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Entries from October 2009

Rest Area on the Road to South Africa

October 15th, 2009 · 51 Comments

I’m going to do this one in separate parts, because I think it’s wise to wait until the draw at the start of next week before diving into the playoff percentages in UEFA. This will also give me a few days to try out a couple of minor adjustments to help tweak things a bit. […]

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Tags: Soccer!! · South Africa 2010 · Uncategorized

A Quick Update on the “Big Favorite” Problem (e.g. Portugal vs. Malta, Slovenia vs. San Marino, etc.)

October 13th, 2009 · 26 Comments

I looked at the source data from which the ratings are derived (6,972 international matches from October 12, 2001 to October 11, 2009) and compared the predicted results in those games to the actual results. Now to fully test the system, you’d have to test it against a subset of data not used in the […]

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Tags: Soccer!! · South Africa 2010 · Uncategorized

Road to South Africa 10

October 12th, 2009 · 28 Comments

One game left in the group stages and lots of teams getting in and heading out. Who stepped on their plums, and who rose to the occasion? The updated National Team Rankings can be found here. Full qualification chances can be found here.

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Tags: Soccer!! · South Africa 2010 · Uncategorized

Update Update

October 10th, 2009 · 2 Comments

There are several games in Africa on Sunday and one in South America (though that one is meaningless). So I’ll wait for these games to be finished before running an update. Obviously there’s been a lot of qualifications and eliminations, but I’d rather not do three separate updates this week. I’ll do everything I can […]

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Tags: Soccer!! · South Africa 2010 · Uncategorized

Russia vs Germany

October 8th, 2009 · 13 Comments

So how do I predict the results of a match with these ratings? This is the huge one with two world powers vying for automatic qualification to South Africa next year. How would I sim this game? Well let’s look up what ratings we had at the last pull (they will have changed very little […]

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Tags: Soccer!! · South Africa 2010 · Uncategorized

The National Team Rating System Explanation

October 5th, 2009 · 21 Comments

Just what the hell am I doing back in the vorosmccracken.com command bunker when I’m running all of these ratings and simulations? Now I’m not going to bother pretending I know anything about the effects subtle tactical and formation changes have on the outcome of a match. That’s not what I do. I’m a numbers […]

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Tags: Soccer!! · South Africa 2010 · Uncategorized

Hopefully This Isn’t a Jinx

October 4th, 2009 · 2 Comments

I have been battling the sort of computer problems no one who does what I do should ever have to face, and it appears I may very well have stemmed the tide in my favor for the moment. I’m going to sleep in about a half an hour… …if I wake up tomorrow, power up […]

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Tags: Site Information · Soccer!! · South Africa 2010 · Uncategorized