Advanced football analytics: building and applying a pitch control model in python.

Laurie describes how to build your own pitch control module in python and demonstrates how it can be used to evaluate a player's passing options using tracking and event data.

Pitch control measures the probability that a team will retain possession of the ball if they pass it to another location on the field. It can be used to evaluate passing options for a player, and quantify the probability of success.

[sandeepsmatharu]

Please can you link to the first and second video?

[andystillwell]

This is the code

#!/usr/bin/env python3
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
"""
Created on Mon Apr 13 11:34:26 2020
Script for lesson 6 of "Friends of Tracking" #FoT
"""

import Metrica_IO as mio
import Metrica_Viz as mviz
import Metrica_Velocities as mvel
import Metrica_PitchControl as mpc
import numpy as np

# set up initial path to data
DATADIR =
game_id = 2 # let's look at sample match 2

# read in the event data
events = mio.read_event_data(DATADIR, game_id)

[raedos]

Thank you so much for this great tutorial!! Just one thing isnt clear to me, if we assume that players always run at 5m/s, why do we also have an acceleration variable?

[vannino]

Hi, that was interesting, thanks for sharing. One question: how long would it take to compute probability of pitch control for a large interval of time, like an entire half, to then be able to watch it as a video?


Thanks again for sharing your knowledge.

[Albyedw]

Is the probability of an interception only calculated at the target location or is the probability of the ball being intercepted before it reaches its target location also calculated?

[andystillwell]

Hi, trying to use the code but keep having this error?

[zhenli]

ValueError: `axis` must be fewer than the number of dimensions (1)
this erro occured when it goes to reverse the direction of play, and it point to erro in " second_half_idx = team.Period.idxmax(2)" this line. could anyone help me with it?

[andystillwell]

Python 3.7.6 (default, Jan 8 2020, 20:23:39) [MSC v.1916 64 bit (AMD64)]
Type "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

IPython 7.12.0 -- An enhanced Interactive Python.

DATADIR =

game_id = 2 # let's look at sample match 2

events = mio.read_event_data(DATADIR, game_id)
Traceback (most recent call last):

File "<ipython-input-3-bc1e623e588f>", line 1, in <module>
events = mio.read_event_data(DATADIR, game_id)

NameError: name 'mio' is not defined

[lukagoalvic]

does anyone have a solution for the homework?