Includes bibliographical references (pages 325-360) and index.

Soccer for skeptics : the counter(s)-reformation -- Before the match : the logic of soccer numbers. Riding your luck ; The goal : soccer's rare beauty ; They should have bought Darren Bent -- On the pitch : soccer "intelligence" and why less can be more. Light and dark ; Piggy in the middle ; The deflation of the long ball ; Guerrilla soccer -- In the dugout : building teams, managing clubs. O! Why a soccer team is like the space shuttle ; How do you solve a problem like Megrelishvili? ; Stuffed teddy bears ; The young prince -- After the match is before the match. Life during the reformation.

Innovation is coming to soccer, and at the center of it all are the numbers - a way of thinking about the game that ignores the obvious in favor of how things actually are. In The Numbers Game, Chris Anderson, a former professional goalkeeper turned soccer statistics guru, teams up with behavioral analyst David Sally to uncover the numbers that really matter when it comes to predicting a winner. Investigating basic but profound questions - How valuable are corners? Which goal matters most? Is possession really nine-tenths of the law? How should a player's value be judged? - they deliver an incisive, revolutionary new way of watching and understanding soccer.