A look at the numbers of the World Cup so far...

A Statistical Analysis of the World Cup So Far

Overview: Today before we move on to our exciting quarter-final match ups is a great moment to take a look at what the statistics tell us about the World Cup so far...make of it what you will but below are the numbers.

Players:

Best Attackers:

David Villa (SPA), Robert Vittek (SLK) and Gonzalo Higuain (ARG) all lead the goal scorers charts with 4 each.

Thomas Mueller (GER), Luis Suarez (URU), Luis Fabiano (BRA), Asamoah Gyan (GHA) and Landon Donovan (USA) all bagged 3.

Elano (BRA) has scored the most goals (2) for least minutes played  (140)

Only one own goal has been scored at this World Cup by South Korean Park Chu Young.

Central Defender Lee Jung Soo of South Korea had two shots on goal and two goals out of it... Klaas Jan Huntelaar had 1 shot and 1 goal, but the real efficiency is with Gonzalo Higuain (31%) David Villa, Robert Vittek and Luis Suarez.

Keisuke Honda drew the most fouls with 23, his team mate Yuju Nakazawa had 18 and Chile’s Alexis Sanchez 17.

Best creators:

Thomas Mueller together with Kaka leads the World Cup with three goal assists.

Artur Boka of Ivory Coast only played one game but managed two assists, and is joined by Mesut Ozil and Ki Sung Yueng.

Xavi has put 9 dangerous balls into the penalty area, but so has Ghana’s Kwadwo Asamoah. Jorge Valdivida of Chile is not far behind with 8.

Worst Attackers:

Thomas Mueller might be having a great tournament, but he has lost the ball a record 17 times in the tournament. Sergio Ramos has lost 14 which is a liability for any defender.

His young midfield colleague Mesut Ozil was a record 6 times offsides so far...

Cristiano Ronaldo has been the object of 11 successful tackles, something which certainly hurt Portugal’s chances. Wayne Rooney and Karim Matmour follow him with 9 each.

Among the players who played the full 4 games Cristiano Ronaldo, Leo Messi and Asamoah Gyan have been the least efficient shooters on goal (Cristiano 5%, Messi 0% and Asamoah Gyan 13%). Clint Dempsey for having had a considerable amount of shots will not be happy with his 5% accuracy.

Best dribblers:

Cristiano Ronaldo (POR), for all his complaining had the most whistle against him due to dribbles with 11. He was followed by Wayne Rooney (ENG) and Karim Matmour (ALG) with 9 each and Kaka (BRA) with Leo Messi (ARG) not far behind.

Leo Messi and surprisingly Sergio Ramos have beaten defenders with dribbles or speed 20 times each, Podolski, Ronaldo and Maicon all did well.

Robinho, Andre Ayew and David Villa all had respectable dribbling as well.

The most loses of possession though are by Cristiano Ronaldo (5 times)... with Leo Messi, Jozy Altidore, Franck Ribery, and Kaka all interestingly up there as well.

Best Shots:

 Leo Messi (ARG) has managed the most shots on goal 13... but no goals.

David Villa (SPA) has scored 4 goals with his 12 shots making him the best and most efficient attacker so far.

Cristian Riveros Paraguay’s hard working midfielder has 100% of his shots on goal with 4... one of which was a goal... he is heading to Sunderland for next season.

Worst Shots:

Lukas Podolski (GER), Clint Dempsey (USA), Park Chu Young (SKO), Asamoah Gyan (GHA), and Cristiano Ronaldo (POR) all Jambulanied more than 10 shots wide during this tournament, as did Alexis Sanchez (CHI), Kevin Prince Boateng (GHA), Leo Messi (ARG), Weslej Sneijder (HOL) complete the opprtunity wasters.

Alexis Sanchez (CHI) and Wesley Sneijder (HOL) have seen the most of their shots blocked (6 each)

Best Defenders

Majid Bougherra (ALG) was the best tackler of the tournament with the Glasgow Rangers star managing 8 key tackle, and 10 recovered balls, in addition to other good statistics. His overall statistics really put him apart from the competition.

Also doing very well were Juan (BRA), Michael Bradley (USA), Xabi Alonso (SPA), Stephane Grichting (SWI), Jorge Fucile (URU), Gerardo Torrado (Mex), and Fabio Coentrao (POR)

Best Goalkeepers

Taking into account that some defences gave them less protection, Ri Myong Guk of North Korea made the most saves (21) and allowed the most goals (12),

Nigeria's Vincent Enyeama made a mistake against Greece he still seems to have done the most for his team with 20 saves.

Richard Kingson and Eduardo both have had an impressive compilation of statistics, with Japan's Eiji Kawashima really putting in 4 impressive performances.

Argentina's Sergio Romera and Spain's Iker Casillas have had the least work to do of all the goalkeepers.

Perhaps the best overall performance was by Diego Benaglio of Switzerland... also objectively judging some of the qualities of his saves, the Wolfsburg man was extraordinary and very secure for Switzerland.

Best Passers

Felipe Melo (BRA) is the most efficient passer for amount of time on the pitch 91% completion. Carles Puyol follows him with 90%, with Sergi Busquets (SPA) not far behind at 89%.

Worst Passers:

Shinji Okazaki (JPN) and Oscar Cardozo (PAR) have been the most wasteful players with 34% pass completion only.... Fernando Torres is at 44%.

Nelson Valdez normally is much better than the 40% he has achieved in South Africa so far from the wing.

Jozy Altidore was also rather wasteful with around 42% of his passes reaching their intended targets.

The Foulers

Surprisingly Keisuke Honda of Japan has had by far the most fouls whistled against him with 19... perhaps a tribute to his defensive input as a lone striker and is rather a positive statistic due to low amount of cards.

The real whistle magnets were Gerardo Torrado of Mexico, Rory Fallon of New Zealand, Arturo Vidal of Chile, Abou Diaby of France Gokhan Inler of Switzerland and Chris Killen of NZ.

7 Red cards were given, never to the same player, and 7 reds were given for second yellows for a total of 14 expulsions.

Jozy Altidore leads the handball tables with 3, and is joined by Hakan Yakin (SWI), Arturo Vidal (CHI) and David Suazo (HON)... YAKIN and SUAZO managed to have 3 handballs in two matches played comparing to 4 by the two other handball champs.

Harderst Workers

Two Americans worked the hardest. The coaches’s son Michael Bradly ran more than any other player in the tournament with a whopping 51.69 km covered in 4 games. Second place went to Landon Donovan with 48.47 km.

Sami Khedira (GER), Gerardo Torrado (MEX), Yasuhito Endo (JPN), Clint Dempsey (USA), Andre Ayew (GHA), Anthony Annan (GHA), Keisuke Honda (JAP), and Cristian Riveros (PAR),  all covered incredible amounts of ground.

Teams

Best Shooting

Japan had the best percentage of shots to shots on goal at 59% of their strikes finding the target.

Slovenia, Holland, England and Argentina all did well... with only Argentina and Holland really bagging a significant amount of goals out of their opportunities.

The worst shooting was from Honduras and Algeria... both teams only managing a 17% success rate when hitting the ball towards goal. New Zealand, Serbia, France, and Slovakia all seem to have struggled with the light Jambulani ball.

Best Passing

Spain and Brazil off course. Spain with 81% if passes completed and Brazil with 80%.

Argentina a close third... with Ivory Coast, Germany, and Mexico an honourable distance behind.

The interesting breakup is that Algeria, Spain and Italy had the most efficient short passing, although Spain’s was much more often in the opponent’ defensive zone whereas Algeria and Italy knocked the ball around in their own defence.

Brazil, Spain, Germany, Holland and South Africa had the best medium-range passing but South Africa much more in their own half. Argentina, Denmark and Mexico were not too shabby... with England somewhere in the respectable mix.

Japan had the worst passing rate, with Honduras and New Zealand slightly below Uruguay, USA and North Korea

In terms of crosses Spain had 106 crosses but only 29% reached their target (perhaps because of the poor form of Torres and the lack of tall players on the field).

The best crosses where from Ivory Coast, North Korea, Serbia, Argentina, and Italy. The worst crosses were from New Zealand with only 7% reaching their intended target.

Corners

Ivory Coast was by far the most dangerous team on corners completing 67% percent of their corner kicks into dangerous situations, Nigeria did reasonably well as did Mexico.

Interestingly Uruguay, Holland and Greece had the worst corners with Uruguay managing only 14%.

Best Tackling

Algeria and Portugal were the best tacklers, although Algeria’s tackling was more effective.

Brazil, Portugal, Chile, Uruguay and England also were efficient  in the tackles.

Best Goalkeeping

The North Korean goalkeeper might be grilled for letting in 12 goals, but he also pulled off the most saves at 21 together with Nigeria’s Vincent Enyeama.

The Portuguese, Algerian, Danish, Greek, Ghanaian, and Japanese goalkeepers did a lot of work with many saves. South Korea and the USA are not far behind.

Best Offense

Spain has had the most attack of any teams with 68.

A shocking second is England with 64... the efficiency difference is shocking.

Spain has the best overall attack without a doubt, with 99 successful dribbles past defenders, 44 balls into the penalty area (2nd is Chile with 38), although shockinglytheir goals were more the result of individual actions than team play with only 2 assists.

All 9 of Germany’s goals were from teamplay rather than individual action, and all 7 of Brazil's and Portugal’s as well.

Overall Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Germany had the most performing attacks according to the statistics.... England attacked a lot but very very ineffectively.

Spain and South Korea attacked the most from the left side.

Germany, Brazil, Spain, Uruguay and Mexico the most from the right,

And the English led the charts of attacks through the center... although much less efficiently thant Argentina in second and Brazil in third.

Argentina had the best percentage of shots on goal at over 50% on target, and biggest amounts of goals with 10.

Germany comes second with 9, and Brazil third with 8. Portugal, Holland, Uruguay and South Korea are following with Portugal scoring all 7 of their goals in one game out of 4.

Germany scored all 9 of their goals from open play, which puts them top, and I believe that is the most important indicator of a best attack. Second place Brazil and Portugal are at 7 only.

Ghana scored 2 penalties, and South Korea were masters of set pieces scoring an amazing 5 goals from corners and freekicks, with Argentina coming second at 3.

Holland and Argentina each scored 3 goals from outside the penalty area making them the best distance shooters.

Worst Offence

Algeria and Honduras didn’t manage any goal.

Switzerland, France and North Korea only managed one.

Inefficiency:

Spain and Brazil are joint leaders of bad dribbling, each losing possession 22 times due to good opponent tackles.

England had nearly half of their shots on target (31 of 65) which puts them high in the table, but the goalkeepers did really well against them (they made it easy) and the post and bar helped three times and the linesman once.

Chile and South Korea were the most panicky in attack, with having 8 shots blocked in the penalty area and 5 for South Korea and both could have benefited from cooler finishing... although Argentina and Paraguay were inefficient in good scoring opportunities also.

Offsides:

Germany, Honduras and Chile were called offsides the most times (18), although the US will think they were the biggest victims of flag waving they are next to Brazil in only having been whistled offsides 4 times...

Best Defense

Uruguay and South Korea lead the league of Clearances from Defence Completed, but Uruguay has the best defence with a close 4th in the tackles statistic.

Algeria had one of the best defences, with the most effective tackles to regain possession, and they overall had the best defensive statistics.

Honduras with their performance against Switzerland interestingly had excellent defensive statistics and leads the percentage of successful clearance charts above Uruguay.

Its important to mention that Paraguay, Brazil, Portugal, and surprisingly England all had good defensive performances.

Worst Defence

North Korea conceded 11 goals inside their penalty area for a total of 12 goals. In 3 games that is hard to beat, although surprisingly they had a marvelous defensive (and offensive) performance in their first game against Brazil before completely falling apart.

They will be happy to know that South Korea had the second worst defence with 8 goals conceded, 7 from inside the penalty area.

Slovakia, Australia and Denmark bring up the rear with leaky defensive performances.

The Wrong Sport

As for Handballs the US  team leads the competition with 9 of them., with Chile and the Dutch in second place, Paraguay and Japan tied for third.

The Victims

Japan in their 4 games had by far the most fouls against them with 92.

Spain are a distant second with 74.

The Bad and the Ugly

Mexico committed the most fouls, getting whistled against them 84 times in 4 games.

They are followed by Chile, Paraguay and Japan. Chile collected 13 yellow cards, although frankly 3 of them were absolutely undeserved,  with Slovakia, USA, Mexico and Slovenia following not far behind.

This implies that the Paraguayans and Japan really good at fouling and not getting carded.

Australia leads the tournament with two straight red cards the only team in that prestigious category, but Algeria are not far behind with two double yellows.

Hardest Work

The United States worked the most of any team and covered the most distance, 473.48 kilometers covered which is more than any other team.

Japan was the second hardest working team with 464.52 kilometers covered... Gambaro!

Ghana and Paraguay close up the leaderboard on distance covered with hard work ethic.

Spain, Germany and Mexico covered the most distance while in control of the ball... with Spain a clear top at 194 kilometers while in possession of the ball... Japan did the most work without the ball, perhaps a reason for their great defence this tournament.

The fastest speed of running was achieved by the Mexicans (let’s hold of on the Speedy Gonzalez jokes)  with Germany, Nigeria, Greece (really?), and Argentina all clocking in above 30 km/h and faster than the rest