Case study USC Litschau: From relegation candidates to champions in just 12 months

In spring 2024, USC Litschau was fighting relegation. A year later, the club were champions of the 1. Klasse Waldviertel. This is a story about team spirit, hard work, and a camera that gave the coaching staff and the whole club new options.

The starting point: a relegation fight in 2023/24

The 2023/24 season was difficult for USC Litschau from the start. Injuries and a lack of consistency pushed the team to the bottom of the table. The club strengthened the squad over the winter, but the board knew that new players alone would not be enough.

Two things were missing:

• An objective basis for match analysis. Recurring mistakes could only be discussed from memory. Nobody could show what had actually happened on the pitch.
• Visibility. Especially in a difficult phase, the club wanted to stay close to its fans, sponsors and supporters, but had little content to do that with.

USC Litschau brought in the zone14 camera to tackle both.

How the club uses zone14

Once the camera was installed, the club started working with the REPLAY analysis platform right away. Four uses have become part of the weekly routine:

• Showing instead of telling. After every match, the coaching staff clip the scenes where transitions and set pieces went wrong. Players see their mistakes instead of only hearing about them, and the corrections show in the next match.
• An account for every player. Each player can watch and analyze their own actions. For the youth teams, it was the first time they could rewatch their matches in good quality.
• Data instead of debates. zone14 STATS calculates running data and heatmaps automatically from the video. Questions about work rate or positional discipline are now answered with numbers, and training is planned around them.
• Content for fans and sponsors. Every week, the footage becomes highlight playlists for social media, alongside livestreams of the matches. This keeps fans engaged and gives the club material to present to sponsors.

The result: from survival to the title

2023/24: staying up in a direct duel

The foundation was the team’s unity. The weekly video analysis gave it a clear direction, and the public livestreams and highlights gave the players extra motivation. After a weak start to the spring, the team fought its way back match by match and secured survival in the decisive game against direct rivals Weitra.

2024/25: champions in the anniversary year

For its anniversary year, the club set out to stay well clear of the relegation zone. By now, video analysis was a fixed part of every training week. A strong run of results earned USC the autumn title. The highlight videos became a weekly ritual for the fans, and disputed scenes are now settled at the local pub with the video at hand.

A setback at the start of the spring briefly knocked the team off course. A sober look at the matches helped them get back on track quickly. In the derby against Heidenreichstein, a 3–2 win sealed the 1. Klasse Waldviertel title with games to spare. Twelve months earlier, the club had been fighting to stay in the league.

What zone14 brought the club

The team won the title. zone14 helped the team and the club on three levels:

• On the pitch: tactical adjustments based on real match scenes, and targeted development for every player.
• For the community: livestreams, highlights and reels that bring the fans along every week.
• Commercially: more reach, and with it a more attractive offer for sponsors.

Apart from the great tactical benefits, zone14 allows us to provide our fans with fantastic videos, from short reels of certain game scenes to complete game summaries and live streams. These achieve a wide reach, which makes the offer attractive to our sponsors and provides a significant reason to invest in the club.

The first match of the women’s team showed how much potential there is: no other video of the club has been watched more online. USC Litschau is a zone14 partner club and a good example of what an amateur club can achieve with team spirit and the right tools.

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