not like it hasn’t been done before.  Just as the yellow flag was a quantum leap as it replaced the inadequate whistle or horn, so will two flags be superior to the current usage of just one, and the game, the excitement, the passion, will all be the better for it.

TSA Blows

The following incident occurred to me on June 16, 2011.

On June 16, 2011 I was in the security line at LAX.  As far as I could determine, each passenger had to pass through the Backscatter X-Ray Technology machine.  (This is the machine in which you have to place your feet on the foot images and then have to put your arms in the air with your fingers of each hand nearly touching each other for 10 seconds.)  The TSA representative made it clear that you were suppose to have no objects in your pants or clothes, so my wallet, boarding pass, carry-on luggage were not in my possession, but had instead gone through the security scanner machine.  I had on no belt, no jewelry, and no shoes.  I was wearing a dress shirt and slacks.

I was surprised when I was taken aside after going through the X-Ray technology machine.  The TSA agent next to me had an earpiece and a small microphone.  It was apparent that he was getting instructions from some other TSA representative.  I was then told that they needed to pat down my buttocks which I allowed.  I was further told that I had “four anomalies in my groin area”.  This statement I found to be absurd as the specificity of the anomalies seemed completely out of place and the “reading” of my x-ray was a false flag, a smokescreen, or some misguided or misjudged attempt to fluster me.  Next, the TSA agent took a flat white special paper with an arrow at the top of it and ran it over both of my hands, front and back.  I was not told what this was for but I assumed it was for a check for explosive debris or drugs being on my fingers. 

Next I was told that they needed to do a “private screening” of me because of the anomalies.  I was not; at that point, even aware that private screenings were conducted for US citizens traveling domestically and was frankly puzzled by the “private” part which I considered to be not in my best interests.  However, having taking a position of both being stoic and following Matthew 5:39 “resist not evil” I followed the TSA agent who now had a partner to a private room that was just past the security area.  Before leaving, I was asked which bins were mine and the other TSA agent took those with him and brought them to the room. 

Inside the small room, there was a table that the bins were placed on.  I was told that they were going to close the door in order to conduct my “private screening”.  I was further told by the TSA agent how he would touch my private parts, which was with his palm facing towards me.  The TSA agent proceeded to pat me down over my entire body which surprised me as I was told the “four anomalies were in my groin area.”   I was told to raise my hands, but midway through this pat down he told me to put my arms down “as I was not under arrest”.  That statement was strange, as by definition a TSA agent is not a law enforcement agent.  The TSA agent had on light blue gloves which eventually found their way to my genital area which was firmly brushed.  I was not groped or fondled.  He then took another white special paper with an arrow at the top of it and ran it over both of his hands and left the room. 

This left me alone with the other TSA agent who I had designated as ‘good cop’ because of his desire to make small talk with me.  I assumed that the room was bugged but I did not know if it was. 

Eventually, the other TSA agent returned, he told me that I could leave.  I was never given the results of my “tests”.  I was never told as to why they were unable to find the “four anomalies in my groin area”.  I was never apologized to. 

I collected my things and left.  It was my belief that they weren’t checking for explosives but that they were instead checking for drug residue with the swabbing.  It is also my belief that “four anomalies in my groin area” was a deliberate false statement and in fact, a code for me to be treated the way that I was dealt with.

Since this episode, I have gone to the TSA site and clearly the TSA did not follow its own rules.  To wit:

1.     It’s my option to go to a private room or not.  That option was never given to me.

2.     It’s my option to have a witness to the “private screening”—that option was never given to me.  Instead, I had two male TSA agents in the same room, interrogating me.

3.     I was swabbed w. the white paper device not once but twice. “Under the Constitution, searches in airports are only for the purpose of protecting the security of airline transportation; they are not general law enforcement stops.”

All of this that I went through was for nothing.  I had nothing on my person and this was simply a violation of my rights, a sign of the decay of American ideals and dreams, and the use of arbitrary power directed at me from an unidentified person with what appears to be immunity for the decisions that are made from their remote room and in which I as a person have no right to confront or question. 

These are the signs of a police state.

Fraternal Twins from Mixed Race Couples

Fraternal Twins from Mixed Race Couples

Only in recent times, and specifically after the Civil Rights era of the 1960s, has miscegenation, or the intermixing of different races in marriage, become generally socially accepted within America.  This means, that now more than ever, there are more mixed race relations of all races within America, and these relations will produce offspring who would logically be considered to be of mixed race and those children will go on to have children of their own and so forth.  We can see this demonstrated in census and other government surveys to which more and more people embrace and identify themselves as being of "mixed race".

The skin color, the overall look, height, and facial characteristics that children will receive from their birth parents is dependent upon the mixture of the genes from each parent, to which those percentages are not the same from one birth to another, so that while brothers and sisters will have the exact same parents, their looks will vary, sometimes quite considerably from child to child.  Obviously then, In situations, in which a mixed couple procreates, the extremes of difference in look will be far greater in degree than from those that are married that are closer in complexion and/or of the same race to begin with. 

In America, there is a historic legacy of prejudice against minorities, in which in particular those of the black race have been treated poorly, in fact, a significant percentage of the blacks here in America can trace their ancestry back to the time of their ancestor's enslavement in America.  This type of historic prejudice against blacks is not the type of color prejudice that can simply disappear over a short period of time, and although it has been minimized significantly since the Civil Rights era, it still exists in this country today, despite whatever laws and Constitutional protections that are granted to all citizens, regardless of race, creed, or former servitude.

The thing about fraternal twins from mixed race couples that makes this area of social interaction, so intriguing, is the fact that these twins are born at the same time from the same parents and live in the same household.  This would imply that no matter the difference in skin color or general look that they will have, that all things being equal, if there was no skin prejudice or racial prejudice in America, whether one twin was lighter or more Caucasian looking, would not make any material difference in these twin's overall success and social acceptance in America, to which their accomplishments or lack thereof in aggregate would be approximately the same. 

This means that the study of fraternal twins of mixed race couples, especially in instances to which the twins have meaningful pigmentation differences in their complexion, should be looked carefully at, as the results of such a study would say a lot as to whether America is a country that lives up to its bold words of freedom and equality for all, or rather if America, mouths the words, but fails significantly in living up to that legacy.

The experience of America to date, which while making meaningful progress in racial harmony and equality since the Civil Rights era, is that far too often, people are categorized based upon the color of their skin, rather than the content of their character, and further to this, that this prejudice begins quite early and is systemic, persistent, prevalent, and insidious.