Match analysis from event data
How the team really played, and the season behind it.
Upload the match event data you already receive, and AthleteIQ Labs turns it into a match report and a season analysis for your staff: possession, pressing, passing, chances and territory, with each player's GPS load and minutes from the same game on the same page.
From the export to a checked match
After the match, an analyst uploads the two half files from the match event data, plus the per-player stats workbook if you have it. Before anything is saved, the platform previews the match: which of the two teams in the file is yours, which fixture it belongs to, and how each player matches to your squad. A player whose name exactly matches one member of the current squad is placed automatically and marked for you to check. Everyone else is left for you to choose, and your answer is remembered for every later match.
Every check runs again on the server when you save. An event type the platform does not recognise stops the save rather than being dropped in silence. Both halves are put into one direction of play, so a left-back never appears on both flanks, and opposition players are never turned into athlete records.
- Upload the export you already receive
- Preview before anything is saved
- Automatic placement only on an exact, unique name
- Opposition players never become athlete records
The score, checked twice
The result is derived from the event stream in two independent ways: from our shots that ended in a goal, and from the opposition's goals-conceded entries. It is shown only when the two agree. If they disagree, the report shows no score at all rather than a wrong one. The timeline lists goals and cards on the real match clock, stoppage time included, with each scorer named.
The summary: possession, pressing and running
Possession is derived from the event stream as each side's share of the time it held the ball, and the card states the method. Pressing is read three ways. PPDA counts the opposition passes allowed per defensive action in their build-up area, and it sits directly beside possession, because a team that keeps the ball concedes few passes whether or not it pressed. The defensive action line shows how high each team won or contested the ball, drawn on a pitch. Counterpressing shows how often the ball was won back within 5 and 10 seconds of losing it, and how many balls won in the attacking third led to a shot.
When the export includes the physical layer, each team's high-intensity running is split into running with the ball and running without it, for the team and for every one of your players, so you can see who did the chasing. There are no traffic lights on these figures: one match has no baseline, and running without the ball is a fact about the game, not a mark against a player.
- Possession with its method stated
- PPDA always read beside possession
- Defensive action line on the pitch
- Ball won back within 5 and 10 seconds
Passes, shots and territory on the pitch
Shots and turnovers are drawn on two pitches, one per team, each named in words. The team pass network places your players at the average position of their on-ball actions, with each line as thick as the completed passes between two players, and the card says how many of those passes had a receiver the platform could identify. Pick any player to see every pass they played, completed or not, with the completion rate for short, medium and long passes and the team-mates they found most often.
Territory shows where each team lost the ball and where it won it back, and which flank each side attacked. A separate card shows where goals, shots and attacks came from, for and against, including the share of goals scored and conceded from set pieces.
Every player's match
Each of your players has a row with their passes and completion, average pass length, progressive passes, passes into the box, key passes, assists, goals, shots, crosses, duels, tackles, recoveries and balls lost. A strip names the match leaders in goals, assists, take-ons and recoveries, as four separate counts and never as a composite man-of-the-match score. Where the stats workbook is supplied, its official minutes and top speeds are added, and the minutes are proposed on the match sheet for a coach to confirm. Who started comes from the GPS periods, because the event data has no starter flag.
The season, read match by match
Match Analysis brings every uploaded match into one season view. Possession and PPDA are aggregated from their parts, never averaged from match percentages, so a short match does not count as much as a long one. Small multiples show how each team figure moved from one match to the next. A highlights panel writes the season's notable patterns as plain sentences with their numbers inside, such as how many of your goals came from set pieces, and the squad board names the top scorers and assist providers, with every tied leader shown.
The season view also draws each player's passing direction, and their passing compasses placed at their average position on one pitch. Every figure states how much of the season it covers, and a partial season says so above the numbers instead of passing for a complete one.
Beside the GPS, never mixed into it
The match report puts the event data next to your own GPS: each player's match load and minutes, and the positional match demand. The two sources are kept apart on purpose. Running figures from match data and from GPS units are measured differently, at different speed thresholds and over different time windows, and mixing them would put a step change into a player's history that reads like an adaptation. Where the event data carries physical data, a reconciliation panel compares the one pairing that is honestly comparable, peak speed, and explains in words why the others are not. Each athlete's passport has a Match tab that reads the player against the squad.
Frequently asked questions
What match data do we need?
The event data export your analysis provider supplies for each match: the two half files and, if you have it, the per-player stats workbook. An analyst uploads the files after the match, and the platform checks them before anything is saved.
Does it include video or player tracking?
No. The analysis is built on coded match events such as passes, shots, duels and recoveries. There is no video and no tracking of where every player stood, so nothing that needs defenders' positions, like line-breaking passes, is claimed. When the export carries the provider's physical layer, high-intensity running for both teams is added; in the files we have seen so far that layer comes with home matches only, and the screens say when it is missing.
Do you calculate expected goals (xG)?
No. Expected goals is not in the event data, and we do not fit a model of our own on one club's season. The shot map shows where each shot was taken and how it ended, and the season view reports the average shot distance with the number of shots behind it.
How are opposition players handled?
Opposition events feed the team comparisons: possession, pressing, territory and the head-to-head figures. Opposition players are never created as athletes or linked to your squad, and the season view shows your own players only.
Can we export the match analysis?
Yes. Most match and season cards can be added to the report cart and exported as PDF or Word, and tables such as the team comparison come out as real, selectable tables rather than screenshots.
Bring a match you have already played
Book a demo. We will walk you through the demo club's match report and season analysis, then look at how your own match event files and your squad map onto the platform.
More of the platform
- GPS & training loadAthleteIQ Labs turns your GPS units' data into a daily, weekly and season view of training load, built for performance staff. Every number is read against that player's own history on the same day of the microcycle, squad averages leave out anyone who did not train in full, and the week you planned is compared with what the units actually recorded.
- Wellness & readinessAthletes answer your club's own daily check-in on their phones. By the time staff arrive, readiness is scored, pain is mapped, and the few athletes who need a conversation are at the top of the list, each with the reason written down.
- Strength, gym & VBTBuild gym sessions from a real exercise library, send them to the whole squad, a training group or one player, collect what was lifted on the athlete's phone, and read strength, workload, force and velocity on the same squad you train on the pitch. Built for strength and conditioning coaches, fitness coaches and sports scientists in football.
- Medical & availabilityClinical records stay with the doctors and physios. Coaches see who is available, who is on modified duties and when an athlete is expected back, and players returning from injury are tracked phase by phase against the running they have actually done.
- Training planningPeriodise the season around the matches you actually play, build every session from your own drill library, and see whether the week you planned is the week the squad trained. One plan for the pitch and the gym, one calendar for the staff, and every training day labelled against the next match. Built for head coaches, fitness coaches and performance staff in football.
- Club managementContracts, wages, payments, transfers and staff — managed by the club administration, with every deadline surfaced before it is missed, and the performance staff seeing only what they need.