I, Jason Kuenle (not to be confused with the Jason that started this whole blog), like numbers, statistics, and logic. Often my posts here reflect that. But because these posts have elicited such comments as “this is a discussion that is most likely taking place by men with pipes and smoking jackets sitting in antique leather chairs”, “I'm not convinced that you can determine too much from stats in soccer”, and “my head hurts now”, in the future I will designate my posts of this type by starting the title “Formula XI”. They will also be tagged as “FXI”. I have gone back and tagged a couple of my previous posts that fit into this category as FXI in case any newer readers are interested in the backfile. If you have numerophobia, if you are subject to migraines, if you don’t like the style of these posts, you will now be able to avoid them.
The goal of Formula XI posts is to provide in-depth logical analysis of US Soccer, particularly for the national team. I am not anti-passion; when the US scored its first goal against Spain this summer, I literally fell out of the booth I was sitting in at the Sweetwater in St. Paul, Minnesota due to excitement (and that literally does mean literally). But, so many of the arguments on soccer websites and blogs has become so based on blind passion and opinions that there seems little room for the analysis and reasoned debate that facilitates learning. While a passionate fan base is essential for the progress of the sport here in the US, I enjoy my debates cloaked in Hugh Hefner jackets, wafting a glass of port, and engaging in the more genteel tone that commenters on Match Fit USA have generally maintained.
Perhaps there is a bit of sarcasm about the jackets and the port, but there is none surrounding my observation of the readers of this blog. I have learned a substantial amount about US soccer from the contributors and commenters on this blog. I hope that Formula XI posts can be tool for analyzing the game we love and a place to further all of our knowledge about the game in the US. I hope to learn as much from reading comments and engaging in subsequent discussion as I do from researching and writing these posts.
The first official post under this title will be up in a few hours. If you have ideas for research-based questions or analysis that you would like explored, drop a note in the comments below or shoot me an e-mail at secondhalfsub@gmail.com. Due to constraints on my time and my own research interests, I can’t promise you that I’ll be able to write on every subject, but if you’ve got a great idea, I’ll be happy to do some research and credit you with the idea. The time that it takes me to write these posts from start to finish means that there will be no schedule for when they are done, but as long as there are few if any other writers taking on these types of projects, I’ll be trying my best to fill the void.
