The new bridge at the WZW: a tangent from the library of the WZW via the central square (with the maypole) to the campus buildings in the northern part of the campus. (Photo: Uli Benz)
Research news - How can success in soccer be measured? With the amount of positional data available in modern soccer, this question seems particularly interesting in the run-up to a World Cup. Sports data scientist Dr. Daniel Link from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has developed a model that can be used to measure how likely a team is to score a goal during a match. Goals in soccer only provide limited information about a team's performance and the quality of its players: Goals are scored only rarely in soccer, and can come about through an individual moment of loss of concentration, while a very dominant team might simply be unlucky sometimes. Traditional indicators such as shots on goal, number of completed passes, tackle rates, team ball possession, and distances covered are widely used, especially in the media, but their significance for performance is doubtful. In the 2014 World Cup semi-final, for example, Germany had fewer shots on goal than Brazil ( 14-18 ), but hardly any observer would doubt Germany's superiority in that match ( 7-1 goals ). The book "Data Analytics in Professional Soccer" by Dr. Daniel Link posits situations that present the danger of a goal being scored as central criteria for "performance" in soccer. "In soccer, the most important thing is for a team to get the ball into the dangerous area around the goal and to prevent the opposing team from doing the same," said the scientist from the Chair of Performance Analysis and Sports Informatics at TUM.
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