Space evaluation at the starting point of soccer transitions

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Ogawa, Yohei, Umemoto, Rikuhei, Fujii, Keisuke
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Ogawa, Yohei
Umemoto, Rikuhei
Fujii, Keisuke
author_facet Ogawa, Yohei
Umemoto, Rikuhei
Fujii, Keisuke
contents Soccer is a sport played on a pitch where effective use of space is crucial. Decision-making during transitions, when possession switches between teams, has been increasingly important, but research on space evaluation in these moments has been limited. Recent space evaluation methods such as OBSO (Off-Ball Scoring Opportunity) use scoring probability, so it is not well-suited for assessing areas far from the goal, where transitions typically occur. In this paper, we propose OBPV (Off-Ball Positioning Value) to evaluate space across the pitch, including the starting points of transitions. OBPV extends OBSO by introducing the field value model, which evaluates the entire pitch, and by employing the transition kernel model, which reflects positional specificity through kernel density estimation of pass distributions. Experiments using La Liga 2023/24 season tracking and event data show that OBPV highlights effective space utilization during counter-attacks and reveals team-specific characteristics in how the teams utilize space after positive and negative transitions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_14711
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Space evaluation at the starting point of soccer transitions
Ogawa, Yohei
Umemoto, Rikuhei
Fujii, Keisuke
Applications
Artificial Intelligence
Soccer is a sport played on a pitch where effective use of space is crucial. Decision-making during transitions, when possession switches between teams, has been increasingly important, but research on space evaluation in these moments has been limited. Recent space evaluation methods such as OBSO (Off-Ball Scoring Opportunity) use scoring probability, so it is not well-suited for assessing areas far from the goal, where transitions typically occur. In this paper, we propose OBPV (Off-Ball Positioning Value) to evaluate space across the pitch, including the starting points of transitions. OBPV extends OBSO by introducing the field value model, which evaluates the entire pitch, and by employing the transition kernel model, which reflects positional specificity through kernel density estimation of pass distributions. Experiments using La Liga 2023/24 season tracking and event data show that OBPV highlights effective space utilization during counter-attacks and reveals team-specific characteristics in how the teams utilize space after positive and negative transitions.
title Space evaluation at the starting point of soccer transitions
topic Applications
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.14711