FIFA's guests discuss whether hydration breaks introduced during the World Cup show up in the match momentum data. They say the analysis hasn't been fully done yet, and that any visible shift is more likely a result of coaches using the break to make tactical changes than a direct effect the momentum metric itself is designed to capture. They note hydration breaks add a new tactical decision point beyond substitutions, giving coaches a psychological and strategic reset mid-half.
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One guest says there is no indication hydration breaks will continue in future tournaments, because the criteria used to trigger them are complex to calculate.
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They plan to properly analyze the effect once data from the next competition is available for comparison.
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The Club World Cup only had hydration breaks in some matches, so there was no consistent tactical precedent going into this tournament.
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26:49be interesting to get your take on how you may have seen it affect match momentum. Most uh prominent of which is the introduction of hydration breaks during uh the World Cup specifically because correct me if I'm wrong, the the match momentum has existed prior to the World Cup. It just happened to be featuring prominently at the World Cup. Is that correct? So, did you notice, you know, as you've been looking through, has there been any differences between the non-hydration break data sets versus the hydration break data sets as it relates to match momentum or does it not really m or is it not really the right way to think about this method? >> I think yeah, no, there there are some
27:31signs. Um, I would say we haven't fully analyzed it. It's one of the questions that we've been asked to analyze and we will do so. But at the moment, I wouldn't say necessarily that momentum necessarily reflects any big changes for sure. The reasons why we're talking about them because of the tactical decisions the coaches are making as a result of having those those um those hydration breaks. Um but it's really hard especially for instance when a team already has momentum and they further increase their momentum right what does that actually um what does that actually mean and how do you
28:12actually measure that versus when you see a momentum switch as a result of um as a result of the the hydration break. So I think first we have to really understand what we're trying to use momentum to measure in that context >> before we then can go okay well this is this is a consequence or this is what's happened as a result of of of the hydration break on momentum. I think it's it's actually the hydration breaks are more complex than we actually probably realize um just watching it and what it does to to teams both psychologically, tactically um and also
28:55the state of the game that you're in when when that hydration break comes, right? Um there are so many different scenarios that you can use those high duration breaks to then overcome and I wouldn't say match momentum is the single thing that necessarily will reflect that. That's that's fascinating and and it it is um you know as we see sort of the tacticians in managers uh it's been interesting to see how managers have utilized the introduction of that and how quickly sort of you know strategy around using those to approach the games differently and having that opportunity to have a reset
29:36again whether it's psychologically whether it's tactically and so I I would be interested interested to see how that continues to evolve both from a how do you how do you look at it from an analytics perspective and what story is it telling um and and you know does it continue to exist in the same format you know or does this does this become something that's perceived after the data is a little bit more digested that it impact on the game is outsized in a way that's maybe not intended but has become the reality in its implementation >> um >> yeah I I think there's no indication that we will see uh hydration breaks
30:17again in the near future um because of the way that we measure the reasons why we have a hydration break, right? It's it's pretty complex that the measurement that the calculation for the reasons why we have them. Um so I think the best way for us to actually look at it is in our next competition, right? So you understanding it once our next competitions have as h when our next competition has happened actually looking back what impact did they have because the other thing that we obviously had coming into the tournament where we didn't have hydration breaks or you know we did have them in the club world cup but only on certain matches there wasn't a clear kind of principle
30:59around tactically how we can use them. So, you know, we've got to maybe a stage where everybody has some form of tactical decision to make during or uses that opportunity to make a tactical decision. Um, and now we'll go back to not having that opportunity or the same type of opportunity. So, I think it's probably in that way. Previously, the tactical decisions were based on substitutions, right? Now, you've got an extra layer that you can use in the current tournament to to have some to make some tactical changes.
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