Champions League Final - How do they know how far each guy has run?

we did this a while ago.

The match as gone to PKs: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/match/3066368/popup

rojo wrote:

So I'm watching the final here on ESPN2. Every now and then they will give a stat on some guy and show how many meters the guy has run - like to a single meter (12136).

How do they know this? Is it an estimate or is it GPS or something with the tv cameras?

The pitch is divided into 16 areas each covered by a different camera and the images analysed by computer.

Great to see one of the Busby Babes (Sir Bobby) getting the first medal 50 years on! All five of the survivors were at the game.

rojo wrote:

So I'm watching the final here on ESPN2. Every now and then they will give a stat on some guy and show how many meters the guy has run - like to a single meter (12136).

How do they know this? Is it an estimate or is it GPS or something with the tv cameras?

The pitch is divided into 16 areas each covered by a different camera and the images analysed by computer.

Great to see one of the Busby Babes (Sir Bobby) getting the first medal 50 years on! All five of the survivors were at the game.

what was truely great to see was Ronaldo trying to be cheeky and royally screwing it up. Shame it didn't ultimately cost them the match, but then Chelsea are just as easy to dislike as Man U.

Seeing the little child Ronaldo lying crying on the floor made my day.

imagine if they did that in the NFL, lol, they probably move about 300m/game.

What if they did something similar with running. Give the instantaneous speed of certain runners. That could spice up commentary a bit.

Then again, in the NFL, they actually have to take physical punishment. In Soccer, they get touched and cry like little girls every time and then whine to the referee.

I dont care how many meters they run in a match, all those euro soccer players are bitches.

this is why I like watching high school soccer...they are 20 times tougher than the players over seas...over here if you get taken out you get up faster than the other guy and act like it was nothing...over there you cry and roll around like you're about to die

rage wrote:

this is why I like watching high school soccer...they are 20 times tougher than the players over seas...over here if you get taken out you get up faster than the other guy and act like it was nothing...over there you cry and roll around like you're about to die

yes, clearly they are tougher, as shown by the US' success in international tournaments

LDT wrote:

Then again, in the NFL, they actually have to take physical punishment. In Soccer, they get touched and cry like little girls every time and then whine to the referee.

I dont care how many meters they run in a match, all those euro soccer players are bitches.

The world's most celebrated game it is!

I don't know how they allocate the total kilometres run by each player but I do know this, football (soccer) makes the world go round. Oh yes!!

Great to see the Welshman Ryan Giggs making a club record 759th appearance to surpass Bobby Charlton, as well as finish his spot kick.

20 times tougher than the best professionals in the sport? Ask those high schoolers you know how many ever make it to Div I NCAA, the USL, or the MLS, never mind the Premiership. You are a silly person, typical of the vast majority of high school and college soccer player who have to feign toughness in order to make up for their inadequacies as technically, tactically, and athletically sound players. 20 times more emotionally unstable, 20 times less skillful, 20 times slower speed of play, 20 times slower processing the game mentally, 20 times less focused on developing into a high-level player, instead of a goon. Thanks for your input though. I am confident with that comment, I have never coached you.

Nicely said, terp.

While we're talking about soccer which is more prestigious winning the Champions League Final or winning the Premiership?

My mom was in town and she's not a fan of the penalty kicks. I agree. It's a horrible way to determine a winner.

I have one question on the PKs. It seems like randomly guessing a side the goal keeper would stop more than he does. So is it fair to assume that most guys taking the kicks do not just pick a side and try and kick it there, they try and adjust to the goalie moving early?

wejo wrote:

While we're talking about soccer which is more prestigious winning the Champions League Final or winning the Premiership?

My mom was in town and she's not a fan of the penalty kicks. I agree. It's a horrible way to determine a winner.

I have one question on the PKs. It seems like randomly guessing a side the goal keeper would stop more than he does. So is it fair to assume that most guys taking the kicks do not just pick a side and try and kick it there, they try and adjust to the goalie moving early?

The Champions League is the club championship of all of Europe. The Premiership is just the British top flight. This was the first time there's ever been an all-England CL Final. The Premiership is very hard to win, but probably no harder than the domestic competitions in Spain or Italy. The Champions League is a pretty big deal, for sure more prestigious than the Premiership.

That said, within Great Britain the Premiership title is MASSIVE. A side that wins both the CL and the domestic competition is said to have done the "double". If the same side also win the FA Cup, they've won the "treble".

The person taking the penalty knows what they want to do, and then decide before striking how best to deceive the keeper. The keeper is guessing based on body language. He normally doesn't commit so early that the striker can adjust to his guess.

Cristiano Ronaldo is a mincing little girl. If Tomas Rosicky was healthy, Arsenal do the double instead of ManUre.

Not exactly. It's a pretty common notion that the Premiership is more difficult to win than the Champions League. The non-playoff format means that you need to be on your game for the majority of the year to win the League. The Cup rewards a hot streak. As thrilled as I was about Liverpool's win in 2005, I wasn't foolish enough to think that it meant that they were the best team in either Europe or England. I will say that they put together a short string of astounding performances.

A key distinction is that it requires more depth to win the league. You need to have backups that can step in and perform. Especially for strikers.

Regarding the toughness of European players: the flopping has nothing to do with their toughness. It's merely a reflection of their desire to win and their understanding that there's a good chance that they will be rewarded. They can be tough as nails when they have to be. (Though I wouldn't go nearly as far as Terps contrasting it so strongly with American soccer.)

Regarding penalties: it's not ideal, but games could literally go one for hours and hours otherwise. As random as it seems, it's rare that I feel a team that really didn't deserve to win steals it in the shootout.

RE the penalty shoot out - it can seem like a lottery. Ronaldo described it as such in his post game interview (most likely cause he missed).

However, most countries (read : Germany) spend hours pracitising these in the run up to the world cup so their prepared in the event the game is decided like this.

Regarding the difference between the Champs Lge and the Premiership post above is on the spot. Prem rewards consistency over the year.

Its sad to say but financially Champs League is more lucrative - I think the winner was to receive approximatley £85 million for winning tonight.

LDT wrote:

Then again, in the NFL, they actually have to take physical punishment. In Soccer, they get touched and cry like little girls every time and then whine to the referee.

I dont care how many meters they run in a match, all those euro soccer players are bitches.

NFL player sure endure more impact. However they also have padding, so I'm not sure how much of a barrier that is in the NFL.

I think all the toughness talk is one thing that is wrong with america today. If you don't have massively bulging muscles and aren't 6'4 250 then you're apparently not tough. Euro soccer players are pretty tough guys, but there's this stigma in america that they prance around cause they're not massive in size. It's annoying because it trickles down into mainstream ideals. You go to the bars around here and there are meatheads galore acting tough and picking fights in bars.

NFL players are tough, no argument there. But some of the slide tackles that euro soccer players take, I wouldn't be able to walk away from. Yesterday there was some head on head contact.