With the US-Mexico game coming up tomorrow, I’d encourage you to take a look at some of the stuff over at American Soccer Now.  Those guys are doing consistently top-rate stuff on the Men’s National team, especially Liviu Bird. He’s released a good analysis of the upcoming game that focuses on Mexico,

and he also wrote an excellent account of the US loss to Costa Rica on Friday. Really, though, they just have lots of great content, including an argument for starting Guzan over Howard (I’m interested) and one that Bradley’s injury is a blessing in disguise (still more lemons than lemonade in my view, but worth reading nonetheless).  It’s not like you were going to get anything done at work tomorrow anyway.

And while you’re at it, I’ve collected a few interesting pieces on Arsenal written prior to their Özil transfer (which has certainly changed fans’ views since my previous post).

First up is a great article on the role of chance in Arsenal’s Champions League run by Zach Slaton (whose blog is a Beautiful Numbers game).  Even if you’re not an Arsenal fan, it’s a great read more generally on how to think about the impact of chance in football.  By the way, Slaton also had a great article on the value of Arsene Wenger in Issue Seven of The Blizzard.

Then there’s the Swiss Ramble, with an epic post on Arsenal’s finances (and who must be feeling good about his assessment that Arsenal did, now, have money to spend).

Hope that’s enough to keep you occupied.  I’d like to get a post on soccer’s low-scoring reputation out later this week (we’ll see) and some analysis of Swansea City (to show my love for all of Wales) before their Sunday game against Liverpool.  Wish me luck.