Germany pass-networks (against Australia) – 2010 FIFA World Cup
Germany won its first game in 2010 FIFA World Cup against Australia 4:0.
Inspired by what FAS.research did in visualizing the pass-network of soccer matches (there are a number of matches from the 2010 FIFA World Cup as well), here is the Germany pass-network against Australia.
Here are the number of passes completed by each German players:
- Philipp LAHM – 71 pass(es)
- Arne FRIEDRICH – 68 pass(es)
- Per MERTESACKER – 64 pass(es)
- Bastian SCHWEINSTEIGER – 54 pass(es)
- Holger BADSTUBER – 47 pass(es)
- Sami KHEDIRA – 41 pass(es)
- Thomas MUELLER – 34 pass(es)
- Manuel NEUER – 24 pass(es)
- Mesut OEZIL – 24 pass(es)
- Lukas PODOLSKI – 15 pass(es)
- Miroslav KLOSE – 7 pass(es)
- CACAU – 5 pass(es)
- Mario GOMEZ – 1 pass(es)
- Marko MARIN – 1 pass(es)
The defenders contributed 250 out of 456 passes (54.8%)!
And the following are the number of passes received by each player:
- Arne FRIEDRICH – receive 63 pass(es)
- Per MERTESACKER – receive 60 pass(es)
- Bastian SCHWEINSTEIGER – receive 59 pass(es)
- Philipp LAHM – receive 58 pass(es)
- Thomas MUELLER – receive 42 pass(es)
- Sami KHEDIRA – receive 40 pass(es)
- Lukas PODOLSKI – receive 34 pass(es)
- Holger BADSTUBER – receive 33 pass(es)
- Mesut OEZIL – receive 31 pass(es)
- Miroslav KLOSE – receive 14 pass(es)
- Manuel NEUER – receive 12 pass(es)
- CACAU – receive 10 pass(es)
- Mario GOMEZ – receive 6 pass(es)
- Marko MARIN – receive 4 pass(es)
Passes to defenders 45.9%, midfielders (Schweinsteiger, Khedira, Oezil and Gomez) 29.2%, forwards (Klose, Cacau, Podolski, Marin and Mueller) 22.3%.
Source of inspiration: FAS Research
R, Scientometrics, Knowledge Management, and Social Network Analysis 
Rnjoyed seeing your soccer map. I have a similar one (from the web) of the (infamous) game between Italy and France a few years ago. You could show the two-way passing using the mapping program at csiss.org/spatial tools/Flow mapper
Waldo Tobler
July 5, 2010 at 11:34 am
Thanks for the pointer Prof Tobler, will give it a try.
Mathias
July 6, 2010 at 1:56 pm
Cool stuff.
You may want to replace Badstuber with Boateng. Badstuber didn’t play.
David
July 5, 2010 at 4:02 pm
Thanks David. I believe Boateng only started to play after the Serbia match.
Mathias
July 6, 2010 at 1:58 pm
You’re right my bad. Should read better next time, thought it was Argentina.
David
July 6, 2010 at 2:08 pm
Nice use of SNA and thanks for the comments! Have you used this as a predictive tool in soccer? E.g. matching centrality measures with success in the field?
verkostoanatomia
July 10, 2010 at 6:04 pm
I have not really used it for predictive tool, more to find out who the key players are, whether a team is over-dependent to a single player. But, thanks for the idea, will think about it.
Mathias
July 11, 2010 at 10:03 pm
Another interesting approach could be the structural hole theory: where are the gaps and who is bridging them?
verkostoanatomia
July 12, 2010 at 2:58 pm
[…] 3. Using network theory to analyze passing patterns in football matches. […]
god cries orange tears « orgtheory.net
July 12, 2010 at 11:36 am
This is amazing, how can I learn more about it.
I am a goalkeeping coach.
Dan
September 19, 2010 at 7:14 pm
Hi Dan, to construct the pass network like this one, we need the passing distribution data among the players in a match. Something like what is available here: http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/statistics/players/player=196752/passingdistribution.html
If you go to the URL, you will see the total number of “passes to” and “passes from” in all games that the players played in the WC 2010, if you click on the + sign, you will see the detailed number of passes made for each match.
Once we have the passing distribution data, it is fairly easy to generate the network map, we only need to put them into an adjacency matrix as input to the software.
If you have the passing distribution data, I could guide you in generating the network map. Drop me an email at mathias.dharmawirya {at} gmail.com
Mathias
September 25, 2010 at 8:04 am