Regional Analysis of the Shots in the Football Matches Played in the 2018 FIFA World Cup and Their Effect on Success

Abstract

Aim: The purpose of this study is to analyze the shots taken in 64 football matches played in the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Methods: Shots taken in 64 matches played with the participation of 32 teams in the FIFA 2018 World Cup were included in the study. 170 of the 1595 shots targeted the goal resulted in goals, but the goals scored with the head, scored on team's own goal, scored from the penalty and dead ball were not included in these numbers. The teams that finished the Cup in the top 3 places were evaluated as successful and the teams that could not enter the top 3 were considered as unsuccessful. The data obtained were evaluated for the successful/ unsuccessful teams in terms of 1) Total shots, total shots on target/off-target, 2) on/off-target shots taken inside/outside the penalty area, 3) Goals scored inside/outside the penalty area. The manual notation (paper-pencil) method was used to collect the data. SPSS 21 package program was used for statistical analyses. The normal distribution evaluations of the data were made with the Shapiro - Wilk test. As the data the data were not normally distributed Mann-Whitney U test was used in the statistical analysis of the data (p <0.05). Results: According to the results, successful teams' total shots, total shots on target/off-target, goal, on/off-target shots taken inside/outside the penalty area, goals scored from total on-target shots, on target shot goals inside/outside penalty area, shots on target ratio taken inside/outside the penalty area, are higher than the unsuccessful teams, and a statistically significant difference was determined between the two groups (p <0.05). As a result, successful teams shot more inside and outside the penalty area than unsuccessful teams. Therefore, they had a higher on-target shot rate both inside and outside the penalty area. Conclusion: Consequently, they scored goals at higher rates. In the 2018 World Cup, a higher rate of goals was scored inside the penalty area compared to the outside of the penalty area. For these reasons, in both defense and goal organizations, training should be planned by paying attention to these points.