Corner Kicks Research Articles

Semantic Concept Mining Based on Hierarchical Event Detection for Soccer Video Indexing

In this paper, we present a novel automated indexing and semantic labeling for broadcast soccer video sequences. The proposed method automatically extracts silent events from the video and classifies each event sequence into a concept by sequential association mining. The paper makes three new contributions in multimodal sports video indexing and summarization. First, we propose a novel hierarchical framework for soccer (football) video event sequence detection and classification. Unlike most existing video classification approaches, which focus on shot detection followed by shot-clustering for classification, the proposed scheme perform a top-down video scene classification which avoids shot clustering. This improves the classification accuracy and also maintains the temporal order of shots. Second, we compute the association for the events of each excitement clip using a priori mining algorithm. We pro- pose a novel sequential association distance to classify the association of the excitement clip into semantic concepts. For soccer video, we have considered goal scored by team-A, goal scored by team-B, goal saved by team-A, goal saved by team-B as semantic concepts. Third, the extracted excitement clips with semantic concept label helps us to summarize many hours of video to collection of soccer highlights such as goals, saves, corner kicks, etc. We show promising results, with correctly indexed soccer scenes, enabling structural and temporal analysis, such as video retrieval, highlight extraction, and video skimming.

Semantic analysis of soccer video using dynamic Bayesian network

Video semantic analysis is formulated based on the low-level image features and the high-level knowledge which is encoded in abstract, nongeometric representations. This paper introduces a semantic analysis system based on Bayesian network (BN) and dynamic Bayesian network (DBN). It is validated in the particular domain of soccer game videos. Based on BN/DBN, it can identify the special events in soccer games such as goal event, corner kick event, penalty kick event, and card event. The video analyzer extracts the low-level evidences, whereas the semantic analyzer uses BN/DBN to interpret the high-level semantics. Different from previous shot-based semantic analysis approaches, the proposed semantic analysis is frame-based for each input frame, it provides the current semantics of the event nodes as well as the hidden nodes. Another contribution is that the BN and DBN are automatically generated by the training process instead of determined by ad hoc. The last contribution is that we introduce a so-called temporal intervening network to improve the accuracy of the semantics output.

Parameter space for successful soccer kicks

A computational model of two important types of soccer kicks, the free kick and the corner kick, is developed with the goal of determining the success rate for each type of kick. What is meant by ‘success rate’ is the probability of getting an unassisted goal via a free kick and the probability of having a corner kick reach an optimum location so that a teammate's chance of scoring a goal is increased. Success rates are determined through the use of four-dimensional parameter space volumes. A one-in-ten success rate is found for the free kick while the corner-kick success rate is found to be one in four.

Game Location Effects in Professional Soccer: A Case Study

Game location effects (home versus away) upon technical and tactics-related behaviours were investigated in a professional English soccer team. Matches (n=30) from the 2004-05 domestic season of a top five side from the English Premiership league were notated post-event via a computerized system and compared as a function of game location using non-parametric analysis procedures. An overall home advantage was found for the sample in relation to home-winning and home-goal percentage. For technical performance the team exhibited more successful behaviours, such as tackles, passes and aerial challenges, at home than away. For tactics-related behaviours, more aerial challenges, corner kicks, crosses, passes, dribbles and shots on goal were performed at home in the attacking third of the pitch. In addition, more goal kicks, interceptions, aerial challenges and clearances were performed in the defensive third when playing away. These findings suggest that game location effects may exist at a strategic level within individual teams. Future research should consider the influence of other confounding variables such as weather conditions, game status, team form and opposition quality.

Using cognitive general imagery to improve soccer strategies

Athletes use imagery for both cognitive and motivational functions (Paivio 1985) The cognitive function involves the rehearsal of skills (cognitive specific) and strategies of play (cognitive general). To date most of the imagery research has been concerned with skill rehearsal (cognitive specific), and there have been no controlled studies investigating the effects of cognitive general imagery on the learning and performance of game plans or strategies of play. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a cognitive general imagery intervention on three distinct soccer strategies in a young elite female soccer team. Participants were 13 competitive female soccer players with a mean age of 12.54 years. Imagery scores were determined via the Sport Imagery Questionnaire (SIQ; Hall, Mack, Paivio, & Hausenblas, 1998) prior to, during, and after the intervention. A staggered multiple baseline design across behaviors was used to evaluate the effect of imagery on three distinct soccer strategies (defending a direct free kick, taking a direct free kick, and defending a corner kick) which were introduced at weeks 2, 4 and 6. Results indicated that cognitive general and cognitive specific imagery use as well as motivational general-arousal imagery use significantly increased from baseline to post intervention. Based on the present study's findings, the execution of soccer strategies was not significantly enhanced with the implementation of a cognitive general intervention. Additional research should be conducted in order to reach clearer conclusions that will have implications for young athletes and their learning strategies.

Structure analysis of soccer video with domain knowledge and hidden Markov models

In this paper, we present statistical techniques for parsing the structure of produced soccer programs. The problem is important for applications such as personalized video streaming and browsing systems, in which videos are segmented into different states and important states are selected based on user preferences. While prior work focuses on the detection of special events such as goals or corner kicks, this paper is concerned with generic structural elements of the game. We define two mutually exclusive states of the game, play and break based on the rules of soccer. Automatic detection of such generic states represents an original challenging issue due to high appearance diversities and temporal dynamics of such states in different videos. We select a salient feature set from the compressed domain, dominant color ratio and motion intensity, based on the special syntax and content characteristics of soccer videos. We then model the stochastic structures of each state of the game with a set of hidden Markov models. Finally, higher-level transitions are taken into account and dynamic programming techniques are used to obtain the maximum likelihood segmentation of the video sequence. The system achieves a promising classification accuracy of 83.5%, with light-weight computation on feature extraction and model inference, as well as a satisfactory accuracy in boundary timing.

Effects of public posting, goal setting, and oral feedback on the skills of female soccer players.

We evaluated the effects of public posting, goal setting, and oral feedback on the skills of 3 female high school soccer players during practice scrimmages. The dependent variables were the percentage of appropriate responses when the player (a) kept and maintained possession of the ball, (b) moved to an open position during a game restart (e.g., goal or corner kick), and (c) moved to an open position after passing the ball. We also assessed the extent to which changes in practice performances generalized to games. A social validity questionnaire was completed by both players and coaches to assess the acceptability of the intervention's goals, procedures, and outcomes. Results indicate that the intervention was effective in improving performances during practice scrimmages but produced limited generalization to game settings.

Longitudinal and cross-sectional analysis of group performance measures in competitive youth soccer

The longitudinal research design consisted of a first-year (62 games) and a third-year (47 games) study of a male youth soccer team. During the second year (53 games) of the research, a team of players comparable in skill and age was examined to allow a cross-sectional comparison on the team performance measures. The clearest results were significantly different mean numbers of direct and indirect free kicks, and the numbers of goals scored were significantly more variable in the older age group. One higher-order factor and two second-order orthogonal factors were extracted from each data set. The most interpretable factor was termed game domination: high positive factor loadings were from game measures of shots, goals, corner kicks, and game outcome. High negative loadings were from goalkeeper touches of the ball, goalkeeper saves, and goal kicks.

Performance measures of game activity and team effectiveness in competitive youth soccer

Analysis of performance measures over 49 important games for a youth soccer team (males under 12 years of age) indicated significant reliability for win-loss record, goals scored, goal kicks, direct free kicks, and offsides calls. One performance measure had no reliability: indirect free kicks other than for offsides. Throw-ins became less reliable over the season. Corner kicks, goalkeeper touches of the ball, and goalkeeper saves increased in reliability over the season. Effectiveness measures for the attacking players were relatively stable within the team for scoring the first and/or deciding goal in a match. Over the season, it became more difficult for both teams to score goals. The effectiveness measure for the defensive unit (number of scoreless halves for both teams) was stable. The multiple regression equation (R=.79) developed on the first 25 important games accurately predicted 21 of 24 game results (p <.001) during the last half of the season.