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Using Network Theory to Analyze Soccer

It is no secret to any soccer fan that FC Barcelona, the famed Spanish club, has its own unique style of play. However, identifying that style is not as simple. Luckily researchers at the Qatar Computing Research Institute have have helped make the distinction through network graphs.

These network theorists look specifically to the passes between players to analyze different teams playing strategies. The graphs work by labeling players as nodes and the passes between them as edges. The article explains that “[t]here are five different patterns that a three-pass sequence can take: ABAB, ABAC, ABCA, ABCB, and ABCD. For example, the sequence ABAB occurs if player 1 passes to player 2, who passes back to player 1 who passes to player 2 again.” The researchers then analyzed the number of times each team used each specific sequence. The results found that “Barcelona clearly use more ABAB and ABCB sequences while using significantly fewer ABCA and ABCD sequences.”

Reading through the article I was surprised to learn that one of the first concepts we learned in the class, graph theory, could be put to use in such a creative way. The researchers did take their research strategies one step further past what we have covered in class this far. While they did make graphs using networks and edges similar to the way we did for a topic such as social networks they took they analyzed the graphs in a way I had not considered. Instead of just observing the shape of the graph and its structure they compiled many graphs for many particular sets and then compared the frequency of graphs in sets between each other. The article adds that this type of analysis may prove useful in other networks such as food webs and metabolic networks. If so it’ll be something not only network theorists can celebrate but soccer fans too.

How Network Theory Is Revealing Previously Unknown Patterns in Sports

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