Soccer Revolutionary With a Mouse : World Cup: West Hills man develops computer analysis system that enables U.S. team to chart tendencies quickly.

Inside a nondescript condominium in the western end of the Valley, Zvi Friedman bangs away at a computer while a World Cup soccer game forms a backdrop on a nearby television.

It is the headquarters for an advanced soccer analysis system, and Friedman is surrounded by piles of computer-produced charts, one of which shows the key to the United States’ stunning 2-1 upset of Colombia last week.

What began in the dreams of Friedman, a 59-year-old systems analyst from West Hills, has become a reality the U.S. soccer team could hardly do without.

“In my opinion it’s a revolutionary form of analysis,” U.S. assistant coach Steve Sampson said. “To my knowledge it’s never been used in any sport.”

Friedman, who has played and coached soccer for 40 years, always wished he could get a computer to track and record every movement of the ball. But it was just a dream until he joined forces with Jon Kotas, a co-worker and computer whiz.

In less than 18 months, Friedman and Kotas designed a program and put it to use with the U.S. national team.

By sitting in the stands or press box entering data as the game is played, the two are able to produce charts that show every pass. Or only the passes completed. Or only the passes made by one player. Or only the passes in a 20-minute period.

The charts can show every shot. Or only one team’s shots. Or only the shots in the first half. Or only the shots by one player. Or every pass that led to a particular shot.

The resulting graphics look like uncooked spaghetti spread on a counter. But they are simple to translate.

“That’s the beauty of it,” said Kotas, who lives in Thousand Oaks. “You don’t have to be a soccer expert to see what’s going on. The trends are so obvious.”

Said Sampson: “I think the best use for us is we’re able to see tendencies over a 90-minute period that only a very good, professionally trained eye can see over a number of matches.”

Sometimes it doesn’t even take 90 minutes.

Friedman and Kotas recorded data at the Colombia game from the Rose Bowl press box, with Friedman looking through binoculars and calling out the numbers of the players who touched the ball and Kotas clicking a mouse, marking different spots on a computer-generated field.

At halftime Friedman, clutching a handful of charts compiled in the first half, sprinted through rows of fans to hand the information to Sampson before the coach entered the dressing room.

The charts showed that Colombia’s Wilson Perez was attacking constantly on the right side of the field and not coming back to defend. They also showed that the United States was attacking almost entirely from the left side, the opposite side Perez was leaving unguarded.

In the second half, Ernie Stewart scored to give the United States a commanding 2-0 lead.

The ball came down the right side of the field.

The charts also indicated that the Colombians were penetrating primarily from the middle, rather than the flanks. Seeing this, the U.S. players continued to clog up the inside, shutting down the Colombian attack and sealing one of the greatest upsets in World Cup history.

It also made a soccer fan out of Kotas, who had previously seen the project as just a computer-programming challenge.

“It was one of the best sports events I’ve seen in my life,” he said. “It was up there with the Kirk Gibson home run (in the 1988 World Series), and the 1980 Miracle on Ice.”

If the victory over Colombia marked the coming of age of the revolutionary program, the birth must have been when Friedman and Kotas first discussed the possibility less than two years ago.

Friedman coached soccer at Cal State Northridge in the early 1970s and was an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Skyhawks of the now-defunct American Soccer League in 1976. He used to watch soccer games repeatedly on videotape, manually charting the ball movement on dozens of sheets.

“This is a lifetime dream,” said Friedman, speaking with the accent of his native Israel. “For 15 or 20 years, I had been thinking: ‘How can coaches really see what they are doing and not just go on gut feelings?’ ”

Kotas, 40, provided the necessary know-how to make it happen.

Each night after work--he builds deep space power systems for an aerospace company--Kotas would go home and spend an hour or two on his computer, creating the program, per Friedman’s instructions.

Kotas started in April, 1993, and finished the program three months later. Friedman, who had met Sampson at a coaching conference, approached the U.S. assistant in September with his new product.

“(Sampson) said, ‘I can only spend an hour,’ and he ended up spending three hours with (the program),” Kotas said. “He kept asking more questions.”

Friedman and Kotas then presented the program to the entire U.S. coaching staff in November and, said Friedman, “They flipped out.”

The pair have been running the program with the U.S. team since, taping the games they could not attend.

“I think the computer and what Zvi is doing gives you a different look at the game,” U.S. goalkeeper Tony Meola said. “It certainly gives us a whole new perspective on what is happening. I think it will help us and I think, for our team, we’ll take any advantage we can get.”

Friedman and Kotas, who have received inquiries about writing similar programs for other sports, demonstrated the soccer program at a coaching conference in January, and Brazilian Coach Carlos Alberto Parreira became intrigued with the program.

So Kotas and Friedman sold their services to the Brazilian national team as well. The U.S. team does not pay to use the program, but does pay Friedman’s and Kotas’ expenses, they said.

Coincidentally, the United States is facing Brazil on Monday in the second round. But, by prior contractual arrangement, Friedman and Kotas will not provide Brazil any information on the United States during or before the game. But the pair headed down to the U.S. team’s headquarters in Mission Viejo on Wednesday with a stack of charts on Brazil.

“It’s kind of odd,” Friedman said, “but we were frank ahead of time with Parreira. We will help him in the future.”

If anyone could be considered an expert on Brazil and the United States, it would be Friedman. Any predictions?

“If anybody is going to win the World Cup, it should be Brazil with their great talent,” he said. “But maybe, hopefully, the U.S. can pull off the upset of the century. . . .

“We’re going to the quarterfinals either way.”