Pass Appearance Time and pass attempts by teams qualifying for the second stage of FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa ―All 48 group stage matches―

Kaori Saito, Masahumi Yoshimura and Tomoko Ogiwara

[Received January 5, 2012; Accepted August 29, 2013] 

The key concepts in modern football are thought to be passing game and ball possession.
Does passing win championships? The performance of Spain and FC Barcelona suggests that passing does indeed bring success. What, then, are the passing tendencies in actual games?
Teams that select a passing strategy are thought to employ a variety of passes. The majority of successful passes appear on the inside of plays. This study was carried out to clarify the role of passing in all teams that did and did not qualify for the 2nd stage of the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa.
In this study, Pass Appearance Time was calculated by dividing Net Playtime by number of pass attempts.
The results were as follows:
1) Teams that qualified for the 2nd stage had a higher number of pass attempts and greater Net Playtime.
2) Pass attempt count and Net Playtime were correlated.
3) Low Pass Appearance Time and high pass attempt count were correlated.
Results suggested a tendency for teams that had both low Pass Appearance Time and high pass attempt counts to qualify for the 2nd stage.


Keywords: Passing game, Pass Appearance Time, Pass attempts, Net Playtime, Group stage matches

[Football Science Vol.10, 65-69, 2013]


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