Most goals in soccer result from first touch shots

At the Faculty of Education and Sport–Álava, research is being done into how to make goalkeeper training more effective. The first academic study to analyze shots on goal in soccer from the goalkeeper’s perspective has just been published.

“We wanted to explore the real situations that goalkeepers face, so that training could then be optimized. Otherwise, goalkeepers may well be preparing for less frequent situations and so the most common ones are not being worked on sufficiently. There must be top-level teams that already have this information, but our scientific study makes the data available to everyone,” explained researcher Markel Perez.

The work is published in the journal Apunts Sports Medicine.

The UPV/EHU researchers collaborated with the goalkeeper trainers Arkaitz Crespo and Jon Zabala of SD Eibar. They inspected and statistically analyzed 179 matches in the Spanish La Liga during the 2019-2020 season. Specifically, an analysis was made of 2,238 shots aimed at 15 goalkeepers, and 16 specific variables were observed: the direction of the ball, the part of the body used by the shooter to hit the ball, the distance and area from which the shot was made, what the goalkeeper did to stop the goal, and so on.

It can be deduced from the analysis of all these factors that the most dangerous shots on goal are those made with the first touch: “We found that this happens with around 75% of goals. These are fast, difficult to predict moves and there is less time to react. The goalkeepers do not have sufficient margin to position themselves well on the pitch or to activate their bodies properly. So, it would be a good idea to design training sessions geared towards this type of shooting,” said Perez.

Furthermore, according to the UPV/EHU study, deflected shots are another of the situations that require specific training. Difficulties arise when the shot hits another player and its trajectory changes slightly. Perez explained that “in these cases, the ball doesn’t go straight in, its course changes halfway, so it’s difficult for goalkeepers to make decisions. It may be useful to do quick-reaction exercises to deal with these unknowns.”

Trends in the teams that qualify for the top positions

Besides analyzing the data generally, a second phase explored the relationship between the positions achieved at the end of the match and the shots. They explored, for example, how the teams that tend to get the most points get the ball out.

“This could be useful for analyzing the opposition in the next game and adapting the type of training. For example, the data indicates that the teams at the top of the table tend to make a lot of touches before finalizing their moves. They don’t shoot on goal as much from set pieces or crosses. That way, goalkeepers can find out what kind of moves need to be practiced before facing an elite team,” explained Perez.

Going forward, Pérez argued that it would be useful to carry out similar studies in leagues at other levels and in other countries to assess whether the data could be extrapolated.

“The weather could also be taken into consideration: The situations of play may vary depending on whether the pitch is wet or dry, and so the consequences could be different,” he said.

Markel Perez-Arroniz is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Physical Education and Sport of the Faculty of Education and Sport–Álava. He did a Degree in Physical Activity and Sport Sciences and is now continuing with research. His thesis focuses on goalkeeper training, and his supervisors are Asier Zubillaga-Zubiaga and Julio Calleja-Gonzalez, whose areas of research center mainly on training and physiology applied to elite sport.