Football, told in numbers
Expected goals, pressing intensity, ball progression and projection models — explained in plain language and computed from public data, with every figure traceable to a script you can run yourself.
Through 76 completed matches, the 2026 World Cup is still outscoring 2022 — 2.93 goals a game to 2.69. After an early spike the rate has settled just under 3 a game. The real, sourced numbers on goals, draws, and the blowouts behind them, with honest caveats about a group-stage-only sample. (A living snapshot, refreshed as games are played.)
Using StatsBomb data for all 64 matches of the 2022 World Cup, shots from outside the penalty box were 37% of all attempts but produced just 8% of the goals — a 2.3% conversion rate against 15.6% from inside. The data behind 'stop shooting from there.'
We sorted every non-penalty shot from the 2022 World Cup by its expected-goals value and checked how often each band actually went in. xG holds up well: a 0–5% shot scored 2.6% of the time, a 'big chance' of 35%+ went in 58.9%. The calibration, and what a big chance is really worth.
Using StatsBomb data for all 64 matches of the 2022 World Cup, headers and feet convert at almost the same rate (11.1% vs 10.5%) — but only because headers come from higher-quality positions. Relative to chance quality, foot finishing beat the model, and the left foot was the most clinical of all.
Through 54 completed matches, the 2026 World Cup is averaging 2.98 goals a game — down from a blistering 3.26 early on, but still comfortably above 2022 (2.69) and 2018 (2.64), and the highest-scoring World Cup since 1970. A refreshed look at where the goals are going as the group stage closes.
Using StatsBomb's data for all 64 matches of the 2022 World Cup, we trace every goal back to how the possession began. Set pieces (corners and free kicks) originated 30% of non-penalty goals; open play 46%; and counter-attacks, though rare, converted at 17.9% — nearly double the open-play rate. Where goals really come from.
Using StatsBomb's data for all 64 matches of the 2022 World Cup, we map exactly when the goals went in. The second half produced 61% of them to the first half's 39%, the busiest phase is the run-up to halftime, and stoppage time is wildly productive for the minutes it gets. The clock is not neutral.
The first 48-team World Cup, read through data.
49 articles → 02What the numbers actually measure, in plain language.
22 articles → 03Long-form analysis, built from the raw event data.
19 articles → 04Pull the data and draw the charts yourself.
8 articles → 05Profiles and scouting, by the numbers.
6 articles → 06How forecasts are built — and why they disagree.
4 articles → 07The game's past, re-examined through data.
4 articles →SoccerAnalytics.net is an independent publication about the measurable side of football. The aim is simple: take the metrics that now shape how clubs recruit, coaches plan and broadcasters talk — expected goals, expected threat, PPDA, progressive actions, post-shot xG — and explain what they actually measure, where they come from, and where they break.
Nothing here is hand-waved. Every chart and table is built from public data — primarily StatsBomb open data, supplemented by Understat and FBref — and the Python script that produced it ships alongside the article so you can re-run the numbers or learn from the code. When a figure can't be sourced from a real data pull, it doesn't get published.
If you want the metrics explained honestly, the tutorials to compute them yourself, and the occasional argument about what the data does and doesn't prove, you're in the right place. Start with the stat explainers, or learn to pull the data yourself.
