How to track a football match

What to write down

The teams. Who played on each side, and where, if you care about positions.

Every goal. The minute, the team, who scored and who set it up.

The result. The final score, and who played best.

That is enough to answer the questions that come up later: who scores the most, who sets up the most, and who wins the most.

On paper or in a notes app

For one game, this is fine. Write the two teams at the top, then a line per goal: minute, team, scorer, assist. Count the lines at the end for the score.

It gets hard in three places. Someone has to stop playing to write. The score gets argued over halfway through. And adding up stats across many games by hand takes longer than the games did.

1. Pick the teams

In Matchday, mark who is playing and it drafts two sides, balanced by position and form. Move anyone you like before kick-off.

How the team picker works

2. Log each goal as it happens

Tap the team, pick the scorer, then the assist. The minute comes from the match clock, so nobody has to note the time.

Do it from a phone, or from an Apple Watch or a Wear OS watch so the phone stays in your bag. With no signal at the pitch, the watch keeps the goal and sends it later.

Got one wrong? Tap the goal on the timeline to change it or remove it.

3. Let others follow it

Share the match link or its code. Anyone who could not make it follows the live score and every goal in the app, without making an account.

4. Full time

The score is already right, because it is counted from the goals you logged. Every player gets a rating out of 10, and the top rating is man of the match.

5. The stats add up on their own

Goals, assists, wins and ratings for every player, across every match you log. Look at all time, this year or the last 10 games, and compare yourself with any teammate.

See the stats