Heads in the game
Heads in the game
胜负之间：科技如何改变比赛
The Argentina v. France final of the 2022 Men’s World Cup in Qatar was shaping up to be one of the most epic games in soccer history. With just 12 minutes remaining in the extra time added to the game to break a tie, the referee had a critical decision to make—and fast. 2022年卡塔尔世界杯阿根廷对阵法国的决赛，正演变成足球史上最史诗般的比赛之一。在加时赛仅剩12分钟时，裁判必须迅速做出一个至关重要的判罚。
Lionel Messi, the Argentine captain and soccer legend, had just launched the ball past the French goal line, giving Argentina a 3–2 lead. The crowd roared, but a flag was raised. One ref thought that shortly before Messi kicked the ball, the Argentine forward Lautaro Martinez had been closer to the goal than any French players apart from the goalie when he’d received a pass—putting him in an illegal “offside” position. 阿根廷队长、足球传奇人物利昂内尔·梅西刚刚将球送入法国队球门，帮助阿根廷队以3-2领先。全场欢呼雀跃，但边裁举起了旗帜。一位裁判认为，在梅西射门前不久，阿根廷前锋劳塔罗·马丁内斯在接球时，比除门将外的任何法国球员都更靠近球门，这使他处于违规的“越位”位置。
If the head referee called Martinez offside, the goal wouldn’t count. If he declared him onside, Argentina would keep its 3–2 lead with minutes left to play. The weight of more than just one offside call stood on that referee’s shoulders; it was the weight of the World Cup itself. 如果主裁判判罚马丁内斯越位，进球将无效。如果判罚不越位，阿根廷队将在比赛仅剩几分钟时保持3-2的领先。这位裁判肩上承担的不仅仅是一次越位判罚的压力，更是整个世界杯的重量。
But in 2022, for the first time in the storied competition’s history, referees had access to semi-automated offside technology (SAOT), a system that could rapidly analyze the play and detect an offside player. In this case, it produced an image revealing that a French defender was slightly closer to the goal than Martinez, just barely leaving the Argentine forward in a legal attacking position. The referee ruled that the goal counted: 3–2, Argentina. 但在2022年，这项久负盛名的赛事历史上首次引入了半自动越位技术（SAOT），该系统能够快速分析比赛过程并检测越位球员。在这种情况下，它生成了一张图像，显示一名法国后卫比马丁内斯更靠近球门，这使得这位阿根廷前锋刚好处于合法的进攻位置。裁判判定进球有效：阿根廷3-2领先。
SAOT produced this image to determine whether Argentine forward Lautaro Martinez (in white) was offside. It shows that only Martinez’s fingers had crossed the vertical white line into offside territory. Players’ hands and arms are not considered for offside decisions, so Martinez was declared onside. SAOT生成了这张图像，以确定阿根廷前锋劳塔罗·马丁内斯（身穿白色球衣）是否越位。图像显示，只有马丁内斯的手指越过了垂直白线进入了越位区域。由于球员的手和手臂不计入越位判定，因此马丁内斯被判定为不越位。
Argentina eventually emerged as the champion, winning a penalty shootout after a late goal by French forward Kylian Mbappé tied the game at 3–3. Only in a parallel universe will we know how the game—and the tournament—would have played out if the referee had overturned Messi’s goal. 阿根廷最终夺得冠军，在法国前锋基利安·姆巴佩打入绝平球将比分扳为3-3后，阿根廷通过点球大战获胜。只有在平行宇宙中，我们才能知道如果裁判推翻了梅西的进球，比赛和整个锦标赛的结局会如何。
For FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, SAOT is among the latest in a portfolio of innovations used at the World Cup. From goal line technology to video assistant referee (VAR) tools, officiating tech is now commonplace at the top level of the game. But SAOT is part of a broader sports technology landscape that stretches far beyond soccer. And one of the major players in that landscape is the very team that collaborated with FIFA to bring SAOT to the pitch in the first place: the MIT Sports Lab. 对于国际足联（FIFA）而言，SAOT是世界杯所采用的一系列最新创新技术之一。从门线技术到视频助理裁判（VAR）工具，执法科技如今已成为顶级赛事中的常态。但SAOT只是更广阔的体育科技领域的一部分，其影响远不止于足球。而该领域的主要参与者之一，正是最初与国际足联合作将SAOT带到赛场上的团队：麻省理工学院体育实验室（MIT Sports Lab）。
Founded in 2015, the lab focuses on using technology and data science to tackle real problems facing athletes, teams, and sports organizations and brands. The lab has worked with FIFA, the NBA, the NFL, and Adidas, and it collaborates with a host of other sports organizations and industry players. Some of its work may be hiding in the soles of your running shoes, in the decisions your favorite NBA team makes, or even on soccer’s biggest stage—as was the case in what the AP called “probably the wildest final in the tournament’s 92-year history.” 该实验室成立于2015年，专注于利用技术和数据科学解决运动员、球队、体育组织及品牌所面临的实际问题。实验室曾与国际足联、NBA、NFL和阿迪达斯合作，并与众多其他体育组织和行业参与者开展协作。它的一些研究成果可能就藏在你跑鞋的鞋底里，藏在你最喜欢的NBA球队的决策中，甚至出现在足球最高舞台上——正如美联社所称的“可能是该赛事92年历史上最疯狂的决赛”中所展现的那样。
The MIT Sports Lab’s origin story begins around 2010, when Anette “Peko” Hosoi, the Pappalardo Professor of Mechanical Engineering, fell in love with downhill mountain biking and needed a new bike. But given the varying linkage systems, shock types, and geometries, she found it difficult to choose the best one. Encountering only minimal information online, she assigned the analysis to her 2.001 class, the introductory course on mechanics. “All of my exams that semester were bike questions,” she says. They proved to be really good engineering questions too. 麻省理工学院体育实验室的故事始于2010年左右，当时机械工程学教授安妮特·“佩科”·霍索伊（Anette “Peko” Hosoi）爱上了速降山地自行车，并需要一辆新车。但面对各种不同的连杆系统、减震类型和几何结构，她发现很难做出选择。由于网上信息极少，她将这项分析任务布置给了她的2.001班级——一门力学入门课程。“那个学期我所有的考试题目都是关于自行车的，”她说。事实证明，这些也是非常好的工程学问题。
Having recently earned tenure, she wondered, What if I actually built this sports thing into something bigger? In 2011, she began conceptualizing a project called STE@M (Sports Technology and Education at MIT), which would assemble students, faculty, athletes, and industry partners to tackle sports engineering challenges. As the effort kicked into gear over the next few years, Hosoi began collaborating with Christina Chase, MIT’s new entrepreneur in residence, and in 2015 the two of them cofounded the MIT Sports Lab. 在获得终身教职后，她心想：如果我把这个体育项目做大呢？2011年，她开始构思一个名为STE@M（麻省理工学院体育技术与教育）的项目，旨在汇集学生、教职员工、运动员和行业合作伙伴，共同攻克体育工程挑战。随着该项目在接下来的几年里步入正轨，霍索伊开始与麻省理工学院新任驻校企业家克里斯蒂娜·蔡斯（Christina Chase）合作，并于2015年共同创立了麻省理工学院体育实验室。
“It turned out that we’re the perfect combination for this because my background comes from the math, physics, engineering side,” says Hosoi. “And she comes from the entrepreneurship [and] product development side. To really interface with these different sports companies and leagues, you need to span that whole spectrum.” Chase became the lab’s managing director and Hosoi its faculty director. “事实证明，我们是这方面的完美组合，因为我的背景来自数学、物理和工程领域，”霍索伊说，“而她来自创业和产品开发领域。要真正与这些不同的体育公司和联盟对接，你需要涵盖整个领域。”蔡斯担任实验室的执行董事，霍索伊担任教职主任。
For over a decade, the Sports Lab has grown as interest in sports tech has skyrocketed—and it’s accumulated what younger fans would call some elite ball knowledge in the process. This depth is exactly what its partners need. “There’s more and more data that’s getting collected,” says Hosoi. “A lot of the teams, leagues, brands don’t necessarily have the in-house manpower to extract the information they need. So that’s where we can give them a boost.” 十多年来，随着人们对体育科技的兴趣激增，体育实验室不断壮大，并在此过程中积累了年轻球迷所说的“精英级球类知识”。这种深度正是其合作伙伴所需要的。“收集到的数据越来越多，”霍索伊说，“许多球队、联盟和品牌并不一定有内部人力来提取他们所需的信息。这就是我们可以为他们提供助力的地方。”
When MIT researchers looked at early skeletal data representing soccer players in motion, they saw “skeletons” flying above the ground or completely underground, in anatomically impossible positions. The FIFA partnership has been especially fruitful—and the Sports Lab’s role in validating SAOT has probably had more impact than any other project the organizations have worked on together, says Ferran Vidal-Codina, SM ’13, PhD ’17, a former research scientist at the lab who was part of the team from FIFA, MIT, and third-party data providers that developed the technology. The system’s viability depended on the ability to quickly access and analyze what’s known as tracking. 当麻省理工学院的研究人员查看代表足球运动员运动的早期骨骼数据时，他们看到“骨架”在地面上方飞行，或者完全埋在地下，处于解剖学上不可能的位置。与国际足联的合作成果尤为丰硕——实验室前研究科学家、曾参与国际足联、麻省理工学院及第三方数据提供商联合开发该技术的费兰·维达尔-科迪纳（Ferran Vidal-Codina，2013届硕士，2017届博士）表示，体育实验室在验证SAOT方面的作用，可能比两家机构合作过的任何其他项目都更具影响力。该系统的可行性取决于快速获取和分析所谓“追踪数据”的能力。