Each World Cup team's passing patterns reveal distinctive "signatures" that show whether a team relies heavily on its star player or focuses its strategy on playing against an opponent's strengths, data shows.
"A lot of teams produce the same passes in the same areas because some of the game has the potential to be a bit formulaic in certain parts of the game. What really makes teams shine, or what characterizes a team above and beyond that baseline, is tactical instructions and individual capabilities that allow for certain patterns of play," said Brennan Klein, director of Northeastern University's NetSI Sport research group.
Klein and his team mapped out five passing patterns that distinguished each World Cup team from the others. The most distinctive completed pass patterns are marked in blue, followed in descending order of distinction by red, green, gold and purple.
"In order to use data to actually uncover those patterns, we can try to ask what types of passing patterns, in which areas of the pitch, certain teams use above and beyond what we might expect," he said.
The similarities among the distinctive passing signatures of the final four teams—Argentina, Spain, England and France—suggested a winning strategy of passes concentrated in a U-shape near their opponents' goalie boxes.
