Yesterday's Chelsea-Wigan match in the Premier League was remarkable, but not for the 6-0 scoreline, another heavy concession by Wigan or Didier Drogba's hat-trick of assists. It was remarkable for the fact that there were no corner kicks taken. According to Opta Sports, this is the first time this has happened since the company started […]
You might have seen what is typically known in the UK as a "results matrix", which is the collection of all results during a league season. Here is one example for the Premier League; here is another for La Liga. It is an elegant and compact way to present results in leagues where all teams […]
This is a busy week for everyone doing analytics work. People are rushing to complete their final analyses of the 32 finalists, make tournament predictions, and whatever software tools they need to carry out their tasks. Here is what I'm working on this week: Debugging the data entry forms that implement the Football Match Result […]
To continue the Opta mini-theme, here is a video that explains how they compile their match statistics and how they are preparing for the World Cup this summer. (I tried to embed it into this post, but it wouldn't work for me.) One thing that struck me when viewing that video was how labor-intensive the […]
It's not quite football/soccer related, but it is interesting to see what's going on in other sports. This article in Popular Mechanics (hat-tip to Glenn Reynolds) discusses new metrics that are being developed in baseball thanks to video-tracking technology. By tracking the action of runners, fielders, and catchers, it is possible to quantify elements of […]
Recently, I've spent a considerable amount of time discussing team and player metrics on this site, as well as some work on certain tournament formats, but it is clear that I need a better approach to collecting and storing match data. I've been able to demonstrate the efficacy of some of these metrics by collecting […]
I've been busy with work and then travel over the past two days, but tonight I was able to get to work on a list of tables and fields that I think would be relevant for a soccer match database. There might be other fields that other users would put in for other competitions, but […]
I haven't been on the site in a while, and for good reason. Work has picked up (thankfully!) and I've gotten bogged down with papers to read and analysis questions that need answering. I am realizing just how lazy I really am, which is funny to read from someone with three university degrees. (Or maybe […]
A few weeks ago I added a link on the blogroll for Prozone, which is a company that produces a software package that does performance analysis for soccer and other sports. I remember reading something about the company when it was founded, but I didn't remember their initial software being so sophisticated. At any rate, […]
