Assessment of play interaction in football through SOF-CODER and hidden patterns

G. K. Jonsson1, M. T. Anguera-Argilaga2, Á. Blanco-Villaseñor2, J. L. Losada-López2, A. Hernández-Mendo3, T. Ardá-Suárez4, O. Camerino-Foguet5, J. Castellano-Paulis6

1 Human Laboratory Institute, Reykjavik, Iceland and Department of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, UK
2 Departamento de Metodología, Universidad de Barcelona, Spain
3 Departamento de Psicología Social, Universidad de Málaga, Spain
4 INEF-Galicia, Universidad de A Coruña, Spain
5 INEFC-Centre de Lleida, Universidad de Lleida, Spain
6 IVEF - Universidad del País Vasco, Spain

The key aspect that characterizes the collective sport games, and specifically the football, is the interaction between players (collaboration between players of the same team and opposition against players of the opposite team).

Our aim is to detect:

  • Patterns of positive interaction between players of the same team through ball communication.
  • Patterns of negative interaction between players of the opposite team in order to get the ball recuperation.

The game will be selected from National League Championship of Spain in the 2000-01 seasons. Both instruments of observation will be SOF-4 and SOF-5, and this one will be codified through the structure of SOF-CODER.

The analysis will be done using the Theme™ (PatternVision Ltd., Iceland) software in order to detect hidden T-patterns in the multiple interactive relations that emerge during play.


Paper presented at Measuring Behavior 2005 , 5th International Conference on Methods and Techniques in Behavioral Research, 30 August - 2 September 2005, Wageningen, The Netherlands.

© 2005 Noldus Information Technology bv