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Applying networks and graph theory to match analysis: Identifying the general properties of a graph

Clemente, F.M.C. ; Martins, F. ; Mendes, R.

Applying networks and graph theory to match analysis: Identifying the general properties of a graph, Proc Congreso Internacional de la Asociación Española de Ciencias del Deporte, Caceres, Spain, Vol. 1, pp. 587 - 590, November, 2014.

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Abstract
The structure of football teams can be defined as a collective organization that emerges during the match (Gréhaigne, Bouthier & David, 1997). Thus, more than a sum of individual performances, a team is a whole that can be seen as a complex network (Grund, 2012). To understand the network structure there are some possibilities that comes from graph theory (Pavlopoulos et al., 2011). These possibilities can be defined by network metrics that identify some general properties of the graph and also allows identifying the prominence of each player for the team's network (Wasserman & Faust, 1994). In that sense, this study will apply some general techniques to identify the graph properties of Spain team during FIFA World Cup 2014. The objective of such analysis is to understand the variance of team's properties during the three matches on competition.