Russia World Cup 2018. Attack Finishing Stats by Continent.

Examining the match statistics of teams competing in the current World Cup shows some interesting differences as regards the continents. These differences show why some continents are more likely to produce a World Cup winner than others.

The stats shown in tabular form in this post examine the best 3 teams from Europe, South America, Africa, Asia and Concacaf in the 2018 World Cup group stages. The standard this soccer blog uses in determining these teams is points gathered in the group stages, goals difference and group standings.

Teams considered:

Europe
Belgium - 9 Points
Croatia   - 9 Points
France    - 7 Points

South America
Uruguay     - 9 Points
Brazil         - 7 Points
Colombia   - 6 Points

Africa
Senegal  - 4 Points
Nigeria   - 3 Points (-1 GD)
Tunisia    -3 Points (-3 GD)

Asia
Japan  - 4 Points (0 GD, 2nd position)
Iran   - 4 Points (0 GD, 3rd position) )
South Korea   -3 Points (0 GD)

Concacaf*
Mexico
Costa Rica
Panama

* To speak of the best 3 teams in Russia 2018 from this region may seem controversial because it only produced 3 teams altogether for the tournament. But the nature of their qualification format suggests these were certainly the best 3 teams from the Concacaf region!

The finishing stats are derived by dividing the total number of goals scored by each team by the total number of shots achieved by each team in all their 3 groups matches. Shots on target are not considered because it can be a deceptive statistic if the opposing goalkeeper in a match caught all shots on target comfortably!

When we get the goals - to -shots (GTS) ratio for each considered team in a continent (Top 3), we then calculate the average GTS ratio for that continent to reflect that continent's finishing prowess in soccer.

For instance, Belgium's GTS can be acquired from the following stats which are available via the espn website. Image Screenshots follow.

We can see from the espn stats that Belgium had a total of 53 shots in the group stages and scored 9 goals from these shots making a relatively high GTS ratio of 16.98%

The Top 3 GTS Ratio for all the continentwith teams at Russia 2018 is as tabulated below in descending order.

CONTINENT	TOP 3 GOALS TO SHOTS RATIO
Europe	14.42%
South America	13.43%
Africa	11.79%
Asia	10.50%
Concacaf	7.55%

What this clearly shows is that top European teams are significantly ahead of top teams from other continents in the business of converting scoring opportunities, and this may explain why Europe has dominated the World Cup for the last decade or more!

Pele. The Lost Prime Tournaments

Edson Arantes do Nascimento is generally acknowledged to be one of the greatest footballers of all time. Even his haters have not been able to deny this. The biq question is as to whether the complement is complementary enough!


The fact that many analysts ignore when they compare Pele with Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi is that unlike the 2 Argentines, Pele never had the opportunity to play a full major global National Team Tournament while injury free in his prime. As a matter of fact, if one looks at stats that suggest that sportsmen generally reach their prime at Age 26, (refer to attached snapshot from the credible website), then Pele never had even 1 Single World Cup or Copa America Injury Free Prime Performance! At age 21/22, he was injured in his second match of the 62 Mundial and never played again in that tournament as a result. His experience in 1966 in England was even more horrific, he was brutally fouled in each of the 2 matches he played and played the last match while limping. He vowed never to play in the World Cup again as a result. The seeming conspiracy that he suffered from in that World Cup is another subject entirely.


It is quite noteworthy that despite his commanding performances in the 1958 World Cup and the 1959 Copa America, Pele was still a teenager in both tournaments and was still not yet a fully physically mature athlete. As a matter of fact, this writer has a strong opinion that Pele's goal against Mexico in the 1962 World Cup would have been almost impossible for him to score in the 1958 and 1978 World Cups for physical reasons!


The 1970 Pele was not the Prime Pele. He had suffered major injuries in 3 of the years between 1962 and 1965, and then came 1966. It is quite explainable that he never fully recovered either physically or mentally from these injuries. Sports Medicine in the Pele era was definitely not at the level it is today, where most Soccer players can expect to still deliver prime physical performances beyond 30 years of age because of how equipped their doctors are!


Let's look at Maradona, who played all of Argentina's matches at the 1982 and 1986 World Cups when he was between 22 and 26 years of Age, his physical prime. He achieved 6 legitimate goals and 6 assists at most in 12 prime performances. No one, and NO ONE, should consider Maradona's Hand of God goal in assessing his abilities in comparison with others! Pele, on the other hand, had scored 7 goals and 3 assists in just 5 World Cup Matches by the time of his injury in the 62 tournament.


Pele's pre-prime direct goal contribution per match is actually as high as twice that of Maradona's prime performance.