Searching for a Unique Style in Soccer Laszlo Gyarmati, Haewoon Kwak Pablo Rodriguez Qatar Computing Research Institute Telefonica Research {lgyarmati,hkwak}@qf.org.qa
[email protected] ABSTRACT strategies was limited due to technological reasons. Nowa- Is it possible to have a unique, recognizable style in soccer days, technological advancements of the last decade allow nowadays? We address this question by proposing a method team staffs to view any first division soccer game on a short to quantify the motif characteristics of soccer teams based notice; hence, it seems to be challenging to have and sustain on their pass networks. We introduce the the concept of a unique playing characteristic—which is additionally suc- “flow motifs” to characterize the statistically significant pass cessful too—in the global soccer space. Does such a unique, sequence patterns. It extends the idea of the network motifs, recognizable style exist in soccer nowadays? highly significant subgraphs that usually consists of three or The identification and understanding of the style of soccer four nodes. The analysis of the motifs in the pass networks teams have practical impacts apart from the esthetics of the allows us to compare and differentiate the styles of differ- game. The players of a team should obey the style (i.e., ent teams. Although most teams tend to apply homogenous strategy) of the team to maximize the team’s chance to win. style, surprisingly, a unique strategy of soccer exists. Specif- Hence, it is crucial to raise youngsters and to sign players ically, FC Barcelona’s famous tiki-taka does not consist of who are capable of playing according to the style of the team.