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Ranking Soccer Players By Following the Bouncing Ball
sciencehabit excerpts from an interesting report on statistics for soccer, in the stats-obsessed world of sports: "Only a handful of soccer ranking systems exist, most of which rely on limited information: the number of goals scored in a match, the number of goals assisted, and some indices of a match's difficulty and importance. ... So researchers turned to an unlikely source: social networks. Applying the kinds of mathematical techniques used to map Facebook friends and other networks, the team created software that can trace the ball's flow from player to player. As the program follows the ball, it assigns points for precise passing and for passes that ultimately lead to a shot at the goal. Whether the shot succeeds doesn't matter. Only the ball's flow toward the goal and each player's role in getting it there factors into the program's point system, which then calculates a skill index for each team and player."
How is this news for nerds? Go back to your shitty soccer jock site where you jerk off to sweaty dudes slapping each other's asses after kicking or hitting a ball.
Who gives a fuck? It is only soccer.....
After, this IS a US centric site...
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Let me guess: you don't watch much soccer, do you?