Qualitative Team Formation Analysis in Football: A Case Study of the 2018 FIFA World Cup

Jasper Beernaerts; Bernard De Baets; Matthieu Lenoir; Nico Van de Weghe

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.863216

Qualitative Team Formation Analysis in Football: A Case Study of the 2018 FIFA World Cup

Front Psychol. 2022 Jul 8:13:863216. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.863216. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Jasper Beernaerts¹, Bernard De Baets², Matthieu Lenoir³, Nico Van de Weghe¹

Affiliations

¹ CartoGIS, Department of Geography, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
² KERMIT, Department of Data Analysis and Mathematical Modelling, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
³ Department of Movement and Sports Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.

Abstract

In this paper, we explore the use of the Static Qualitative Trajectory Calculus (QTC_S), a qualitative spatiotemporal method based on the QTC, for the analysis of team formations in football. While methods for team formation analysis in sports are predominantly quantitative in nature, QTC_S enables the comparison of team formations by describing the relative positions between players in a qualitative manner, which is more related to the way players position themselves on the field. QTC_S has the potential to allow to monitor to what extent a football team plays according to a coach's predetermined formation. When applied to multiple matches of one team, the method can contribute to the definition of the playing style of a team. We present an experiment aimed at identifying the team formation played by Belgian national football team during the 2018 FIFA World Cup held in France.

Keywords: QTC; World Cup; football; team behavior; team formation analysis.