Within three hours of the U.S. women’s national team defeating France in the World Cup quarterfinals last Friday, match data compiled by OptaPro was sent to a U.S. Soccer server, run through scripted models on the AWS cloud, and converted into an advanced analysis automatically deposited into coaches’ inboxes.
That postgame autopsy offered insights on passing networks and player spacing, among other topics, that can guide deeper video study of game trends. A separate oppositional scouting report of the United States’ semifinal opponent on Tuesday, England, was also created based on the latter’s previous World Cup matches, the SheBelieves Cup, and individual players’ participation in the English Women’s Super League.
“Somebody like Jill,” said U.S. Soccer analytics and research director Ross Moses, referring to women’s coach Jill Ellis, “she has a great appetite for this stuff. She’s really into it and has been one of the leaders in terms of taking this data and using it.”
The U.S. Soccer Federation has embraced data. In recent years, the USSF has hired more data scientists and, in 2017, it partnered with OptaPro on a three-year deal to collect and manage match data at all levels, from senior national teams on down to under-16 players.
“The federation as a whole, they’re very holistic in their approach to any decision,” said Ben Mackriell, the head of OptaPro and an EVP at its parent company, Perform Group. “One of the things that’s impressed me the most is just how well they use all of the information they have at their fingertips. They’re very hungry for data, the best quality of data.”
That effort is magnified now with the women’s team competing in the biggest tournament of its four-year cycle, the World Cup, and the men’s team in a smaller regional event, the Gold Cup. U.S. Soccer analytics and research manager Tyler Heaps is currently embedded with the women’s team in France where he has direct contact with coaches and players.
For the Women’s World Cup, the sheer volume of data could be overwhelming. FIFA has partnered with STATS to provide the SportVU optical tracking system for every match, just as it tapped ChyronHego to do the same for in-game performance data at the 2018 men’s World Cup.
Heaps and Moses understand that—no matter how an idea is derived—the information is best conveyed visually.
“It’s also reliant on us to make it as easily digestible as possible,” Moses said. “There’s ways to present these ideas in a way where you don’t even have to include a number or even mention math, right? At the end of the day, you’re coming up with a theory or a hypothesis and, once you arrive there from the data, you can pretty much tell that story with video.”
The intricacies of match tactics and strategies garner headlines, but the greater contribution of this data is in player development. More than 2,000 youth games are captured by Opta annually, spanning age-group national teams and the U.S. Development Academy system.
“It doesn’t give us the whole picture on what is happening over the course of the game, but it’s a massive supplement to the traditional scouting that is of course still at the core of talent identification,” Moses wrote in an accompanying email. “There are 20,000+ kids in the Development Academy, so it’s just not reasonable to watch hours of tape on every player. The data allows us to grade performance at scale and filter that number down and identify players who merit a longer look.”
Mackriell said that the USSF is unique in its interest “to increase not only the depth but the breadth” of its data for cultivating the best young prospects.
“They want to know what this women’s side is going to look like in five, 10 years. And they want to know where those players are going to come from,” Mackriell said, adding: “These guys are very much projecting long into the future to ensure that there’s a sustainable team and sustainable success for this group of players and for the next group.”
Moses said the aggregate data will help inform skill-acquisition benchmarks along the age curve. The longitudinal nature of this information will indicate what abilities are most predictive of long-term success. The federation also hired James Bunce as its high performance director two years ago to implement a robust sports science component to its development program.
“Maybe for the first time in soccer history,” Mackriell said, “maybe the U.S are starting to lead from the front a little bit when it comes to the academy process and the management of youth information and youth data.”