As gigabytes of data flow from field to fingertips, the technological divide has been closing between teams at the World Cup.
While the focus has been on the debut of video assistant referees, less obvious technical advances have been at work and the coaches have control over this area, at least.
No longer are the flashiest gizmos to trace player movements and gather data the preserve of the best-resourced nations. All World Cup finalists have had an array of electronic performance and tracking systems made available to them by FIFA.
“We pay great attention to these tools,” Poland coach Adam Nawalka said. “Statistics play an important role for us. We analyze our strength and weaknesses.”
The enhanced tech at the teams’ disposal came after FIFA approved the use of hand-held electronic and communications equipment in the technical area for tactical and coaching purposes.
That allows live conversations between the coaches on the bench and analysts in the stands, a change from the 2014 World Cup, when the information gathered from player and ball-tracking systems could not be transmitted in real time from the tribune.
“It’s the first time that they can communicate during the match,” FIFA head of technology Johannes Holzmueller said. “We provide the basic and most important metrics to the teams to be analyzed at the analysis desk.”
The key performance indicators fed by tracking cameras and satellites provide another perspective when coaches make judgements on substitutions or tactical switches if gaps exposed on the field are identified.
“These tools are very practical, they give us analysis, it’s very positive,” Colombia coach Jose Pekerman said. “They complement the tools we already have.”
Player welfare can also be enhanced with tools to assess injuries in real time allowed for use by medics at this World Cup. Footage of incidents can be evaluated to supplement any on-field diagnosis.
A second medic “can review very clearly, very concretely what happened on the field, what the doctor sitting on the bench perhaps could not see,” FIFA medical committee chairman Michel D’Hooghe said.
However, the technology is moving too quickly for some coaches.
“Football is evolving and these tools help us on the tactical and physiological side,” Senegal coach Aliou Cisse said. “We do look at it with my staff, but it doesn’t really have an impact on my decisionmaking.”
Panama coach Hernan Dario Gomez has reviewed the data feeds, but the team have been eliminated in the group stage after facing superior opponents.
“This is obviously very important information, but not more important than the actual players,” Gomez said.
The data is still reliant the quality of analysts interpreting it.
“You can have millions of data points, but what are you doing with it?” Holzmueller said. “At the end even if you’re not such a rich country you could have a very, very clever good guy who is the analyst who could get probably more out of it than a country of 20 analysts.”
FIFA’s technical staff will continue to innovate, but artificial intelligence is not taking over. For some time, at least.
“People think now it’s all driven by computers,” Holzmueller said. “We don’t want that at FIFA.”
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