[jmorrison]

I am a longtime amateur player, and a youth club coach of about 15 years, having assistant coached a US National Youth Futsal champion team. (I also played pickup after work with PG in Cambridge Back In The Day - I wonder if he still plays?) I would be cautious, however, in generalizing the article's first major point (the game as a simulation) from elite players to garden-variety players. Elite players must, of necessity, maintain and adhere to a perhaps game-specific strategy during the organized chaos of a match. I find, as a coach (vs player), without the distraction of a tired body, tired mind, and somebody trying to kick me, that it is much easier to keep this strategy at the forefront of my mind. My skills are also not so good that they require little conscious thought. So I think an elite player (as I am not) may, in fact, benefit by acting as a coach in these games. The second major point is about data influencing the real game. This is undoubtedly true. Soccer is a very mathematical, probabilistic game at heart, and there are many readily available resources for the technically inclined soccer enthusiast. I would recommen

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-numbers-game-chris-ander...

to start. I also have a small number of articles I found interesting on my G+ soccer page

https://plus.google.com/u/0/101713908985994656356