How tech is changing up the football analysis game

Watching a football match is quite the thrill. The intensity of the game, the energy of the crowd, the cheers and curses when a player scores – or misses – a goal are all part of the experience. The excitement is palpable whether you’re in a stadium or watching the game at home.

And that’s only half the fun. When the match is over, football fans often engage in discussions about how the game unfolded, trying to analyze how the footballers played, the tactics used, and why the teams performed the way they did.

Fans also watch match analysis videos on YouTube and read commentaries about the game to gain deeper perspectives into the sport – and sometimes to comfort themselves by understanding why their favorite team lost.

Indonesian soccer fans / Photo credit: Ariff Ahmad Tajuddin.

Traditionally, match analysis has been a manual process. Coaches and analysts, as well as fervent fans, would record matches and replay them, breaking down the different sections of the game and the actions of different players, often writing down observations with pen and paper.

However, technology has changed the way people understand and analyze the sport, and Bundesliga, Germany’s primary football league, is a prime example of this in action.

Deeper insights, faster analysis

“Analysis has always incorporated data, but what has changed over the past years is the availability, quantity, and quality of data,” says Andreas Heyden, CEO of digital sports and executive vice president of digital innovations at the Deutsche Fussball Liga Group, which runs Bundesliga.

In Heyden’s view, data on matches may now be more accessible thanks to advances in video streaming, and new technologies have had a huge impact on how quickly that data is processed and turned into information that’s useful and relatable.

Andreas Heyden, CEO of digital sports and executive vice president of digital innovations at the Deutsche Fussball Liga Group / Photo credit: Bundesliga

“Technology brought speed into the process,” he explains. “During a football match, about 3.6 million data points are collected, and by applying algorithms and AI, we can evaluate the data within seconds and compare it with past matches in order to generate insights.”

Bundesliga, for one, is tapping into emerging technology such as AI and machine learning in order to give fans access to greater information about games and their favorite teams. Working with Amazon Web Services (AWS), the league rolled out its Bundesliga Match Facts in early 2020. These are analyses of games, usually distilled into bite-sized videos that highlight key information about what happened in the match.

Bundesliga Match Facts are streamed as part of game broadcasts and can be accessed via Bundesliga’s mobile app.

Facts of the match

At present, fans can access six types of statistics through Match Facts, covering information such as the amount of pressure a player is put under, the probability of a successful goal, the different zones on the field that teams may attack from, and the positions that players typically take in games.

According to Heyden, Bundesliga Match Facts are created through a combination of advanced recording technology and artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities. Previously, fans would only be able to access statistics and analyses after a match had already taken place. But by working with AWS, Bundesliga’s system is able to create these insights in near real time.

“Each Bundesliga stadium is equipped with up to 20 cameras for automatic optical tracking of player and ball positions, and human annotators categorize and supplement the recorded events with additional situation-specific information,” Heyden explains. “Eventually, all the raw match data is ingested into the system on AWS’ platform, where they are processed in order to create the Match Facts for end users.”

Goal probability, for example, is calculated through machine learning algorithms that have been trained on years of past footage and can predict the likelihood of a goal’s success based on the player’s position on the pitch, the angle of the kick, and other factors.

For a fan, this could be a comfort when a player misses a crucial goal – seeing a low goal probability would mean that the odds were likely stacked against the footballer.

Another Match Fact takes advantage of Bundesliga’s extensive camera network to highlight where all players are positioned on the pitch on average, allowing fans to understand changes in play and how events on the pitch – such as a goal – can change a team’s tactics.

Using the statistics, fans can also examine a team’s attacking zone. Bundesliga Match Facts splits the area in front of the opposing team’s goal into four areas, which helps viewers gain an understanding of the approach a team takes when attacking based on where they score goals from.

This data can be especially insightful for highly anticipated matches like the upcoming game between FC Bayern Munchen and RB Leipzig, which has been eagerly anticipated by fans.

“Both teams are well-known for putting much emphasis on their attack, so the Average Positions Match Fact will give a good indicator of whether they’re sticking to these tactics or if they’ll change tactics to be more defensive or aggressive,” Heyden says. “It will be interesting to see the average positions of both teams in comparison [with each other] and in certain phases, such as in the very beginning, after scoring a goal, or in a final offensive push.”

Beyond the pitch

So far, Match Facts has received positive response from all the stakeholders involved in the league.

“Clubs are interested to see how these Match Facts can explain their tactics and match plans, journalists are interested in the informative value of the data as well as in the technical process, and fans value the additional insights offered in the Bundesliga app,” says Heyden.

Bundesliga’s efforts to enhance fan experience aren’t going to stop at its Match Facts, either. The league is looking into tapping into new technologies to explore different areas, such as personalized content, virtual and mixed reality, 5G, and esports – its fantasy football league, the Virtual Bundesliga, saw 130,000 participants in the last season.

Ultimately, what the league wants to do is to enhance the football experience for everyone.

“Innovation and technological enhancement can only emerge if there is a clear and understandable benefit for the sport itself, for fans, clubs, or media partners,” Heyden concludes. “That is what we’re focused on.”

Bundesliga International is a full subsidiary of the Deutsche Fussball Liga responsible for the internationalization of the Bundesliga that invests in innovation with a fan-centric approach.

Learn more about its Match Facts here.

This content was produced by Tech in Asia Studios, which connects brands with Asia’s tech community. Learn more about partnering with Tech in Asia Studios.