11,911 research outputs found
On the development of a soccer player performance rating system for the English premier league
The EA Sports Player Performance Index is a rating system for soccer players used in the top two tiers of
soccer in England—the Premier League and the Championship. Its development was a collaboration among
professional soccer leagues, a news media association, and academia. In this paper, we describe the index and
its construction. The novelty of the index lies in its attempts to rate all players using a single score, regardless
of their playing specialty, based on player contributions to winning performances. As one might expect, players
from leading teams lead the index, although surprises happen
Spatial movement pattern recognition in soccer based on relative player movements
Knowledge of spatial movement patterns in soccer occurring on a regular basis can give a soccer coach, analyst or reporter insights in the playing style or tactics of a group of players or team. Furthermore, it can support a coach to better prepare for a soccer match by analysing (trained) movement patterns of both his own as well as opponent players. We explore the use of the Qualitative Trajectory Calculus (QTC), a spatiotemporal qualitative calculus describing the relative movement between objects, for spatial movement pattern recognition of players movements in soccer. The proposed method allows for the recognition of spatial movement patterns that occur on different parts of the field and/or at different spatial scales. Furthermore, the Levenshtein distance metric supports the recognition of similar movements that occur at different speeds and enables the comparison of movements that have different temporal lengths. We first present the basics of the calculus, and subsequently illustrate its applicability with a real soccer case. To that end, we present a situation where a user chooses the movements of two players during 20 seconds of a real soccer match of a 2016-2017 professional soccer competition as a reference fragment. Following a pattern matching procedure, we describe all other fragments with QTC and calculate their distance with the QTC representation of the reference fragment. The top-k most similar fragments of the same match are presented and validated by means of a duo-trio test. The analyses show the potential of QTC for spatial movement pattern recognition in soccer
Country-Specific Goal-Scoring in the "Dying Seconds" of International Football Matches
This paper investigates whether there are country-specific characteristics in goal-scoring in the final stage of important international football matches. We examine goal-scoring from 1960 onwards in full 'A' international matches of six national teams: Belgium, Brazil, England, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. We analyze qualifying matches for the European Championship and World Cup and the matches at the final tournaments of these two events, the Copa America and the Confederations Cup. We find that the national teams of Germany, England and the Netherlands are more likely than the three other national teams to score in the last minute – including stoppage time. However, for Germans this comes at a cost. Germany is more likely to concede a goal in the dying seconds of a match than other countries. During our period of analysis, the national teams of Brazil and Italy only conceded one goal in the last minute. As to winning penalty shootouts, Germany outperforms the other five countries.football, goal-scoring, national team matches, full ‘A’ international matches
Country-Specific Goal-Scoring in the “Dying Seconds” of International Football Matches
This paper investigates whether there are country-specific characteristics in goalscoring in the final stage of important international football matches. We examine goal-scoring from 1960 onwards in full `A' international matches of six national teams: Belgium, Brazil, England, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. We analyze qualifying matches for the European Championship and World Cup and the matches at the final tournaments of these two events, the Copa America and the Confederations Cup. We find that the national teams of Germany, England and the Netherlands are more likely than the three other national teams to score in the last minute { including stoppage time. However, for Germans this comes at a cost. Germany is more likely to concede a goal in the dying seconds of a match than other countries. During our period of analysis, the national teams of Brazil and Italy only conceded one goal in the last minute. As to winning penalty shootouts, Germany outperforms the other five countries.football;goal-scoring;national team matches;full `A' international matches
The impact of injury on match running performance following the return to competitive match-play over two consecutive seasons in elite European soccer players
Based on the assessment and diagnosis, the rest period following a moderate/severe injury may lead to deconditioning for the injured player and therefore an association with a prolonged rehabilitation, re-conditioning
and return to sport is observed post-injury. The aim of the present study was to assess the impact of all injuries
on match running performance following the return to competitive match-play over two consecutive seasons in
elite European soccer players. A retrospective analysis was conducted utilizing data related to a player’s injury
and match running performance. A club physiotherapist consistently recorded availability and injury data in a
standardized format. Linear mixed modelling analysis revealed no difference between PRE and POST1, POST2,
and POST3 for total distance, running distance, high-intensity distance, and sprint distance (all p >0.05).
Although, maximum speed was significantly (p<0.05) lower in POST1 and POST2 when compared to PRE, in
both cases with a large (ES = 1.88) effect. No significant difference was observed for maximum speed between
PRE and POST3 (p=0.07). There were very low correlations between the number of days absent and changes in
maximum speed between POST1 and PRE (r = 0.09, 95% CI -0.42 to 0.56), and POST2 and PRE (r = 0.10, 95%
CI -0.42 to 0.57), respectively. In conclusion, no variation in distance variables were found regardless of one,
two or three matches post-injury compared to pre-injury status. Moreover, maximum speed was lower during the
first three matches post-injury, although the mean value was slightly lower. Finally, a low correlation between
absent days and maximum speed loss between pre-injury and following one and two matches were foun
The relationship between VO2 max and 1200m shuttle run performance in elite academy football players
Purpose: To investigate the relationship between VO2
max
and performance in the 1200m shuttle run test in elite
Premier League academy football players.
Methods: Seventeen male professional outfield football
players completed a laboratory based incremental treadmill
test to establish vVO2
max and a field based 1200m shuttle
test to estimate velocity at MAS. During the pre-season
period a linear speed phase consisting of twice weekly PS
exposures were conducted and each player’s PS reached
during this period was established. Body composition was
measured using DEXA.
Results: Examining the standardized (scaled) coefficients,
ASR (7.373) had the largest effect on VO2
max followed by
PS (-5.568), MAS (3.604), Body Fat (-0.285) and Lean Mass
(-0.185).The results suggest that the model is a significantly
better predictor than a model that constantly predicts the
mean VO2max value (F = 3.422, p = 0.041).
Conclusions: The MAS values obtained from the
1200m shuttle test may be an appropriate assessment to
consider when monitoring and individualizing high-intensity
performance rather than the generic threshold of 5.5 m/s.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Designing multiplayer games to facilitate emergent social behaviours online
This paper discusses an exploratory case study of the design of games that facilitate spontaneous social interaction and group behaviours among distributed individuals, based largely on symbolic presence 'state' changes. We present the principles guiding the design of our game environment: presence as a symbolic phenomenon, the importance of good visualization and the potential for spontaneous self-organization among groups of people. Our game environment, comprising a family of multiplayer 'bumper-car' style games, is described, followed by a discussion of lessons learned from observing users of the environment. Finally, we reconsider and extend our design principles in light of our observations
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