Geocaching: Summer 2019

This summer, I found 17 caches in 5 states and 2 foreign countries, which made it my busiest season than last summer (which was more than twice as busy, so I'm still not at my old pace. First, I found 3 caches on a June visit to England, including my first from June 2009 (185th hidden month). No caches in July, but on a drive from California in August, I found caches in Imperial County, California, Yuma County, Arizona, and Maricopa County, Arizona (Counties 91, 92 and 93).

Returning to the East Coast, I was first-to-find on one in Maryland (FTF #21, 186th month).

The blank log on my FTF.

I also found one in Virginia for International Geocaching Day (63rd souvenir).

I found two in Canada, including one from June 2019 (187th hidden month).

Me at Canadian Virtual Geocache

I found another one in Maryland, then headed to Wisconsin for my last six finds of the summer. I added Columbia, Sauk, Iowa, Lafayette, and Green Counties for Counties 94-98. I also added May 2004,  August 2010, April 2019 and July 2019 for Months 188-191.

So I added 7 months, while 3 new ones appeared, for a net +4, and down to 42 missing. I was at 41 last summer, so I haven't been keeping pace for the last year.

Scotland's UEFA Coefficient: 2019/20 Group Stage Preview

We have group stage! For two clubs!
🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆
Just like last year!

I included Greece and Cyprus in this, not because they are in Scotland's "neighborhood", but because under the new 2021/22 system, 15th place is what is needed to get 2 clubs in the Champions League and the other clubs in the Europa League (instead of the new "Europa League 2"). That's pretty much out of reach. I guess it matters if they get to 17th to see if the Premiership champions enter in the first or second round of the Champions League, but that seems small potatoes.

Playoff-Round Review

Celtic won the home leg 2-0 before dominating AIK in the away leg 4-1 for a convincing 0.5 points for the coefficient.

Rangers had a scoreless draw away, and was heading into extra time with the same scoreline until they pulled out a 1-0 win over Legia Warsaw. 0.375 for the coefficient.

Scotland stays in 19th place, but more importantly has two clubs alive.

Group-Stage Preview

Celtic (Elo 1595) got drawn with Lazio (Elo 1672), Rennes (Elo 1641) and Cluj (Elo 1574). Remember, Cluj knocked them out of the Champions League.

Rangers (Elo 1542) ended up in a group with Porto (Elo 1809), Young Boys (Elo 1669) and Feyenoord (Elo 1587).

Here we switch to the Fivethirtyeight ratings, because they give match-by-match predictions for the group stages. For reference, the ratings are:

• Celtic 66.1
• Lazio 69.9
• Rennes 60.9
• Cluj 45.3
• Rangers 61.6
• Porto 78.4
• Young Boys 72.0
• Feyenoord 57.8

So clearly the Fivethirtyeight model likes the Scottish clubs more than Clubelo does.

In fact, they give Celtic a 66% chance of making it out of the group stage, and Rangers a 35% shot.

What we can do, though is translate the match-by-match win/draw probabilities into an expected number of points for Scotland's coefficient. The expected number of wins is about 4.6, with about 2.9 draws, giving roughly 3 more points for the coefficient, bringing it up to 7.5. That is usually a top 10 coefficient, which would demonstrate that Scotland is truly on its way back.

In fact, we can do something similar for all the nations in the 15-22 range to project the post-group stage standings. (No countries are expected to drop into or out of this range. The projections are:

• 15. Cyprus 26.67
• 16. Greece 26.1
• 17. Scotland 25.62
• 18. Serbia 25.33
• 19. Croatia 24.98
• 20. Switzerland 24.05
• 21. Norway 22.33
• 22. Sweden 22.17

2020/21 Sneak Peak

Since Scotland is unlikely to move into 15th place this year, let's look at the race as it is likely to stand next year (which, I remind you, affects the 2022/23 leagues.)

Scotland starts barely below 15th. If we go a step further and add the expected points from the group stage, we see:

• 14. Scotland 22.62
• 15. Denmark 22.03
• 16. Serbia 21.13
• 17. Greece 20.7
• 18. Croatia 20.48
• 19. Czechia 20.17

(I skipped Ukraine because they will probably pick up a bunch of points in the group stage.)

So over five years ago, I started wondering about the then-Celtic manager's complaint that, "It is stupid the Scottish coefficient is not regarded as good enough." And next year, the Scottish clubs should be perfectly placed to do something about it...to take effect in 2022.