The heart breaker for the soccer coach, and sometimes the game maker.  If you look at the stats for the English Premier League over the past 10 years you can see a marked upward trend in the number of penalties  awarded, with 2001-2 only seeing 39 awarded, to the 101 awarded in the past season.  And no wonder it can be such an important moment in a game, as around 80% of penalties (in that league at least) result in a goal.  Last year it was Arsenal who gave away a whopping 9 penalties, though not an uncommon tally over the past decade, there has only been one team to concede 10, which was Blackburn Rovers in 2006-7.  Five years previous they conceded or won zero penalties. Times have changed. 

What do the stats look like?

Which club is more likely to concede a penalty? Well if past history is an indicator of future behaviour (and we know it is not…but bear with us) then Aston Villa are a safe bet. Looking at those teams currently in the EPL who have played there for the past 11 years.  They have managed to give away 55 penalties, an average of 5.5 per season.  And which team does the analysis show that manages to be awarded the most penalties?  Manchester United I hear you cry – most of them in the last 2 minutes at Old Trafford, right?  Wrong.  It’s Arsenal, who have accumulated 56 penalties, converting 46 of them since the beginning of the 2001 season. Check out all the stats here, at this wonderful website myfootballfacts.com. Including the fact that Matt Le Tissier in his career at Southampton scored 48 times from 49 spot kicks. All in the top flight of English football.  Awesome.    

A penalty kick may be awarded when a defending player commits a foul punishable by a direct free kick against an opponent or a handball, within the penalty area (“the box” or “18 yard box”).  

Importantly it is the location of the offence — and not the position of the ball — that defines whether a foul is punishable by a penalty kick or direct free kick.  The referee signals the award of a penalty kick by blowing the whistle and pointing to the penalty spot.

Definition & Origin

The penalty kick is a form of direct free kick so a goal may be scored directly from it.  If a goal is not scored, play continues as usual.  As with all free kicks, the kicker may not play the ball a second time until it has been touched by another player.  Thus the kicker may play the ball a second time (possibly scoring a goal) if the ball rebounds off the keeper; but not if the ball rebounds directly off the posts without having touched the keeper or any other player. If it hits the woodwork, another player has to touch the ball before the penalty taker can touch it again.  

The concept of a penalty goal for fouls within 2 yards (1.8 m) of the goal was suggested at a Sheffield FA meeting in 1879.   The invention of the penalty kick is also credited to the goalkeeper and businessman William McCrum in 1890 in Milford, County Armagh, Northern Ireland.  The Irish Football Association presented the idea to the International Football Association Board and finally after much debate, and after a blatant goal-line handball by a Notts County player in the FA Cup Quarter-Final against Stoke the board approved the idea on 2 June 1891.

If you want to delve deep on statistics and penalties visit PenaltyHQ.com where some clever people have analysed over 8000 penalties. Grab a coffee.

Right now we are working on the App part of system so it will work on both Android and Windows Mobile devices. That means you will no longer need an Apple device to track your performances and record your player stats.  

Interested in using Statzpack to track your records with your Android or Windows mobile phone or tablet?  Then email us at newapp@statzpack.com.  

Set yourself up on Statzpack

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Uploading your team badge/crest

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Adding a New Game

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Adding a Customised  or Tailored Action Set of Stats

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Using the Matrix Analysis /  Excel Export Function

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Gameshare – sharing your soccer stats with your team and supporters

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I was struck by how open Mondays night game was, and how there seemed to be so much space when attacking (particularly for Man United, and particularly towards the end of the game).    Gary Neville mentioned that the pitch is really big at Old Trafford in his recent biography, and anyone who has been lucky enough tovisit it will tesify it is a large field.  This made us want to investigate…. according to this website (though dated in 2007.. gives us an idea):    http://soccerlens.com/premier-league-pitch-sizes/3683/     – it’s the second-biggest pitch in the league… in fact, it’s 786 square yards bigger (by area) than White Hart Lane where Tottenham, the defeated team play!  Spurs ground is small, close, intimate – probaby more theatre than the Theatre of Dreams.  I don’t think it’s a coincidence that United tend to drop off rather than press when they’re not in posession, and are so effective on the counter-attack using all that space with quick decisive, youthful, direct attacking soccer. 

Soccer Standards?

And this to a US sports coach may seem odd, where standard field sizes are more defined, for example American football fields are a set  360 by 160 feet.  Rugby league is played on a field 112-122 by 68 metres. In Rugby Union (yes there are two variants) the field of play on a pitch/field is as near as possible to a maximum of 144m long by 70m wide. In Lacrosse, the field of play is 110 yards (100 m) long and 60 yards (55 m) wide.) 

The length of a full-size soccer pitch must be between 100 yards (90 metres) and 130 yards (120 metres) and the width between 50 yards (45 metres) and 100 yards (90 metres). It is not allowed to be square.  These dimensions apply everywhere in the world.   The pitch is rectangular in shape. The longer sides are called touchlines. The other opposing sides are called the goal lines. The two goal lines must be between 45 and 90 m (50 and 100 yd) and be the same length.  The two touch lines must also be of the same length, and be between 90 and 120 m (100 and 130 yd) in length.  However, in international matches, the goal lines must be between 64 and 75 m (70 and 80 yd) long and the touchlines must be between 100 and 110 m (110 and 120 yd).   Still, there’s a lot of allowance there for size differences of a soccer field. huge differences. 

Lets take Field Hockey for example, a similar sport to Soccer where 11 players per team are on the field at one time, typically on grass – okay, with a few more sticks of course.  Their governing body dont allow for any misunderstanding, as laid down by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) in the “Rules of Hockey”.   As follows:

 The pitch is a 91.40 m × 55 m (100 yd × 60 yd) rectangular field. At each end is a goal 2.14 m (7 feet) high and 3.66 m (12 ft) wide measured from the inner sides of the posts and crossbar, and an approximately semi-circular area 14.63 m (16 yd) from the goal known as the shooting circle (or D or arc), bounded by a solid line, with a dotted line 5 m (5 yd 6 in—this marking was not established until after metric conversion) from that, as well as lines across the field 22.90 m (25 yd) from each end-line (generally referred to as the 23 m lines) and in the center of the field. A spot 0.15m in diameter, called the penalty spot or stroke mark, is placed with its centre 6.40 m (7 yd) from the centre of each goal.

So why the broad acceptance of the variance in field sizes for soccer? Any idea?

We have released a new version of the Statzpack App, version 2.3 – now available in iTunes.  Take a quick tour of the App in this youtube video.

This version allows you to see custom actions in the real time summary and as usual is free of any cost.

Get the update by visiting iTunes or via the App Store on your iPhone or iPad.

Tracking a set of custom stats (or as we refer to them custom actions) allows you to build your own tailored set of stats for your players.  Statzpack lets you track a regular set of soccer stats – like goals, free-kicks, corners etc; but you can go further than this and record more performance analysis data.  When you add a game on the website you can opt to create your own set of custom actions.  We have built in a set of Default actions, but if you don’t want to track these then that’s no problem.  As you add a game just below the soccer field where you select your line-up you will see an option to create a custom set of stats. 

You can also make an action set that combines a mixture of default stats and your custom actions – say for example Goal/Attempt on Goal/Free-kick & Custom #1/Custom 2.  Make sure when add a set that you include Goal if you want to keep a score, or Substitute if you need to field different players.

You choose the soccer stats coach

 If you opt to add a new set of actions select the ‘Create New Set’ button. We’ve added a new set called Evaluation.   When you add a new set, you also be able to see every other custom stat statzpack users have added (Pre Defined Custom Actions) .

So in this example we are building a set of actions to help us evaluate our team and we have put together a simple set of 8 actions to track.  Try not to go over 10 stats in total in any set as it requires that you will have to scroll down the screen to use them on the Statzpack App.

We’ve added here a set of actions focussing on player evaluation.  Once you’ve created the set you can see it on the website.

Just for a heads up, any set or action you add will stay on the system for good and you cannot delete it.   And as you go to record the stats at the game, you will see the custom stats on the App.  Here is our example custom action set.

When you open the Statzpack App and go to track your stats for your players, your custom action set will appear on the App, and the data you record will make its way back to the website.  Likewise you do not have to record the stats on the Statzpack App – you can always record the data straight on to the website.

You can earn some cash by becoming an advertising affiliate for Statzpack.

We have an excellent product and provide A+ customer service to our clients on a global basis.  Our customers include schools, colleges, soccer clubs, scouts and leagues.   Whether you are an individual, a blogger, a soccer club, league or team placing our adverts on your website can generate you extra cash. 

Soccer Affiliate

We pay high commissions for the sale of our products. For every new paying customer you provide, we pay $30.  Sign up to be a Statzpack Affiliate.  If you have any specific questions send them to affiliates@statzpack.com.

From time to time when we talk to new customers and partners, we are often asked ‘so who uses yur product?’ or ‘where are your customers at?’.   When we were asked this last week by a new user in the mid west of the USA we decided to actually take a few minutes to list it out.  Well we all know that soccer is the truly global game, and the internet has no bounds so it really be no surprise (but it was..) to see that we have customers in the following countries: USA, UK, Ireland, Canada, Turkey, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden, India, Italy, South Africa, Malta, Cyprus, New Zealand, Malta, Australia and Malaysia.  

Global Soccer App

We have users who are high school teachers, semi-pro coaches, professional analysts, parents, even international scouts using our product.  What amazes us and equally motivates us a company is the enthusiasm of the soccer coach – wherever they are, or whatever age group or level they are coaching and we try to plough that right back into our products.

If you’re a Statzpack user you can help spread the word and by making referrals you can get extra free time added to your subscription, check it out here.   Hello world. Greetings Statzpackers

Just to let you know that we have made some refinements to the Matrix Report function.  We improved the capability to define what actions you want to list and the export function to Excel lays out the data in two distinct sheets. To take a look, log into the website and select the Analysis Tab, and then Matrix Report.  Once again these changes were guided by feedback from our users and if you have any ideas let us know.  For example we are currently looking at the capability to allow coaches to complete player/team evaluations on the website, is this something that as a coach you desire? If it is – tell us.

Here is a sample of the look excel output.

In the beginning, there were no jersey numbers.  Simple.  In today’s game from the U10 youth level (or even below) to the FIFA World Cup that would seem extraordinary.  Numbering allows for better game and player management, quick identification and coach communication. Its part of the modern game.  

Though there was some use of numbering in the early 1900s, it was the English 1933 FA Cup final which is marked the real debut  of the use of shirt numbers.  Everton were numbered 1-11, and Manchester City were given the numbers 12-22.  In a strange twist, City decided to give goalkeeper number 22, and assigned the numbers in descending order.  In 1939 numbers on the back of players’ shirts became mandatory in the English Football League although many teams had used them before.

The move to a fixed number being assigned to each player in a squad was initiated for the 1954 FIFA World Cup in Switzerland, where each man in a country’s 22-man squad wore a specific number for the duration of the tournament.  Thus creating the relationship between a player and a roster number.  Previous to this the jersey number had a specific relation to the position on the pitch – the obvious being the Goalkeeper was always assigned the No 1.

Though there are differing versions of number assignment, the traditional use of the numbers in a 11 a side team (on a 5-3-2 formation and we are talking in the 1960s) went something like this:

1 = Goalkeeper
2 = Right Fullback
3 = Left Fullback
4 = Centre Half/Back
5 = Centre Half/Back
6 = Centre Half/Back
7 = Right Wing/Midfield
8 = Centre Midfield.
9 = Centre Forward
10 = Centre Forward
11 = Left Wing/Midfield

In the 1978 and 1982 FIFA World Cups Argentina decided to allocate jersey numbers on an alphabetical basis to their players. This resulted in the great playmaker Osvaldo Ardiles donning the No 1 jersey, Maradonna ended up with No 10.   Superstition

In 1993, England’s Football Association switched to persistent squad numbers, abandoning the mandatory use of 1–11 for the starting line-up.  It became standard in the FA Premier League in the 1993-94 season, with names printed above the numbers. Most European top leagues adopted the system over the next five years and today few soccer teams from 10 year old up don’t have assigned jersey numbers to players.