AUTHOR=Beernaerts Jasper , De Baets Bernard , Lenoir Matthieu , Van de Weghe Nico 

TITLE=Qualitative Team Formation Analysis in Football: A Case Study of the 2018 FIFA World Cup

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.863216

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2022.863216

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<p>In this paper, we explore the use of the Static Qualitative Trajectory Calculus (QTC<sub>S</sub>), a qualitative spatiotemporal method based on the QTC, for the analysis of team formations in football. While methods for team formation analysis in sports are predominantly quantitative in nature, QTC<sub>S</sub> enables the comparison of team formations by describing the relative positions between players in a qualitative manner, which is more related to the way players position themselves on the field. QTC<sub>S</sub> has the potential to allow to monitor to what extent a football team plays according to a coach’s predetermined formation. When applied to multiple matches of one team, the method can contribute to the definition of the playing style of a team. We present an experiment aimed at identifying the team formation played by Belgian national football team during the 2018 FIFA World Cup held in France.</p>