Germany wins world cup 2014

1. Germany Wins the World Cup
with Big Data
Presented by
Rosin Cherian
Sukanya Sabu

2. Summary
• In a stunning display of talent, resilience, and teamwork, Germany won the 2014
World Cup, defeating Argentina. The German team was able to use information
technology to analyze massive amounts of data about teams’ performance and then
use what it had learned to improve how it played. Each of the 32 competing 2014
World Cup teams had a dedicated video and performance analyst, but Germany
appears to have been the only one that employed a special database and software
to measure and analyze individual and team performance and strategies. n 2012,
the German Football Association collaborated with German software giant SAP
AG to create a custom match analysis tool called Match Insights that collects and
analyzes massive amounts of player performance data. Improving speed was a
major objective for the German team in 2014. Match Insights enabled the team to
analyze statistics about average possession time and reduce it from 3.4 seconds to
about 1.1 seconds. Match Insights was able to make its vast trove of performance
data available to team members’ mobile phones or tablets. A mobile app sends
short clips of analysis to individual players or groups of players. Right after a
game, every player receives several visual examples of himself doing things well
and poorly and may also receive visual data about the opposition.

3. How did using Match Insights change the way the German
World Cup team made decisions?
• resort to studying a crumpled, handwritten cheat sheet to glean tips on the habits of Argentina’s penalty-takers
just before the quarter-final shootout against the south Americans. Skip forward eight years, and the two
teams are set to meet again in the World Cup final, but this time the German players have a much more
sophisticated way of obtaining potentially match-winning information about their opponents. Together with
software company SAP, the German Football Association (DBF) has developed an application called Match
Insights, which analyses vast amounts of data about members of the German team and their opponents, based
on their on-field performance. This data can then be converted into simulations and graphs that can be viewed
on a tablet or smartphone, enabling trainers, coaches and players to identify and assess key situations in each
match. These insights can then be used during pre-match preparations to improve player and team
performance. Player performance is analysed using eight cameras that surround the pitch. The pitch itself is
transformed into a grid, and each player is assigned a unique identifier, allowing their movements to be
tracked digitally. This data can then be used to measure key performance indicators, such as the number of
touches, average possession time, distance travelled, movement speeds and directional changes. For the
German national team, one of their key targets ahead of the World Cup was to improve their passing speed.
With the help of SAP's Match Insights technology, the team was able to reduce average possession time from
3.4 seconds in 2010 down to 1.1 second in 2014."SAP’s involvement has transformed the football experience
for coaches, players, fans, and the media," said Oliver Bierhoff, manager of the German national football
team. "Imagine this: In just 10 minutes, 10 players with three balls can produce over seven million data
points. With SAP, our team can analyse this huge amount of data to customise training and prepare for the
next match." As well as enabling the German team to analyse its own performance, Match Insights can help
coaches and players to identify opponents' strengths and weaknesses, and inform defensive tactics. The
software can extract data on individual players, and present it in the form of digital personas, so that it is "as
simple to use as their favorite video game”.

4. Give examples of two decisions that were
improved by using Match Insights.
• Match Insights analyses vast amounts of data about members of the
German team and their opponents, based on their on-field
performance. This data can then be converted into simulations and
graphs that can be viewed on a tablet or smartphone, enabling trainers,
coaches and players to identify and assess key situations in each
match. These insights can then be used during pre-match preparations
to improve player and team performance.
• Match Insights can help coaches and players to identify opponents'
strengths and weaknesses, and inform defensive tactics. The software
can extract data on individual players, and present it in the form of
digital personas, so that it is "as simple to use as their favorite video
game".

5. What can businesses learn from the German 2014
World Cup victory?
• It’s just as important in business to establish your ‘style of play’ as it is
in football. Those of our suppliers who have focused on particular
product categories or manufacturing capabilities are clearly making
more progress than those who are changing their set-up and tactics
each season. Again, having a vision is critical for success.
• It’s equally important for our suppliers to develop talent through the
ranks as proved to be the case for Germany. Just hoping to ‘sign’ talent
from other teams isn’t a sustainable approach for the whole industry as
it fails to systematically add to the number of people with relevant
experience coming through. Hope, as they say, is not a strategy.