It's coming home, etc
It's clear to me now that England are going to win the World Cup next summer. Are you ready for the love? We "won" the Ashes, we won the Rugby world cup, we're going to win the footie.
I don't write much about football, as you know, although I know more about it than all of you put together, so listen very carefully.
It's a fact that England always perform at their most abject just before they have a good run in a tournament. It's called "knowing when to peak," and it is a science. Sports science has advanced to the point that it's possible to scientifically get things right at just the right time. We live in the era of the unbeatables, the Lance Armstrongs, the Roger Federers, the Michael Schumackers, the Australians being way better at sports than they ever shold be, given the size of their population.
Dr Ken Ericson, the England manager, is actually a professor of mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is on sabbatical as England manager, and also works as a consultant for the new TV drama Numb3rs. His field is chaos or complexity theory, in particular the study of so-called Strange Attractors.
He became interested, in the 1980s, in the way in which certain mathematical formulae yielded results which appeared to be random, but in fact - when plotted 3 dimensionally - circled around a fixed area of what is called Phase Space. To cut a long story short (the book will be out soon), Ericson realised he could treat a given goal (world cup victory) as a strange attractor, and work backwards to the maths that would lead a team to that goal at just the right moment.
It's no good, in other words, being good enough to win the world cup when the tournament is not, in fact, on. This is what happened when we tonked the Germans 5 - 1. With strange attractors, the results can appear to be very far away from the desired goal. A long, long way away. But a couple more iterations of the formula, and: bang. Right on target.
Losing to Denmark and Northern Ireland, who didn't even qualify, was all part of the cunning plan - exactly on target. Ken Ericson's apparently ridiculous tactic, of changing the entire team at half time in friendly games, is actually mathematical brilliance in action.
Mark my words. Put 10 pence on England to win the world cup now. The odds are 8-1 (Skybet, bet direct) or 7-1 (bluesq). You will win 80p.
I don't write much about football, as you know, although I know more about it than all of you put together, so listen very carefully.
It's a fact that England always perform at their most abject just before they have a good run in a tournament. It's called "knowing when to peak," and it is a science. Sports science has advanced to the point that it's possible to scientifically get things right at just the right time. We live in the era of the unbeatables, the Lance Armstrongs, the Roger Federers, the Michael Schumackers, the Australians being way better at sports than they ever shold be, given the size of their population.
Dr Ken Ericson, the England manager, is actually a professor of mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is on sabbatical as England manager, and also works as a consultant for the new TV drama Numb3rs. His field is chaos or complexity theory, in particular the study of so-called Strange Attractors.
He became interested, in the 1980s, in the way in which certain mathematical formulae yielded results which appeared to be random, but in fact - when plotted 3 dimensionally - circled around a fixed area of what is called Phase Space. To cut a long story short (the book will be out soon), Ericson realised he could treat a given goal (world cup victory) as a strange attractor, and work backwards to the maths that would lead a team to that goal at just the right moment.
It's no good, in other words, being good enough to win the world cup when the tournament is not, in fact, on. This is what happened when we tonked the Germans 5 - 1. With strange attractors, the results can appear to be very far away from the desired goal. A long, long way away. But a couple more iterations of the formula, and: bang. Right on target.
Losing to Denmark and Northern Ireland, who didn't even qualify, was all part of the cunning plan - exactly on target. Ken Ericson's apparently ridiculous tactic, of changing the entire team at half time in friendly games, is actually mathematical brilliance in action.
Mark my words. Put 10 pence on England to win the world cup now. The odds are 8-1 (Skybet, bet direct) or 7-1 (bluesq). You will win 80p.
posted by Anonymous at
Thursday, October 13, 2005
1 Comments:
mo'75.
it's just a shame that people like gerrard and beckham are sacred cows who must always play when fit or not suspended (which thankfully isn't as much as it could be). england play much better without them. owen too should be put out to grass; he's got no pace anymore and no power in his shooting. yes i know he scored one last night and set up the other.
By
roy, at 2:43 am
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