Podcast Review

This week I listened to the ESPN Five Thirty Eight Podcast by Joe Sykes and Neil Payne. In this episode they discussed the failure of the English national football team and how that can be traced back to one individual called Charles Reep.

The program started like a history documentary as it travelled back in time to the 1950’s via some sound effects and old commentary from the era. The pinnacle point in question was the Match of the Century where England, the creators of football, took on Hungary, arguably the finest football team in the world.

England were built up to be complacent and they were humiliated 6-3 on home soil. The Magical Magyars went on to be known as The Golden Team while England went soul searching.

The podcast offers various explanations as to why England lost. Reep believed that a team stand the best chance of winning if they make only “3 passes” in a move. This lead to the development of the long ball tactic.

However, Reep’s logic was flawed as he looked at percentages rather than probability. Ultimately I thought the show was interesting at it explored different concepts and also offered some detailed analysis which it made compelling to listen to.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-one-mans-bad-math-helped-ruin-decades-of-english-soccer/