What a blast it has been here in Boston at the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference (aka Dork-a-palooza) so far. I've had a chance to meet fantasy sports professionals (most notably Matthew Berry, The Talented Mr. Roto), soccer analysts and writers (Alexi Lalas and Paul Carr of ESPN, Chris Anderson, and many others), and some actual club employees (including seeing David Gill of Manchester United speak and talking with scouts from Chelsea and Hanover). All that and I still have a day left of the conference including sessions focused entirely on fantasy sports and soccer analytics this afternoon.
Even better than me getting to meet some of the people whose work I admire has been the fact that they have all been approachable and more than willing to talk soccer with someone they've never met before.
As the live chat goes, I'll be participating for the Liverpool vs. Arsenal match and then as possible between sessions once the conference starts back up.
My line-up is as follows:
Schwarzer
Kompany, Riise, Taiwo
Silva, Sigurdsson, Taarabt, Dempsey, Beausejour
Aguero, Pogrebnyak
Next week's line-up of matches looks like this with Everton and Liverpool doubling up on their matches and therefore being the most likely BD candidates:
| DATE | HOME | AWAY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat, Mar 10 | Chelsea | v | Stoke |
| Sat, Mar 10 | Wolves | v | Blackburn |
| Sat, Mar 10 | Bolton | v | QPR |
| Sat, Mar 10 | Sunderland | v | Liverpool |
| Sat, Mar 10 | Aston Villa | v | Fulham |
| Sat, Mar 10 | Everton | v | Tottenham |
| Sun, Mar 11 | Man Utd | v | West Brom |
| Sun, Mar 11 | Swansea | v | Man City |
| Sun, Mar 11 | Norwich | v | Wigan |
| Mon, Mar 12 | Arsenal | v | Newcastle |
| Tue, Mar 13 | Liverpool | v | Everton |