Gulati's "Operation Latino"

File this under one of those things you always assumed was happening, but feel a bit better actually knowing it is. ESPN's ran an article by Andrea Canales outlining how Major League Soccer (MLS) hopes to bring more Hispanic players into the league and the U.S. Men's National Team. There are some decent quotes in there from players - Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan - on the familiar issue of the expense of club soccer.

But, for me, the key quote comes from Sunil Gulati, the daddy of the outreach program, in which he looks at the mathematics of the situation:

"My statistics training, and nothing else -- tells me that if your player pool is 100 million instead of 60 million, you've got a better chance of finding five good players. Very simplistic data analysis tells me that Hispanics play the game far more often, like the game more often, are playing it more times, more often and are passionate about it at younger ages and therefore the likelihood is that if you can figure out a way to get them into programs which generally they have been underrepresented in, we have a better chance."

Ask a math major a question, you get a math major kind of answer. Still, the point about the playing pool seems sound. It's a good thing to work on; let's hope it pans out.

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