Germany testing a host of new technologies during Euros

Can new technologies help Germany win Euro 2016 and the Summer Olympics in Rio?

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Having the momentum advantage throughout an entire game is crucial in any professional sporting event. In soccer, a minuscule detail could change the course of the match as 90 minutes rapidly tick away.

Technological advancements aid professional teams, but the German National Football Team (DFB) will now hope to have a head start on the competition with its ongoing partnership with German software and analytics conglomerate SAP.

After continuing its co-innovation partnership that began in 2013 with SAP HANA, DFB unveiled its new prototype technologies and enhancements this week in the team’s development and training for the upcoming European Championship.

Leading up to the events after the 2014 World Championship, the existing tools were recently updated in order to exclusively train the Germans for the Euro Cup.

The SAP HANA Cloud Platform consists of multiple prototype technologies exclusively for DFB testing deemed, SAP Challenger Insights, SAP Match Insights, SAP Team One App and Penalty Insights Function in SAP Sports One.

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According to a SAP press release, the Challenger Insights are “providing data driven insights surrounding an opponent’s offensive and defensive tendencies, formations, and more.” The SNAP HANA Cloud Platform is available on iPads that DFB players have in their pre-game lockers which coaches use to display data of the opposing team’s tactical characteristics and assumed match plans to review in video breakdowns.

The SAP Match Insights projects a new dashboard that gathers real-time pitch information on previous and upcoming games including, average ball possession time, defensive strategies and player movements. The dashboard is equipped with video progressions of each team and their current and projected tendencies, which are simulated.

Developed during the 2014 FIFA World Cup, the SAP Team One is used by the team to chat amongst the German squad by sharing images, visuals and player-to-manager communication grouped by offense, defense or entire team messaging. The most unique thing about the Team One is the fully integrated connection with all the SAP Sports One modules.

The Penalty Insights Function prepares the goalkeepers for possible free kick characteristics from multiple shooters. The software informs the goalkeeper on five specific players (chosen by the keeper) likely to take the shot in a match and their tendencies regarding typical aiming points, goal side favoring, goal-to-miss ratios and approach kick variabilities. 

The German National Team will be immensely prepared with this updated technology. Perhaps their 2014 World Cup Championship will be repeated thanks in part to this tech, but the unstoppable force of Marco Reus, Mario Goetze and Manuel Neuer will mostly likely take care of the rest.