Twenty questions, football style
Have you ever played Twenty Questions? One player thinks of something. Everyone else asks yes or no questions, one at a time. A few good questions can crack the mystery fast.
A football coach can play a version of that same game. Before a match, the coach asks a few yes or no questions about the game. The answers point to a smart plan. A computer can ask those same questions, and land on that same smart plan.
A formation is the shape a team's players stand in on the field, like 4-3-3 (4 defenders, 3 midfielders, 3 attackers). Different formations are better for different situations.
Questions that build a tree
Each yes or no question splits your choices into two paths. Answer YES, and you go one way. Answer NO, and you go another way.
Now follow a few of these questions, one after another. That is called walking a decision tree. Draw all the paths on paper, and they branch out just like a real tree. Ready to help a coach? Let's scout a match and pick the right formation.
A decision tree is a chain of yes/no questions that leads you to an answer, one question at a time. Computers use them to make smart choices.
Play the Game Help the Coach 🌳
Answer each yes or no question about the match. Watch the tree light up a path as you go, and you will land on the smartest formation for the team.
How to play
- Look at the tree picture below. It shows every question and every formation it could lead to.
- Read the question in the box, then press YES or NO, whichever fits the match you're imagining.
- Watch the gold dot travel down the tree, lighting up the path you picked.
- Keep answering until you land on a formation, with a little picture of the team shape.
- Press "Scout a new match" and try different answers to light up a different path.
Checking your guess with numbers
Your yes or no answers give you a smart formation. Real coaches like to double check that guess with real numbers too.
Let's Do The Maths
Out of Team Coral's last 10 matches using 4-3-3 (Balanced Attack): 7 wins, 3 losses. That means $$\dfrac{7}{10} \times 100\% = 70\%$$ of the time it worked.
Out of 10 matches using 5-4-1 (Defend the Lead) while already ahead: 8 wins, 2 losses. That is an 80% win rate.
Both formations work well, just in different situations. That is exactly what your two questions above sort out.
- A formation is the shape a team stands in, like 4-3-3.
- A decision tree answers yes or no questions, one at a time, until it reaches an answer.
- Each question splits your choices into two paths: YES or NO.
- Coaches, and computers, use decision trees to pick a smart plan fast.
🎮 3D Vox game: Coach Brain
The coach’s robot brain! Switch clues ON, watch the pulses flow in, and when the charge hits 5 the brain FIRES: time to attack!
Next: use everything you learned to predict real World Cup matches.