Football Focus Sportscode Capture Performance Analysis

Everything Automated: Match Day and beyond with Molde FK

25 Sep, 2022

3 Min Read

By Tony Sprangers

Molde FK are one of the leading clubs in the Eliteserien, the top level of football in Norway. One of only two Norwegian clubs to have competed in the UEFA Champions League, Molde have set high standards as a club in recent times - being crowned national champions four times in the past decade.

Molde are a technologically advanced club, and have adopted automated video capture and analysis processes to enhance how they can analyze matches during live action. This technology is part of a league-wide deal Hudl have with the Eliteserien and second-tier OBOS-Ligaen.

We visited Molde’s Aker Stadion on match day to see this process from pre-match, live-match, to post-match.

The Aker Stadion has a Hudl Focus camera positioned in the roof of the stadium, on the half way line. Video Analyst Eric Kirkevold explains the vision that the Focus camera provides as well as eliminating time-consuming issues of the past.

“Previously, before we had the Hudl Focus camera, we had to film all our home games ourselves with a camera recorder,” said Kirkevold. “We sometimes also had to use the TV broadcast feed, which doesn't cover all players on the pitch and it's not that good from a tactical perspective.

The Hudl Focus camera gives us the tactical angle which follows the ball, and it also gives us three fixed camera positions: the left side, the right side and the center.”

The Aker Stadion - Molde FK's picturesque home set near the fjords and mountain ranges of the area.

All Eliteserien and Norwegian Cup games are automatically scheduled by Hudl to begin the automatic capture, just before the game starts. This makes the entire process as easy as plugging and playing for the Video Analyst.

“So every home game is pre-scheduled by Hudl, the camera is scheduled for starting recording 15 minutes before the game kicks off,” said Kirkevold. “So for me, it's all about plugging in my MacBook and starting the capture.”

"The Hudl Focus camera gives us the tactical angle which follows the ball, and it also gives us three fixed camera positions: the left side, the right side and the center". Eric Kirkevold - Video Analyst, Molde FK.

During the match, the automated capture integrates with Hudl Sportscode, meaning the Video Analyst can live code using multiple angles of footage and provide critical insight on the match as it takes place.

“On a match day, I'll sit in our press box with our Individual Development Coach, and I will do the tagging in Sportscode and he will sit and watch the game,” said Kirkevold. “It's crucial to be able to provide feedback for the rest of the staff during the game and also especially at halftime.

When I go down to the dressing room, for example, we tag all our build up versus the high press and then we also cover what the outcome is of this build up. For example, if we lose the ball in the first zone. Or if we advance with the ball.”

Molde Analyst Eric Kirkevold and Individual Skills Coach Mattias Moström work together on match day to live code and take insights from the live action to report back to the team.

Once the final whistle blows, the post-match analysis is also an automated process for Molde.

“Once the game is finished and the match is automatically uploaded to Hudl, the match is tagged on Wyscout and delivered to me within 12 hours post-match,” said Kirkevold.

“I start the process of finding the instances to show the team for the next day's team meeting by the use of the output reports that we have created together with Hudl It's really easy to find the moments we want to go through, so it's just basically putting them into the organizer and making a small package of clips and showing them to the coach the next day.”

In less than 12 hours post-match, the match from the previous night is tagged automatically on Wyscout and delivered to Kirkevold to begin preparing his team report.

Molde are now a very ambitious club, with the first of their four Eliteserien titles coming only in 2011, which is fairly recent for a club that was founded in 1911. With domestic success now coming fairly regularly, it’s natural that they now have aspirations for the European stage.

“For our team, we want to compete and be in the top of Norwegian Eliteserien, every year,” said Kirklevold. “It's very important that we now have the right tools to compete with the biggest teams in Europe.”

Record and upload automatically - learn how you can bring Hudl Focus to your club.