Alright, so check it, I was messing around with some old football data the other day, specifically trying to piece together a proper timeline for a Blackburn Rovers vs. Newcastle United F.C. match. Thought it would be a cool little project, you know? Here’s how it all went down.
First thing I did was hit up the usual spots for football data. Found a few sites that had bits and pieces, but nothing that gave me that full, clear timeline I was after. Lots of match reports, some with key events, but scattered all over the place. So, I decided I’d have to build it myself.
Started by grabbing any match reports I could find. Official club websites, sports news outlets like ESPN, BBC Sport – you name it, I was scraping it. Pulled all the text into a couple of text files.
Next, I had to sift through all that text. This was the real grunt work. I was basically looking for anything time-stamped or mentioning specific moments in the game: goals, substitutions, yellow cards, red cards, major fouls, even stuff like when half-time started and ended. I was just copying and pasting everything relevant into a spreadsheet. Man, my eyes were burning after a while!
Once I had a decent amount of raw data, I started cleaning it up. Standardized the time formats, made sure I knew exactly who the players were (sometimes the reports just used last names, which got confusing). Then, I organized everything chronologically in the spreadsheet. This part was surprisingly time-consuming. I had to double-check everything to make sure the order was correct.
After I got the main events in order, I decided to add some extra details to make it a bit more interesting. I looked for stats on possession, shots on goal, corner kicks – anything that would paint a better picture of how the game unfolded. Again, more digging around on different websites. Found a couple that had minute-by-minute updates, which was a lifesaver.
Finally, I had a working timeline! It wasn’t perfect, mind you. Some of the timings were a bit vague (“early in the second half” isn’t exactly precise), and I’m sure I missed a few minor incidents. But, overall, I had a pretty solid breakdown of the match, from the kickoff to the final whistle.
I ended up formatting it in a simple text-based way. I thought about making a fancy graphic or interactive thing, but honestly, I just wanted to see the data laid out. I did share it with a couple of mates who are big Rovers and Newcastle fans. They seemed to dig it.
What I learned:
- Finding reliable, consistent football data is harder than you’d think.
- Cleaning and organizing data is way more time-consuming than actually finding it.
- Even a rough timeline can give you a new appreciation for the flow of a game.
Would I do it again? Probably, if I was really bored and had a specific match in mind. But next time, I’d definitely look into some proper data APIs or scraping tools to make the process a little less painful.
