Football

The game of football is simple. If you have got the ball, keep it within your team.

Women’s football has extraordinarily succeeded in getting the attention of fans and the mass media.

There are physical and mental limits that often prevent us from reaching our goals. Not all depends on what we do.

The educational value of sports practise depends on how the coach manages the conditions under which people learn that sport. The educational part is not the learning of techniques or tactics. Not even the physical or psychological benefits of good physical training. The only real educational part is the conditions under which the training sessions and the learning tasks are carried out.

The ability to anticipate opponent movement is essential for any speed-based sport. When fast reactions are required, if the player waits to see the ball trajectory, it will be too late. So, the art of anticipation consists of foreseeing ball trajectory from the postural cues and movements of the opponent. It is to correctly predict the direction of the game. What stands out in athletes who have the ability to frequently anticipate is their intelligence and game vision, and even their age. It seems that they think several seconds ahead compared to the rest. These kinds of interventions have been qualified by the scientific literature as acting ‘on the border of impossible’. It is about an ability that today, in elite sports, is utterly decisive.

The same question comes up when approaching the end of the season and the knock-out stage starts to decide which team goes to the next round. Is it better to play the second leg home? Some coaches and players do prefer this. They think it is easier to change a bad result when being supported by the spectators. Others prefer playing home first to get a positive result that makes them feel confident for the second leg.

Football analytics isn’t just about numbers. It is about creating the patterns of play that win matches. Here, we look at how coaches can work with data scientists to do exactly that.

As in so many other daily life activities, football also evolves. The combination of factors such as the modification of the game’s tactics and rules, use of new technologies, professionalisation of sports, or improvement in the players’ preparation has caused changes in the way of playing.

The health crisis caused by the COVID-19 has changed the daily lives of millions of people worldwide. Football is not away from this paralysis. After several months without matches, the competition returned and some changes were made: the players’ number for each game was extended, and the maximum number of substitutions was increased up to 5. Nevertheless, the biggest news is that the competition started to be held without an audience in the grandstands. What is the effect of playing behind closed doors? Is the field factor less critical when there are no fans pushing home teams?

Professional football carries a high risk of injury, especially during matches. The injury rate is 7 times higher compared to training.1 In this context, having all the players healthy and ready to compete is one of the main preparation goals in top-level football. The monthly financial cost of an injury to a player from a team that participates in the Champions League is 500,000€.