Match planning

Purpose

Manage the team’s match schedule.

Features

• Overview: Upcoming, active and completed matches.
• Create match: Manually add friendly or league matches.
• KNHB integration: Automatically fetch and import official federation fixtures.
• Edit details: Adjust times, locations and opponents.
• Location: Optional when creating or editing. A new home match’s empty location is filled with the club name where possible.
• Navigation: Open match preparation (lineup/substitutions) or its live dashboard.

Finding an opponent

If your club’s country is Netherlands, search Dutch clubs by typing at least two letters when creating a match. No competition setting is required. Select the club and add the team designation yourself, such as MO14-1. You can also enter the entire opponent manually.

Preparing a match

Follow Attendance → Basics → Lineup → Schedule → Playing time → Analysis. Basics shows the formation on the pitch and lets you choose another formation or substitution strategy for this match. Substitution moments and duration are also adjustable here. New matches inherit team settings; these changes apply only to the selected match.

If a different formation affects an existing lineup, first confirm that you want to rebuild the lineup and schedule. Attendance is retained. Saving takes you to Lineup; create the substitution schedule afterwards. Standard is available for outdoor and indoor matches. Advanced is for outdoor matches. Basic — lines currently appears in the selector but cannot be selected.

Maximum availability per player

Set Max. playing time for players in match preparation: 100%, 75%, 50% or 25%. This applies only to this player in this match. The explanation shows the equivalent minutes. For a 70-minute match, 50% means at most 35 minutes, for example.

The outdoor planner respects this upper bound when calculating a plan. A maximum does not guarantee precisely that many minutes. Review the new proposal in Playing time. The limit concerns total planned playing time; Advanced play/rest rules concern consecutive turns per line.

Distributing rest across the match

A new outdoor schedule first distributes total playing time as fairly as possible. The planner then tries to spread each player’s bench time equally across both halves and shorten long uninterrupted playing turns. Only then does it choose positions and substitution patterns within that allocation.

If each outfield player has two equally long bench turns, for example, one per half is the aim. Available substitutes, suitable positions and configured limits may require another distribution. Review rest moments too. With limited maximum availability, longer playing turns remain possible to avoid unnecessary substitutions. This improvement applies on recalculation; existing and completed-match schedules do not change automatically.

Progress while creating a schedule

During Create schedule, desktop and mobile show actual status. On desktop, this temporarily replaces the duration and planner-settings summary. The regular summary returns when calculation stops.

Wide desktop screens also show a segmented step bar, with the active step in orange. Below it, an indicative calculation budget counts down from 60 seconds to zero. This is not a guaranteed finish time: the schedule may finish earlier, while finalising or a new attempt may take longer. Extra calculation time then appears.

Queued means your request was received and awaits execution. Once calculation starts, you see the planner’s current task, such as Distributing playing time, Distributing rest across the match or Improving position preferences, with active step and elapsed calculation time. One line below the step counter explains its count: steps for your planner settings and extra steps for regular players or priority agreements. Extra steps show a count (+N) or off/not applicable: that rule is disabled or does not apply to these players and settings. Open Steps for other steps and their status in a compact window above the schedule. Details do not push the schedule down. Steps follow your chosen planning level and settings.

In Metro, a Provisional schedule appears during calculation once the planner finds a complete intermediate version. It updates when another version is found. One wand per line moves across the chart during calculation, including in the provisional version. With reduced motion, wands remain still. Editing or saving becomes available only after calculation finishes. Fast steps may finish before you see an intermediate version; not every planner produces one.

A found result may still be improved. If a step finds no new result, the planner may retain the earlier valid schedule. Steps have different durations, so the counter is neither a percentage nor a remaining-time prediction. Any new attempt is listed separately.

Scheduled means the request awaits its planned start. Temporary failure to fetch status is stated explicitly. Without step details, the general Calculating schedule notice remains.

If task processing is disabled, the notice says so and you can ask an administrator to check it. A queued request does not need resubmitting.

Starting lineup and clearing

The schedule automatically uses the saved starting lineup. Match start is fixed; change it through Starting lineup. Save a complete lineup with unique, present players before creating a schedule. From the first substitution moment, position coverage can be changed in Grid, including at the start of a later quarter.

Clear removes substitutions. The starting lineup stays visible and the goalkeeper remains locked by default. After saving, you can create another schedule from that starting point.

Viewing Metro

Under Bench, times for each quarter sit side by side, with bench players below each time. Columns align with the timeline above, including in the PDF.

The Dugout/bench icon beside a name means the player comes from the bench. Dotted connections indicate position changes within a quarter. The person-plus icon marks a stand-in. The Metro PDF uses the same distinction. Bench tracks restart each quarter; no connections are drawn between quarters.

The schedule opens in Metro by default. The button immediately before download switches to Grid and back. Grid is where players can be changed.

Metro shows one continuous track per position, grouped by line. All quarters appear side by side. The name above a track identifies the player; an open station marks a different player at that position. Each substitution interval has equal width to keep names readable. In the match PDF, each substitution moment has two times above it: a downward arrow shows time remaining in the quarter; an upward arrow below shows elapsed time. Both are within the indicated quarter.

Click a name, substitution time or bench row for the full lineup in a detail window. Arrows move through moments. Bench substitutions and Position changes are listed separately. Close the window to return.

Below the tracks, each moment shows who is on the bench. Stand-ins have the person-plus icon after their name. Narrow screens allow horizontal scrolling.

Download match PDF includes Metro as a landscape A4 overview. It stays on one landscape A4 page directly after the opening overview.

This initial version displays the existing position schedule. Substitutions cannot yet be changed in Metro.

Advanced: playing time and rest per line

Set default rules in Team → Formations → Advanced. Override them for one match in Match → Basics → Advanced. For each line, choose substitution moments per quarter, maximum consecutive play and minimum bench rest. None means no additional limit. A block is that line’s interval; another line’s substitution moment does not count.

Where quarter duration is known, estimated time appears beside the blocks. Quarter break counts as sufficient rest determines whether the break can interrupt a streak. This switch is off by default.

Basics warns per line if too few suitable present players can satisfy the maximum playing streak. It shows available and minimum required player counts. Relax the limit or adjust attendance and positions. Lines with the same substitution rhythm are also checked together: a player usable on several lines counts once. A joint shortage produces one message naming the affected lines. Saving remains possible; the planner then checks the full combination of substitution times, bench rest and maximum playing time.

Choose Create schedule next. The outdoor planner uses the saved starting lineup and substitutes only at that line’s moments. Other lines remain in place. Maximum playing time still applies. It allocates minutes first, spreads bench time across both halves and shortens long playing streaks, then selects preferred positions as far as possible within that allocation. Changing lines does not count as rest: consecutive play continues, assessed using the new line’s block duration. Minimum bench rest follows the line the player left.

Too few suitable substitutes may make limits impossible. You do not receive a schedule that ignores them: allow a longer playing streak, reduce rest or add a suitable substitute. With different line rhythms, use Metro; Grid is unavailable. Times and playing-time statistics follow actual block duration, including in the match PDF.

Advanced is available for outdoor matches. Prepare through the portal on desktop or phone. A larger screen helps with detailed settings; your phone takes the plan to the match.

Metro during the match

The mobile match workspace shows the prepared Metro schedule. The current planned block is highlighted during the match. Position labels stay visible during horizontal scrolling. Back to now returns to the current moment. This remains the planned schedule; check whether actual play matches it.

Reading Metro

A short guide appears below Metro. Read positions from left to right; times restart at 00:00 each quarter. An open circle marks a different player at that position, a bench icon marks someone coming from the bench, and a dotted connection marks a position change. Bench shows who is a substitute from that moment. The substitution PDF includes the same explanation on a separate page after Metro, with a visual example using the fixed fictional names Anna, Bo and Cato.