World Cup: Passing Stats through 6/14

by Hawerchuk on Jun 15, 2010 7:00 AM EDT Comment 3 comments

Here are the passing statistics for games through 6/14:

Away	Pass	Inc	Pass%	Dist	Home	Pass	Inc	Pass%	Dist
Denmark	221	87	71.8	62.0	Holland	470	85	84.7	53.6
Mexico	535	95	84.9	52.5	South Africa	271	96	73.8	54.6
Nigeria	228	99	69.7	50.4	Argentina	477	87	84.6	51.5
Ghana	323	95	77.3	54.6	Serbia	337	94	78.2	58.8
France	371	101	78.6	49.4	Uruguay	259	106	71.0	57.8
Cameroon	360	127	73.9	56.7	Japan	257	109	70.2	59.9
Paraguay	258	160	61.7	60.9	Italy	382	176	68.5	51.5
Australia	422	78	84.4	55.7	Germany	561	66	89.5	56.7
USA	249	126	66.4	54.6	England	371	122	75.3	54.6
Slovenia	387	105	78.7	56.7	Algeria	348	100	77.7	59.9
Greece	316	115	73.3	54.6	South Korea	306	110	73.6	56.7

The way to read this table is the following: Germany completed 561 passes and made 66 unsuccessful ones, for an 89.5% completion rate. Their average pass was made 56.7 yards from Australia's goal line. Winning teams were slightly more likely to pass the ball more and complete a higher percentage of passes, but it's no guarantee of winning.

Perhaps (?) more instructive is the passing completion rate into the 18-yard box:

Away	Pass	Inc	Pass%	Home	Pass	Inc	Pass%
Denmark	6	19	24.0	Holland	10	20	33.3
Mexico	17	21	44.7	South Africa	5	16	23.8
Nigeria	8	26	23.5	Argentina	18	19	48.6
Ghana	10	27	27.0	Serbia	9	21	30.0
France	14	32	30.4	Uruguay	4	17	19.0
Cameroon	12	37	24.5	Japan	6	23	20.7
Paraguay	7	23	23.3	Italy	11	41	21.2
Australia	13	27	32.5	Germany	23	18	56.1
USA	10	27	27.0	England	13	29	31.0
Slovenia	2	20	9.1	Algeria	8	22	26.7
Greece	11	47	19.0	South Korea	8	21	27.6

Germany dominated in this department, but at the same time, Slovenia managed to win despite barely getting the ball into the box. So merely passing the ball to a good offensive positive is not an indicator that you'll score goals.

What about at the individual level? These are the top 30 pass leaders so far:

First	Last	Team	Passes
Francisco	Rodriguez	Mexico	95
Philipp	Lahm	Germany	83
Bastian	Schweinsteiger	Germany	83
Lionel	Messi	Argentina	79
Gianluca	Zambrotta	Italy	77
Per	Mertesacker	Germany	76
Gerardo	Torrado	Mexico	75
Daniele	De Rossi	Italy	72
John	Terry	England	70
Wesley	Sneijder	Holland	70
Rafael	Marquez	Mexico	69
Luke	Wilkshire	Australia	69
Arne	Friedrich	Germany	69
Patrice	Evra	France	69
Nadir	Belhadj	Algeria	69
Ricardo	Osorio	Mexico	67
Robert	Koren	Slovenia	67
Nicolas	N'Koulou	Cameroon	67
Carlos	Salcido	Mexico	66
Bacary	Sagna	France	66
Thomas	Muller	Germany	66
Simone	Pepe	Italy	65
Claudio	Morel Rodriguez	Paraguay	65
Juan Sebastian	Veron	Argentina	64
Medhi	Lacen	Algeria	63
Gregory	Van der Wiel	Holland	63
Anthony	Annan	Ghana	63
Marko	Suler	Slovenia	63
Miso	Brecko	Slovenia	62
Javier	Mascherano	Argentina	62

With only one game played, and a multitude of different stadiums with different scorers, it's hard to say that this list means anything yet.

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Comments

I’m amazed… where do you get all these stats?

"Maybe subconsciously [Jason Kendall] feels the need to throw the ball in the outfield since he can’t hit it there." - AJaha25 on Kendall leading the Royals in errors

by ehr.hoff on Jun 15, 2010 7:53 PM EDT reply actions

Oh also I remember in 2006, they had a thing that tracked how far a player ran during the match. It would be interesting to see your take on that and if you could make a cool post out of it.

"Maybe subconsciously [Jason Kendall] feels the need to throw the ball in the outfield since he can’t hit it there." - AJaha25 on Kendall leading the Royals in errors

by ehr.hoff on Jun 15, 2010 7:54 PM EDT reply actions

great idea. I’ll look into that.

by Hawerchuk on Jun 15, 2010 8:19 PM EDT up reply actions

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