(Logos courtesy of SportTechie and N3XT Sports, photo by Alex Morton/Getty Images)
Four-and-a-half years from now, the world’s top soccer countries will land in the desert ready to contest Qatar 2022. In that tiny Middle Eastern nation they will endure winter temperatures that may soar higher than 90ºF in the first World Cup to be played in November and December. And then, another 3.5 years further on, the soccer circus will descend on North America for the 23rd running of the tournament.
After that, the World Cup might be heading to Argentina, or England, or Morocco. (Several countries have expressed an interest, but official bids have not yet been submitted.) What does seem certain, though, is that as the pace of sports technology continues to accelerate, the game played at those future tournaments will be very different to the one played this past summer.
Throughout Russia 2018, SportTechie and N3XT Sports reached out to experts from around the world of soccer to learn about how technology is already impacting soccer, and to find out what coming innovations and changes that group is most excited about. (If you would like to add your thoughts, you can contribute here.) Now, we attempt to tie those different opinions together to predict what lies next for the beautiful game.
Data is already big, but its impact on soccer will get bigger still. According to Ravi Ramineni, director of soccer analytics for the Seattle Sounders, information from GPS tracking has helped to improve and optimize training, reducing soft-tissue and non-contact injuries.
“Data tools can allow front offices to cast a bigger net and use their resources and time more effectively to find the right players for their clubs,” explained Eric Miller, a defender at Minnesota United FC. “For technical staffs, it hopefully allows them to scout opposing teams more efficiently and hopefully draw more intelligent conclusions than the simple eye test can provide.”
The power of GPS data has been alluring enough that U.S. Soccer signed a deal in March to provide thousands of STATSports wearable devices to players across its development program. “This unique, and huge, dataset of biometric youth data will give us the opportunity to really dig into the progression of athletes over time,” explained Tyler Heaps, the manager of analytics and research at U.S. Soccer.
The American soccer federation also partnered with analytics company Opta last year to help with scouting and assessment. “We don’t have the ability to watch every game across the country,” Heaps explained. “This allows us to look at a large sample of data and sort players based on key performance indicators.”
One of the technologies that debuted at Russia 2018 was optical tracking, using ChyronHego’s TRACAB to capture data on players from cameras installed around the stadium. Ramineni believes that the information gleaned from this type of system will significantly expand soccer statistics beyond just events like goals and saves. “Optical tracking data in games has helped enable soccer analytics to go past being just event-based. A soccer player is in contact with the ball on average less than three minutes per match. There is a lot of stuff going on off the ball and optical tracking data helps us dig deeper.”
Beyond GPS and optical tracking, there is a growing list of devices that can record physiological stats. “Wearable biometrics will enable low impact evaluation of not only player movements but also metrics such as heart rate variability, sweat rate and composition, core temperature, respiration rate and content, and general stress levels of the players” noted Darren Burgess, the director of high performance at Arsenal. The potential for that data to inform and influence training is large, but so are concerns over its more personal nature.
“We have to convince players and explain the advantages of doing the right daily measurements. Some players might refuse it because they can think the staff are entering in their private life,” explained Francisco Forner, a strength and conditioning coach. “Our job is to convince them about the importance of measuring the data. All the information has the unique goals of getting their maximum performance level”
Bob Foose, the executive director of the MLS Players Association, takes a different view, advocating for caution over the implementation of these devices. “Biometric technologies represent a huge opportunity and a series of potential risks for our players,” he explained. “The potential benefits—health monitoring, training insights, proprietary data—are all impactful for players on and off the field, but they also raise important questions about player rights and privacy.”
Another potential drawback from the growing number of data sources is the sheer amount of information that coaches and trainers will need to handle. “We will be able to measure all or almost all factors that have influence in performance thanks to new technologies. The most important challenge is going to be choosing the most relevant information, and not getting lost in the data.” Forner explained.
The goal, according to Dimitri Farbos, the assistant strength and conditioning coach for Olympique Lyonnais, is increasing “precision in the individualization of training.” But while implementing a certain base level of individualization may be relatively easy, mining the data to develop truly customized programs with greater levels of detail requires a significant investment of time and resources.
There is also a significant danger of trying to read too deeply into the data that we can now record. “Tracking data will help create an indirect connection between training and some important variables during games,” explained Xavi Reche, a sports scientist at FC Barcelona. “But trying to make a relationship between external load and performance could lead to a mistake. We are far from understanding this reality, performance is multi-factorial and tracking data is just one factor.”
The wrong conclusions could be drawn, or the numbers simply might not be relevant to the true nature of soccer. “Football is a collective sport, based on talent, and this type of information is insufficient to answer the real questions [it is] intended to answer.” argued Raúl Peláez, the head of sport technology, innovation, and analysis for FC Barcelona. “How to measure synergies among teammates. How to understand the process of the game. Everything related to tactics, and how properties and characteristics of the game emerge.”
The answer to the overburdening wealth of data and the risk of misconstruing statistics might be found in artificial intelligence and machine learning. AI can help turn data into actionable insights. “All that individual and collective information that we collect at every training session and match are helping us to create algorithms to take decisions modifying the training process,” explained Jordi García, the high performance and fitness coach at Guangzhou Evergrande FC.
Martí Matabosch, the strength and conditioning coach for FC Kairat, noted the importance, though, of having sports specialists advising the computer developers who are building these algorithms and programs. “The user (physical coaches) should be able to introduce the variables that he wants to register.”
Pedro Marques, the technical director of S.L. Benfica, predicts that if developers can get the application of AI right, the technology may have a huge and positive influence on the work of soccer coaches and staff, for example, in automating video scouting. “It will massively impact analysts’ daily workflows, allowing them to finally be able to really focus more time on analysis than on video cutting.”
Another new technology application at this summer’s World Cup was the video assistant referee. VAR helped on-field officials get calls correct, allowing them to review video clips of action on a video screen on the sideline. It had a series of successes in Russia, including overturning a Neymar penalty, but not everyone was happy with its implementation. The Royal Moroccan Football Federation sent a letter of appeal to FIFA advocating for fairer application of the technology.
Simone Ripamonti, an accredited soccer strength and conditioning coach, believes that the way VAR interrupted the games outweighed its potential. “Personally, the introduction of the VAR system doesn’t have a positive influence upon the match as it stops the flow of the game—players stand around with danger of losing focus and “being in the moment”—and the referee’s decision, in the end, is still very subjective.”
Perhaps, more than VAR, the video technology that might offer the biggest impact on soccer is VR. Officials in the NFL have been experimenting with using virtual reality for training, and the same would be possible in soccer. Players and coaches could also use VR, or its cousin, augmented reality, to gain insights. “Instead of showing a wide-angle video of what happened on a play,” Ramineni explained, “players will be able to ‘re-live’ the play through AR and explain better what they saw and how they made the decision they made in a game.”
However, Marques doesn’t feel that virtual approaches to training are a good substitute for the real world. “I believe that football first of all needs to be experienced and lived with the ball on the feet, playing out there, feeling the interactions—teammates and opposition—and looking to score goals. It’s part of the nature of the game, and we should not break that” he explained. “If we take away any of these elements we risk impoverishing the learning and training context where the players need to develop and adapt in order to perform the game we love.”
He feels similarly about the rise of videogames, too, believing they are part of the reason that young people are playing outside less. “Street soccer is disappearing,” he noted. “The impact on the current players’ creativity and adaptation is already noted at the clubs … although more than fighting this growing trend of esports, the solution on how to counter the decline of informal practice might instead rely on the virtual gaming industry, and how we can link sofa-play with new ways to promote outdoors-play”
According to Burgess, new technologies often challenge the natural instincts of experienced staff, and that can lead to a distrust of innovation. The biggest obstacle faced by those hoping to introduce more technology into soccer might be overcoming that mistrust. The future of soccer can sound either exciting or frightening, depending on your comfort levels with machines.
“The revolution will occur when we have an exact control of the load/recovery components of the player individually.” predicted Agustín Lleida, the former director of sport science for CF Pachuca. “The player [will become] like a computer that we know exactly what is the load content that the player needs to receive, at what magnitude and how much time he needs to recover.”
But regardless of any personal misgivings that coaches and players might have, that future is coming. “There aren’t people out there just blogging about the sport anymore, there are people inside the team environment on a daily basis helping make objective decisions,” Heaps explained. “You are starting to see a new wave of coaches that see this area as an opportunity to gain a competitive advantage.”
