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Alas7ymedia t1_ixhjkcl wrote

All this is useful for gamblers, not fans. In football, the only relevant statistics to know how well a team played (besides the score) is how often it shot to goal. It's really hard to win if you barely shoot, even using catenaccio strategy, but ball possession or heat maps can say nothing about the game depending on the strategies chosen.

For example: if you score 2 goles in 20 minutes, the other team is going to spend 70 minutes trying to even the score. The ball will be in your half 75+% of the game, ball possession will be theirs 70%, their passes accuracy will be high since passes far from the box are more accurate (less risks taken), they will have less fouls since fouls are committed usually to get the ball, not to keep it, but if they don't shoot, that means your team played better because you had everything under control.

Argentina played well, but the SA defenders formed a solid line, they used physical contact often but without violence, the Arabian GK had a dream game and their attackers were at the right speed. It was a well deserved victory.

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