Asymmetries in football: The pass-goal paradox

TL;DR

This study analyzes the relationship between passes and goals in LaLiga matches, revealing a paradox where fewer passes in the second half coincide with more goals, highlighting asymmetries in football gameplay.

Contribution

It uncovers a novel pass-goal paradox in football, showing how scoring efficiency varies across match halves and is independent of overall team pass volume.

Findings

Goals are more costly in passes in the first half.

Fewer passes are made in the second half despite more goals.

Top-ranked teams make more passes overall.

Abstract

We investigate the relation between the number of passes made by a football team and the number of goals. We analyze the 380 matches of a complete season of the Spanish national league "LaLiga" (2018/2019). We observe how the number of scored goals is positively correlated with the number of passes made by a team. In this way, teams on the top (bottom) of the ranking at the end of the season make more (less) passes than the rest of the teams. However, we observe a strong asymmetry when the analysis is made depending on the part of the match. Interestingly, fewer passes are made on the second part of a match while, at the same time, more goals are scored. This paradox appears in the majority of teams, and it is independent of the number of passes made. These results confirm that goals in the first part of matches are more "costly" in terms of passes than those scored on second halves.