<story><title>An exploratory statistical analysis of the 2014 World Cup Final</title><url>https://beta.deepnote.com/article/statistical-analysis-of-2014-world-cup-final</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>rjtavares</author><text>Ok, so something I wrote years ago hit the HN front page. This is what it feels, uh?&lt;p&gt;I also have a github with more notebooks about football here: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;rjtavares&amp;#x2F;football-crunching&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;rjtavares&amp;#x2F;football-crunching&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you gave any questions about football analytics, hit me up.&lt;p&gt;(Gmail and Twitter are the same name as my HN account, if you prefer email or DM)</text></comment>
<story><title>An exploratory statistical analysis of the 2014 World Cup Final</title><url>https://beta.deepnote.com/article/statistical-analysis-of-2014-world-cup-final</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>LanceH</author><text>Germany 2014 was about the best I&amp;#x27;ve seen the game played.&lt;p&gt;Something I watch that seems to differentiate players and teams at every level is what happens on the first touch when receiving a pass.  When you first start watching this, you&amp;#x27;ll notice that as you move up the ranks, the ball just sticks to a pro&amp;#x27;s feet, preferably in front of them a couple feet away where they are ready to play it again.  Watching Germany that year, their first touch was not merely excellent, but aggressively so.  They took the ball and instead of settling it, turned it into a rolling ball in the direction they wanted to play.  Or a first touch pass.  Speaking in wild generalities here and I don&amp;#x27;t have numbers to back it up.&lt;p&gt;Statistically I would guess that their second touch was on average farther away from them than other teams of comparable level, while still being under control.&lt;p&gt;It reminded me of Tiger Woods when he burst onto the scene.  He played the game far more aggressively and relied on his skills to keep him safe rather than traditional shot selection.  Germany 2014 decided these slightly riskier touches are consistently possible in the long run and the benefit outweighs the risk.&lt;p&gt;It also seemed that with the aggressive play, there is just &lt;i&gt;more&lt;/i&gt; football played -- more chances.  The more chances that are generated, the more it favors the better team.</text></comment>