Soccer America Online has issued a challenge to soccer fans across the web. Click here and match wits with a soccer 'super computer,' by predicting the performance of the U.S. national team in their crucial World Cup qualifier against Jamaica, Friday October 3.
The Soccer America Online Challenge, a contest devised by Soccer America in conjunction with Softsport Inc., allows online fans to choose their top five USA players and predict their performance rating. Fans' predictions will be matched against the actual game analysis of a computer program designed by international coaching analyst Zvi Friedman to weigh every pass and count all the corner kicks, goals, turnovers, shots, and mistakes in a ninety-minute game.
The result is a grade for every player on the field – and the kind of objective game analysis that coaches around the world have been looking for. U.S. national team coaches past and present have utilized this technology; Bora Milutinovic is a big fan of Friedman's player assessments and current U.S. coach Steve Sampson reportedly consults the program during national team games. F.I.F.A. now features Softsport game breakdowns on their web site, and Major League Soccer's L.A. Galaxy uses the program as the basis for a ''fantasy soccer'' contest held at every home game.
Now this technology is available to fans of the U.S. national team and Soccer America Online in an interactive contest format. To play, fans must log onto Soccer America Online to register and submit their predictions by 6:30 p.m. ET October 3. – exactly one hour before the game kicks off. Complete contest details are also available at the Soccer America Online web site.
A ''Soccer America FANATIC'' gift pack will be awarded to the contestant whose predictions most closely match the computer analysis of the game, while the top 250 challengers will receive a ''Soccer America FANATIC'' pin. Contest results will be posted online and the names of the top challengers will be listed in Soccer America, America's number one soccer magazine.
Soccer America Online offers a broad range of features to its users, including continually updated headline news, chat areas, interactive interviews with stars, links to key sites, archives and much more. The web site debuted in December of 1995 and is now one of the world's most popular soccer-specific web sites.
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