Temporally Accurate Events Detection Through Ball Possessor Recognition in Soccer

Marc Peral, Guillem Capellera, Antonio Rubio, Luis Ferraz, Francesc Moreno-Noguer, Antonio Agudo

Abstract: Recognizing specific actions in soccer games has become an increasingly important research topic. One key area focuses on accurately identifying when passes and receptions occur, as these are frequent actions in games and critical for analysts reviewing match strategies. However, most current methods do not pinpoint when these actions happen precisely enough and often fail to show which player is making the move. Our new method uses video footage to detect passes and receptions and identifies which player is involved in each action by following possession of the ball at each moment. We create video clips, or tubes, for every player on the field, determine who has the ball, and use this information to recognize when these key actions take place. Our results show that our system is better than the latest models in spotting passes and can identify most events with an accuracy down to 0.6 seconds.