The Technology Game
New software is gearing up for a key role in the world’s most popular sport
Story by Ben Johnson
Photos by Zoe Deal
In the musty wooden offices of High Street Hall, Greg Brisbon, head coach for Western’s men’s soccer team, points at four pieces of paper tacked to the wall with red push pins.
“This makes my job way easier” he says.
The pages are at eye-level in the beige office. Where others might place a portrait or a motivational “hang in there” poster, Brisbon hangs detailed statistics about Western’s 0–2 loss to the University of California San Diego last November.
Squiggly graphs with titles like “Ball Possession” and “Challenges” cover most of the first sheet, just above a series of charts in tiny fonts. Another page shows a computer-generated soccer field adorned with blue and white circles to represent the average location of players.
An exhausting list of analytics dominate the final two pages representing every player on Western’s 17-man roster.
Brisbon’s makeshift wall art is the creation of an analytics company called InStat Football, who produced the information solely from game footage. After the match in November, a video of the full 90 minutes was sent to the company’s headquarters in Moscow, Russia for analysts to dissect, resulting in a 30-page document, Brisbon says.
Attaching hard numbers to soccer allows more insight into the action than ever before, meaning advances in technology have turned analytics into a major player of the “beautiful game”. World-famous leagues like La Liga in Spain, Bundesliga in Germany and the English Premier League all employ data analysts to scrutinize every aspect of play to gain a leg-up on the competition.
Colleges in the Pacific Northwest will be the next to utilize this tool. After a trial-run of InStat in the 2016 season, all men and women’s teams in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference — Western included — will use the full version of the program in the 2017–2018 season.
With this data at his disposal, Brisbon has a new way to look at his team, a new way to identify strengths and weaknesses, and a new way to coach.
Tracking the Small Stuff
Video analytics tell more than just the outcome of the game. By recording the tiniest details of the action, InStat data tells the story of how the game was played.
The statistics show that junior Stephen Jinneman, a left defender for Western, was successful in his attacking actions 71 percent of the time. In clashes for a loose ball, Jinneman was able to take control often, particularly if the challenge was in the air.
Western’s tendencies become apparent in Jinneman’s passing data. A light-green soccer field deep in the packet displays frequent passing combinations between players, illustrated by a busy web of blue circles and lines.
A line stems from the circle representing Jinneman on the left, and connects upfield to a circle representing Western midfielder Eleazar Galvan. The two passed 10 times during the match, the second most frequent combination on the team.
Observing a team through analytics is different than watching the game live because statistics can track trends like this over time, Brisbon says. By analyzing these trends, Brisbon can coach to his team’s strengths and identify weaknesses.
A Change of Pace
Before the introduction of video analytics, Brisbon spent hours watching game footage himself in a slow and tedious process. At each crucial moment of the recording, he would jot down notes to pass on to his team.
Rewind. Play. Scribble. Rewind. Play. Scribble.
Brisbon would chop up clips to send to players when he finished.
“The old way would take three times as long. It’s just much more efficient,” Brisbon says, pointing at a yellow notepad on his desk.
With analytics at his disposal this season, Brisbon can quickly recognize areas that require improvement. In turn, he will be able to work with his team on issues earlier than before.
“And the video is the best part,” he says.
Brisbon sits down at his desk and loads the InStat software, navigating to the video section of the program. A list of recordings load onto his screen, showing every pass the team attempted during the match. A box near the left of his screen reads “DIAGONAL”. He selects it. A new list populates, leaving only diagonal passes made during the game.
“Let’s look at Stephen again,” Brisbon says, as he presses play.
The clip loads. A ball falls through the sky toward Jinneman, who leans back and traps it with his chest. He settles it to his feet and rifles a pass diagonally across the field to a midfielder. The clip ends.
Each video is edited and named before it’s sent to Brisbon. With a few clicks, he can send statistics and recaps to his players every week before practice. Not only does the data help coaches, it can help players understand their impact on a game.
“Players might think they’re doing well in a game, when the numbers show otherwise,” Brisbon says. “Or maybe they think they’re not doing well, when they are. It shows proof.”
A Growing Trend
Positional data, like the statistics InStat displays, is useful because it allows coaches to answer difficult questions using technology, says Dave Tenney, high performance manager of the Seattle Sounders.
“My goal, and the ultimate holy grail in terms of soccer in terms of technology is, ‘how are you defining performance and using technology to quantify everything?’” Tenney says.
Coaches can utilize positional data to ensure their team is sticking to their assigned formation, especially as fatigue sets in. The formation, designated by the coach, is often adjusted based on opponent’s playstyle.
While these programs have been widely used in Europe, they’re just beginning to appear in Major League Soccer, Tenney says.
“It’s starting to come along. Most teams have hired video analysts that are doing different things in terms of more analytics, either in video analytics or data analytics,” Tenney says. “10 years ago it was really just the coaches who were doing the post-match analysis. The changes have been exponential.”
While Western will only use InStat for games, technology and analytics increasingly have a place in training scenarios, Tenney says.
Positional data can be derived from technology other than video recordings. During practice, training staff can use small sensors to track speed and locations of players to make sure drills and exercises are effective
“When you’re doing training sessions, you can see if you’re training what you think you’re training,” Tenney says.
Other low-profile wearable technologies like heart-rate monitors give coaches more in-depth access to the effectiveness of training. As technology becomes smaller and more versatile, Tenney foresees technology becoming more prevalent in training scenarios.
A New Tool for A New Season
The addition of instat will be a new tool in the arsenal of an organization that has recently seen success.
In 2016, Brisbon won the Great Northwest Athletic Conference co-coach of the year, and Women’s coach Travis Connell lead his team to a national championship victory without the analytics program.
Brisbon is already optimistic.
“I believe those players that really take advantage of the InStat will become more educated about the team and their individual game, “ he says.
And while it may all look the same to the spectator, rest assured, there’s some serious technology at play.
