This is a new blog called Soccermetrics.  The objective of this blog is to consider problems in applied mathematics and statistics that have applications toward a better understanding of soccer.  These applications range from a macro level (team performance, comparative performance of national leagues) to a micro level (player performance and evaluation, influence of formations/strategies, indicators of future success). 

I'm the proprietor of a soccer blog called HexagonalBlog, which covers the sport in the CONCACAF region (North & Central America and the Caribbean).  Last year I devised a coefficient formula, similar to that used by UEFA, to rank the leagues and teams performing in CONCACAF's top club competition.  I wrote a longish piece on the growing influence of statistical analysis in soccer and my impressions as to future directions.  I have a few ideas that I've tossed around in my head, but my other blog wasn't the right venue to present them.  I hope this blog will allow me to formulate and discuss these different problems and possible directions for research and implementation. 

My credentials:  I have a Bachelor's degree from Georgia Institute of Technology, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University, all in Aerospace Engineering (it's called Aeronautics/Astronautics at Stanford, but they're all the same).  I started out as an aerodynamicist and have expertise with computational and experimental work, but I also have experience as a controls systems engineer (which I do in my current job).  My work and research interests are in fluid mechanics (experimental and computational), optimal control system design, and statistical analysis.  In essence, I just really like mathematics and physics, which have applications for a wide range of fields.  I am a researcher at heart, so I think about these problems in soccer from that perspective. 

It's my desire that this blog will attract other researchers in this field, as well as hobbyists and geeky football fans like myself!  I look forward to learning from my readers, and I hope to make some contributions to this growing field.

(Oh, I should mention that, being American, I use the word 'soccer' instead of 'football'.  I'll use the two words interchangeably here, but I thought I'd let readers know.)