We talked Soccernomics, La Liga vs EPL,  Soccer Analytics, Euro 2012 and Soccer in USA

Agenda

1. La Roja Selections Round 1  - Lots of arguing on this one

2. CdR final preview - who wins this?

3. La Liga wrap-up

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1. Atleti beats Athletic to win the Europa League

2. Relegation battle

3. Unai goes to Russia

4. Zaragoza is out of Administration!!

5. Financial woes of big private firms in Spain

We hope you enjoy this podcast.

1. Real Madrid, the new champions

2. Athletic vs Atleti Europa League final

3. Relegation battle and the battle for the European spots. We hope you enjoy this podcast. Please do write us your feedback

1. Intro

2. What is your impression of the season far:

3. What do you expect from both coaches in the clasico line-up - formations, surprises, players etc.

4. 3 key players in your side & the opposition (matchups)

5. If RM win Liga & Barça win Champions, do the fans of each team consider it a successful season?

6. Will Mou &/or Pep leave their job at the end of the season? If either of them do, who do you expect to replace them?

7. Predictions for the Clasico, Liga & CL

Listeners, please bear with us, the abrupt ending at the end of the podcast. We tried our best but couldnt fix the issue.

1. Intro, how they got into following la liga and built the site

2. Title race getting closer; Can barca pull it off
3.  CL race/talk
4.  Europa League Talk: Who is going to win Europa League?
4b 5/8 teams in Europe from Spain, what does that say about the league?
4c 752M owed to the tax man what does that say about the league?
5. 3d party ownership becoming very big in liga
6 Who do you think is going to leave their club this summer? Name two or three (Transfer talk)
> 7. Predictions for league cl relegation Europa league etc

Agenda

1. How do u rate the Betis-Sevilla rivalry?

2. Analyzing the streaky nature of the season of Betis

3. The atmosphere at Real Betis – Real Madrid

4. Can Betis stay up?

5. What are the changes and new players/canteranos you might see next few years?       – Pozuelo    – Vadillo    – Carlos García    – Sergio Rodriguez

6. Real Betis finances

7. Ticket prices, kick-offs and other La Liga issues.

We chatted about the MLS, the recent win of US over Italy, the upcoming Euro 2012, SPain’s chances and some La Liga topics. Enjoy the great insights of Alexi. You may give him feedback directly at @AlexiLalas or  leave a comment here.

Forzafutbol thanks Alexi for spending time to do this interview.

Duration - 20 min

Agenda

1. Growth of MLS in the past 10 years 2. Can you compare the usage of analytics during your playing career to nowadays? 3. What is the best way to bridge the gap between how the coaches scheme & gameplan for games and the numbers and stats that the analytics geeks produce? 4. Favorite team outside of US? 5. Who are you rooting for in Euro 2012 6. Do you watch spanish football? 7. if yes, which is your favorite 8. What do you think La Liga needs to do get the better audience in the US? 9. Cristano vs Messi 10. Real Madrid vs Barça 11. Mourinho vs Pep Guardiola

On today´s episode of Forza Futbol we have Graham Hunter back on with us to talk about his recently published book Barça: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World from BackPage Press Limited. We talk about Cruyff´s years at Barcelona as a player and his subsequent return as coach of the Dream Team. We follow Joan Laporta´s rise, Ronaldinho´s glory and his surprising role as mentor to Lionel Messi, and the machinations that oversaw the managerial change from Frank Rijkaard to favorite son Pep Guardiola.

Agenda

1. The Cinderella story of Mirandes 2. Barça - Valencia: Valencia’s trouble with lack of creativity in the midfield 3. Barça X Athletic Copa final 4. The Striker dilemma for Spain - What if Villa cant make it? 5. The woes of Sevilla. Can Michel save them? 6. Preciado gone. Can Sporting survive? 7. Are there any other coaches on the chopping block before the end of the season?

We welcome back Eduardo Alvarez of ESPNSoccernet.com to do a La Liga round-up, the transfer window happenings and much more. Eduardo writes the weekly quiniela column on ESPNSoccernet.com and contributes for Radio Marca of Spain and blogs for Esporte Interativo of Brasil. You may follow the “only trilingual spanish football commentator” on Twitter at @EdAlvarezSpain

Agenda :

0. Transfer window deals - best & worst 1. The state of La Liga. Do you feel the league is less competitive? Why? 2. The race for 3rd and 4th. Are Valencia, Athletic, Atletico and Malaga Champions League material? 3. What do you think will happen at Zaragoza? 4. The story of Mirandes 5. Are you surprised by Barça’s away form and why? 6. Do you think Mou will stay another year at Madrid? 7. Who is the most improved player for you this year? 8. Who is the revelation of the year? 9. How are you Quinela predictions coming along?

And a lot more interesting stuff.

Thanks

1. Segunda vs Primera - what is the difference?

2. Candidates for promotion to Primera

3. The excitement brought out by the play-off system for the last promotion spot.

4. What are the suprise teams in Segunda this season?

5. The biggest disappointments of this season.

6. The story of Mirandes - Pablo Infante, the Pichichi of Copa del Rey.

7. What are the biggest problems in Segunda division?

8. Lack of exposure to the Segunda clubs beyond Spain

9.  Arch’s candidates for relegation and promotion

10. Copa del Rey recap

Duration 55 min

1. How did you get into stats?

2. Which stats are intrinsic to La Liga

3. Impact of Barça & Madrid’s numbers on overall stats of La Liga

4. How do you differentitate between good stats and manipulated stats?

5. How and where do you get your data from?

6. Whar are thats stats you look at to rate GKs, defenders. midfielders and strikers?

7. Why is rating midfielders so hard?

8. Who is the best crosser in La Liga (you will be surprised by the answer.)

9. Do Premier League teams rely more on stats analysis than La Liga teams?

10. MediaPro has its own package called MediaCoach which they are trying to make all teams use it

11. Coaches tapes

12. Best performers of La Liga - GKs, defenders, midfielders, strikers

13. La Liga talk & predictions

7.

1. Villarreal - 17 min

• Season
• Financial results
• Molina hire
• Valencia game  - positives, negatives
• Molina’s challenges

2. Financial state of La Liga - 16 min

• No money across the league for winter transfer window
• Overall revenues of all teams except Real Madrid and FC Barcelona are flat - about 7 teams including Champions League and Europa League entrants Valencia, Villarreal, Atlético, Sevilla have no sponsors
• New government and changes to the tax laws : “Beckham law” going away?
• Who will be the most affected by changes to the Beckham law?
• Will there be an exodus of Spanish stars to other leagues like EPL?
• Teams under tremendous pressure to pay wages on time for players
• The different strategies of survival employed by La Liga clubs

3. The mysterious Doyen Group and other similar 3rd party ownership schemes - 14 min

• Increasing influence of Super agents like Jorge Mendes
• Lack of oversight on the part of LFP to oversee these
• Granada’s curious relationship with Udinese
• The limitations and disadvantages of the multitude of the provincial clubs in Spain
• Is SAD (Sociedad Anonima Deportiva aka Limited Liability Co) the root cause

4. Valencia’s deal with Bankia -13 min

• How does the deal work?
• Does this attract more foreign owners or investors to buy them?
• What does a foreign investment group look for in a club to make an investment decision?

We hope you enjoy this podcast. You may find and archive of all our podcasts at iTunes or  Podbean