Over the past several months, in addition to tracking actions such as passes and interceptions, we have also been adding location data to as many USWNT and NWSL 2016 matches as we can. The process for how that works is explained here, but here’s what it ends up looking like on the match’s actions spreadsheet (note the “poss.location” and “def.location” columns) for the USA-Germany SheBelieves Cup match:
The values in the “poss.location” and “def.location” columns (as well as the “poss.play.destination” column, which are blank here) represent the location of the player from the “possessing” team, based on splitting up the field into different zones as shown here. In the series of event shown above, play is shown moving from Babett Peter in the defensive middle third’s right wing, back to Almuth Schult in the defensive third’s center, and then all the way to the attacking right third where Anja Mittag attempts a side pass that is recovered by Morgan Brian in her own 18-yard box. Also logged is the location of defenders doing certain defensive actions, such as applying pressure onto a pass (as Alex Morgan did) or engaging in an aerial duel with the possessing team (as Crystal Dunn did).
As you can imagine, analyzing something like this, especially over the course of an entire match, is best done in a two-dimensional format. There’s only so many different stats tables you can make before you eventually need to put this on a heat map, like this!
I created heat maps like the one above for these eight 2016 USWNT matches for which we currently have location data:
- USA-Ireland (1/23/16 – International Friendly)
- USA-Costa Rica (2/10/16 – 2016 Olympic CONCACAF Qualifiers)
- USA-Mexico (2/13/16 – 2016 Olympic CONCACAF Qualifiers)
- USA-Canada (2/21/16 – 2016 Olympic CONCACAF Qualifiers)
- USA-England (3/3/16 – 2016 SheBelieves Cup)
- USA-France (3/6/16 – 2016 SheBelieves Cup)
- USA-Germany (3/9/16 – 2016 SheBelieves Cup)
- USA-Colombia (4/6/16 – International Friendly)
The heat maps were created with Excel and can be downloaded here (Click on “View Raw to download).
There’s a heat map for each match in the second sheet of the Excel workbook. Currently, the heat maps only depicts completed passes that were made from within each zone. To change the player the heat map is depicting, just change the name of the player in the cell below where it says “Enter name here”.
Next to each heat map is a big table of stats and player info, which is where the heat map is getting its data. Don’t change any of this! Unless you really, really know what you’re doing. Make sure the player name you type in for a heat map matches the name of the player in that heat map’s adjacent stats table.
Worst comes to worst and you mess something up, just re-download the Excel workbook from the GitHub repo.
This is still a work in progress that I figured out over the course of a night. Way more than just passes can be put on this heat map, and we also have location data for more than just USWNT matches (we also have NWSL 2016 matches!). For now, though, this works.
If you run into any issues, send me a tweet at @WoSoStats or email me at wosostats.team@gmail.com.
We need volunteers!
If you made it this far, maybe you’re willing to help us log even more data! We are always in need of more volunteers to help us log match actions and location data for women’s soccer matches. Without the help of fans volunteering their time for this project, none of this data is possible. No experience is necessary, just a willingness to learn. Read more about how to help here: https://wosostats.wordpress.com/how-to-help/
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