# How do they know this? \[Distance run during World Cup game\]

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-know-this-distance-run-during-world-cup-game/693110>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [July 14, 2014, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-know-this-distance-run-during-world-cup-game/693110 "2014-07-14T22:54:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bizzwire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/958977/32.png) [@bizzwire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizzwire)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-know-this-distance-run-during-world-cup-game/693110/1 "2014-07-14T22:54:46Z")

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Watching the World Cup finals, we noticed that when a player came off the field, there was a caption listing how far they had run…to two decimal points.

This, of course, set off a lively round of speculation, with one side proposing GPS-enabled shoes and another side backing some sort of optical tracking. Anyone have any solid info on this?

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**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-know-this-distance-run-during-world-cup-game/693110/2 "2014-07-14T22:58:40Z")

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Moved to the Game Room, and title edited to indicate subject. Please use descriptive thread titles.

Colibri  
General Questions Moderator

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**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-know-this-distance-run-during-world-cup-game/693110/3 "2014-07-14T23:04:33Z")

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Computer software watching wide angle shots of the game and tracking what the players are doing.

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**Author:** ![Unix\_Geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unix_geek/32/19368_2.png) [@Unix\_Geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unix_Geek)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-know-this-distance-run-during-world-cup-game/693110/4 "2014-07-14T23:06:13Z")

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Here’s a link: [http://chicagoinno.streetwise.co/2014/06/30/not-your-fathers-box-score-how-a-chicago-company-is-revolutionizing-stats-for-the-world-cup-nba/](http://chicagoinno.streetwise.co/2014/06/30/not-your-fathers-box-score-how-a-chicago-company-is-revolutionizing-stats-for-the-world-cup-nba/)

A company called “Stats” does the analysis. Same type of thing they do for the puck in hockey that everyone hated and the ability to draw the 1st down line in US football.

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**Author:** ![bizzwire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/958977/32.png) [@bizzwire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizzwire)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-know-this-distance-run-during-world-cup-game/693110/5 "2014-07-14T23:13:43Z")

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Well, that was fast!

Thanks to all,and my apologies as regards venue and title.