Thomas Dooley uses high tech to take Azkals further
It's a sultry Thursday evening in Emperador Stadium and Azkals coach Thomas Dooley is taking in the action. Global is pummeling Team Socceroo (the final score was 9-0) so there isn't much to observe on the pitch. Thus, there time to shoot the breeze about a variety of topics.
Dressed casually as always in jeans and a dark t-shirt, the longtime California resident talks about his views on the Trayvon Martin incident, taxation in the USA, and Obamacare. Dooley is a chatty fellow and once he gets going on a subject, he takes some stopping.
The German-American mentor has been a breath of fresh air ever since he took over. With his easygoing charm, unassailable Football credentials as a player, and organized approach, he has won plenty of fans. Not bad for a coach who has yet to celebrate his first goal with the team. One Football pundit, FTW host Nate Dy-Liacco, even refers to Dooley as “the Pope Francis of Filipino Football.”
But when the subject turns to the scientific tool he relies on for his work, Dooley gets especially animated.
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Since Dooley took over, the team has used a Football game info service to gain as much info on every performance. The service was founded by an American Soccer coach in 2001.
The process is simple. Footage of the matches are sent to an analyst/ encoder who watches the game and encodes a plethora of different data about the match and the players into a report.
Dooley says there are over 3,000 events in every Football match and much of that are recorded in the reports.
The data is also entered into the company's database. From there coaches, players, and even broadcasters, can log in to tap into the vast swathes of encoded knowledge.
According to Dooley, the info can be revelatory. For example, after the friendly against Malaysia, the stats showed that one player was making positional errors and giveaways early on. Malaysia hit the woodwork three times in the first half, with many of the attacks because of that player's errors.
Dooley showed him the info and they discussed the mistakes and how they could be rectified. The player took copious notes and studied them earnestly, says Dooley. Against Azerbaijan, he was vastly improved.
The data from many players also showed some surprises, which was able to give Dooley insight into the individual players' games.
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The game analysis showed that one player the most efficient of the Azkals, giving the ball away the least among all the outfield players.
“You can't hide anymore” says Dooley of the new info, which shows in unsparing detail what the player does on the pitch.
Several national teams, including the United States and Canada are clients of their system. Some clubs in Major League Soccer (the North American top tier), including the L.A. Galaxy and D.C. United have worked with the service company as well. A bunch of top-tier Mexican sides are also taking advantage of the company's resources.
Dooley hopes that teams in the UFL can start using the service as well. He says it can also be an aid in improving the quality of officiating.
Of course this isn't the only new idea that Dooley has brought to the Azkals. Dan Palami says that he was amazed at the number of classroom sessions the team had in their recent tour. The manager says that there were as many sessions in hotel conference rooms as there were on the training pitch. Dooley also gave out plenty of handouts for the players to study. Supposedly there were no such meetings under the previous regime.
But the introduction of scientific game analysis is a huge one. Football is always evolving, and perhaps it is already becoming a geeky number-crunching chess game of percentages. But if that is so, the Azkals certainly won't be left behind.
Follow Bob on Twitter @PassionateFanPH.
