A spectral analysis of team dynamics and tactics in Brazilian football

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to characterise the total space covered and the distances between players within teams over ten Brazilian First Division Championship matches. Filmed recordings, combined with a tracking system, were used to obtain the trajectories of the players (n = 277), before and after half-time. The team surface area (the area of the convex hull formed by the positions of the players) and spread (the Frobenius norm of the distance-between-player matrix) were calculated as functions of time. A Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) was applied to each time series. The median frequency was then calculated. The results of the surface area time series median frequencies for the first half (0.63 ± 0.10 cycles · min⁻¹) were significantly greater (P < 0.01) than the second-half values (0.47 ± 0.14 cycles · min⁻¹). Similarly, the spread variable median frequencies for the first half (0.60 ± 0.14 cycles · min⁻¹) were significantly greater (P < 0.01) than the second-half values (0.46 ± 0.16 cycles · min⁻¹). The median frequencies allowed the characterisation of the time series oscillations that represent the speed at which players distribute and then compact their team formation during a match. This analysis can provide insights that allow coaches to better control the team organisation on the pitch.

Comparison of tactical principles efficiency among soccer players from different game positions

“…Moreover, in less complex situations than in traditional games, players tend to commit a smaller number of execution errors, attaining better performance scores [24]. the way ball possession switches between teams during a soccer match reflects the dynamics of the situations in which there is constant inversion between attack and defence [25]. these characteristics, when compared with the results of the present study, reveal that players of different positions and tactical functions may have similar performance owing to different imposed requirements [22].…”

Influencia de la longitud del campo en los comportamientos inter e intra -equipo en jóvenes jugadores de fútbol

“…The effective playing area was represented by the CH formed by the positions of the players in each team (Moura et al, 2013). SI was calculated as the mean distance between each player and the centroid of their team, which was calculated as the average position of all outfield players on the team.…”

Preliminary results on organization on the court, physical and technical performance of Brazilian professional futsal players: comparison between friendly pre-season and official match

“…The 2D data were smoothed using a ButterWorth third-order low pass digital filter with a selected cut-off frequency of 0.4 Hz (Bueno et al, 2014;Vieira et al, 2015). In order to determine the experimental error using the automatic tracking model and filter parameters for data treatment, an experimental protocol was executed where one of the participants was instructed to run for a known distance on the game court (Misuta, 2004;Moura et al, 2013).…”

“…Images were synchronized based on common events that occurred in overlapped areas of camera view, such as an instance where an athlete takes the first ball kick in the match or when the ball hits the floor (Bueno et al, 2014;Moura et al, 2013). The segmentation process was then executed based on a specific algorithm ) that consists of morphological filtering (Figueroa, Leite, & Barros, 2006a) to separate the elements of interest (i.e.…”