World Cup | Penalties, crosses, individual exploits… autopsy of the 172 goals scored in Qatar
And six which is 172. The very prolific World Cup final between Argentina and France (3-3) made it possible to beat, by a small unit, the record for the number of goals scored in an edition, which was until now jointly held by the vintages of 1998 and 2014 So much for quantity. But what about quality? After reviewing all the achievements of this World Cup, here is what to remember.
First observation: (almost) everything happened as the FIFA Technical Study Group, led by Arsène Wenger, had expected after the group stage. The Frenchman and his board had recorded an 83% increase in goals from crosses, compared to the previous edition, and had estimated that this particularity would become entrenched. “The teams lock the axis and open the wings a little more“, confided the former manager of Arsenal.
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Consequence: 56 goals came from crosses in the game. A third of the total. The good old outgoing center, by the winger or the side, still has a bright future ahead of him (23). But another weapon has seriously pointed the tip of his nose: the returning center, delivered by a right-hander on the left side or a left-hander on the right side. This is what notably allowed Bruno Fernandes to score by looking for Cristiano Ronaldo who, he thought he touched the ball.
To these phases of the game, we can add the very classic set pieces (corners and free kicks), which resulted in around twenty pawns, even if the Netherlands – against Argentina – and Croatia – against in Morocco – have linked business with pleasure with attractive combinations that have been worked on and repeated beforehand.
Crosses, set pieces and penalties = half the goals
If they were generally much more lenient with the players, the referees of this World Cup paradoxically remained very generous in penalties. It’s not Lionel Messi (4 penalties) and Argentina, which has become the nation with the most scores in a World Cup (5) who will say the opposite. A total of 17 penalty kicks were converted, out of 23 in all.
This is less than in 2018, the first edition during which VAR was used (22/29) but it is the second highest total, ahead of the 1998 vintage (17/18). Centers in the game, set pieces, penalties: these three phases of play therefore brought more than half (92/172) of the pawns registered in Qatar.
What about the referee? “He distorted the game in a way”
For more diversity, it was necessary to count on individual exploits (15), such as those of Kylian Mbappé against Poland, Gonçalo Ramos against Switzerland, Wahbi Khazri against the Blues or Marcus Rashford against the Welsh. On the other hand, unlike the 2018 World Cup, it was important not to bet on individual errors. Only two players (Enzo Fernández and Nayef Aguerd) have scored against their side. Six times less than in Russia. Even if a few balls of goalkeepers (Ryan against Argentina, Borjan against Morocco, Keylor Navas against Spain) offered nice gifts (3).
One-two and one-two-three were the solutions
Five men found the fault thanks to beautiful curling shots from the corners of the area (Leão against Switzerland, Fernández against Mexico) and only two more, including Aurélien Tchouaméni, scored from distance. Further proof that nowadays the axis is completely locked. “All the compactness of the teams is concentrated in the middle zoneobserved Jürgen Klinsmann, also a member of FIFA technical studies. So it’s really, really hard for teams to break through the middle and get shots from 20 or 25 yards.”
Why did Mbappé score 10?
The tactical rigor of all the selections, including the less strong on paper, limited the total of goals scored after a final through pass (11). Even the winning counters were not numerous (11) despite some favorable scenarios. The little preparation time for the coaches and the shortening of the international windows did not really help the attacks to find the kryptonite.
Even if the phases in a touch, via one-two (6) or one-two-three (9) still posed insoluble problems for the defense. Brazil, with the goals of Casemiro against Switzerland, Richarlison against Korea and Neymar against Croatia, understood this well. But it was not enough.
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