Synopsis
As of this writing, the biggest upset in FIFA 2010 has already taken place, with Switzerland defeating the UEFA champion Spain in one of the group matches. The Football fever has surely gripped soccer fans around the world during the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa and to complement this wonderful experience, the SAP team has decided to bring to the masses the Sport Analytics in a whole new way, under the slogan "Football Fans Run Smarter With SAP, 2010 Football Experience" (I believe after the famous brand line - "The Best Run Companies Run SAP").
Just the other day, I was wondering how these commentators bring the statistics during the match with such ease and accuracy (e.g. I did not know until yesterday that Switzerland had never beaten Spain in any of their 18 meetings during World Cup matches). Sure, if you are willing to spend some time, there is information available on the [FIFA | http://www.fifa.org] website itself, but the way SAP has presented this information through interactive dashboards, tables and charts is truly amazing.
Analyze Team and Player Performance
Now you have the option to get those statistics at your finger tips and participate in exploring and analyzing player peformance, predicting winning team and sharing your experience about FIFA 2010 in a truly analytical way. On a technical note, it appears that most of the visualization is done in Business Objects Explorer, Polestar, Xcelsius and Crystal (but don't take my word on it, as it is only my opinion based on my experience with the tools - and by looking at what appears in the address bar/tabs of web browser!!).
*How to participate? </p><p>To begin with, you will need to register (http://explorer.sap.com/html/Pages/index.htm). </p><p>Once registered, on the next screen you will need to log in using (soccerfan/<no password>). </p><p>After successful logon, you can interact with a number of analytical tools as described below: </p><p>Explore Team Statistics:*
Using this tool, you can explore the history of FIFA World Cup matches with detailed data dating back nearly 50 years. You can ask questions such as what positions typically score the most points? What is a likely final score? Does being the host country influence success? Which teams consistently make it to the final rounds? Etc. You can use tables and pie-charts to drill through the information. For example, you can find out very quickly that 1998 was the World Cup that has most goals (184) and Ronaldo being the player with highest number of goals (16) at world cup level. * </p><p>!https://weblogs.sdn.sap.com/weblogs/images/252094335/ExploreTeamStatistics.jpg|height=422|alt=Explor... Team Statistics|width=514|src=https://weblogs.sdn.sap.com/weblogs/images/252094335/ExploreTeamStatistics.jpg|border=1!</p><p> </p><p>Predictor Model: *
Here, you can use up to date information from group matches to make your predictions as to which teams will make it to the Elimination round and even further. You can then share your predictions with others. The Get help! links enable you to ask for expert advice on using the model!!
!https://weblogs.sdn.sap.com/weblogs/images/252094335/Predictawinner.jpg|height=424|alt=Predictor|wid...!
*Goal History: * * *
With Goal History Tool, you can find out the total goals scored by a team in a given tournament, Goals scored by Net Position, Field Position or Distance from the Net. This appears to be done through some creative use of scatter charts.* </p><p>!https://weblogs.sdn.sap.com/weblogs/images/252094335/ViewGoalHistory.jpg|height=344|alt=Goal History|width=450|src=https://weblogs.sdn.sap.com/weblogs/images/252094335/ViewGoalHistory.jpg|border=1!</p><p> </p><p>FIFA 2010 Football Experience Community:*
On the main page, you will also find a link to the online community sharing their experiences using the above analytics. You can share your experience and predictions with the rest of the community as well by visiting this page (http://coilgw2.sap.com:8080/index.jspa).
!https://weblogs.sdn.sap.com/weblogs/images/252094335/Participate-2010FootballExperienceCommunity.jpg...!</body>
