Data Analysis to Evaluate Performance in Women’s Football

2025年4月10日 17:01

Data Analysis to Evaluate Performance in Women’s Football

Women’s football in Argentina continues to rise in high-performance sports and shows no signs of slowing down, accompanied by advancements that can at times be overwhelming due to the wide range of available tools.

In this discipline, the collection of quantitative data on match actions is still limited, and many paths remain to be paved. One of the first steps to take is the collection of basic data, which will then allow for broader analysis based on averages and metrics that reflect gameplay and team characteristics.

Longomatch is an accessible and user-friendly program that helps collect the necessary data and generate heat maps, pass maps, shot maps, recoveries, and many other types of actions.

Selecting Actions to Collect

To begin collecting data, it’s important to first define which variables to track in each match. This depends largely on how many hours of work one wants—or is able—to invest. If you're working alone, it's advisable to minimize the time spent recording individual actions, since there's also work involved in preparing for upcoming opponents, analyzing your own team’s video, recording training sessions, and more.

One of the basic actions to start with is tracking passes and their outcomes: completed, incomplete, or intercepted—while also noting the direction of the pass.

This applies to any other actions you consider necessary to build a personalized analysis: interceptions, recoveries, aerial duels, throw-ins, and so on.

 

Setting Up the Dashboard in Longomatch

You should configure a dashboard with the types of actions to track, the time segments you want to clip, the areas on the field you want to mark, and the connections between buttons so you don’t waste time on duplicate actions. For example, if a player makes an interception, there is also a pass intercepted by another.

Filtering and Cleaning the Data

After you finish tagging actions from the selected match, export this data—e.g., to an Excel (.xlsx) file—and begin the cleaning process.

Data filtering is crucial to make it easier to manipulate variables later on using the software of your choice. Even if you're not using a specific data visualization tool, Longomatch itself allows you to filter actions by player or team and visualize them on the full field, half-field, or near the goal.

 

Data Visualization

You can use any data analysis and visualization program to create interactive presentations with heat maps, pass maps, and more. Common tools include Tableau and Power BI, which are accessible and beginner-friendly, with plenty of tutorials for self-learners as well as formal courses.

Used effectively, these tools become powerful allies for managing and presenting data.

 

Conclusion

Thanks to these tools, video analysis and data analysis can complement each other to provide a comprehensive tracking system for both players and teams.
They help identify patterns and styles of play, contributing significantly to performance improvement in women’s football.