Surprising Statistic in the Dünya Kupası: Brezilya Ranks Last in Dribbling Success

Brazilian football has a rich heritage filled with legendary dribblers such as Garrincha, Pelé, Ronaldo, and Ronaldinho. However, in this year's Dünya Kupası, an unexpected statistical picture emerged despite this deep-rooted tradition. According to figures released by sports data and analytics platform Opta, Brezilya has the lowest dribbling success rate among the 48 teams in the group stage of the tournament. Despite making 59 dribbling attempts, Carlo Ancelotti's team could only complete 20 of them. This caused the team to remain at a very low success rate of 34 percent. Brezilya's poor performance in this area deeply surprised football fans in the country who are accustomed to a dribbling culture.

Brezilya ranks seventh in the tournament in terms of total dribbling attempts, alongside Curaçao. Although Curaçao is the smallest nation participating in the tournament and was eliminated in the group stage, it shares the same position as Brezilya in this statistic. In contrast, African teams have established great dominance in the dribbling statistics of this year's tournament. Fas leads the list with 76 dribbling attempts, followed by Cezayir with 75 attempts and Fildişi Sahili with 70 attempts. This data proves how effectively African teams showcase their individual skills and courage against their opponents on the pitch.

The most successful player in the Brezilya squad regarding dribbling was Vinícius Júnior, who stood out by successfully completing seven dribbles. Five of the young star's successful dribbles came in the match against İskoçya, where he also scored two goals, while the remaining two were recorded against Haiti. On the other hand, when evaluating the tournament as a whole, Hırvatistan stands out as the team displaying the highest level of performance in terms of dribbling efficiency. The Croatians achieved an impressive success rate of 68 percent, completing 23 out of 34 attempts. However, considering only the total number of successful dribbles, Fildişi Sahili holds the leading position among all teams, having recorded 42 successes.

A total of 215 goals were scored in the 72 matches of the group stage, and 119 of these goals, meaning more than half, occurred from the players' first touch. Three of the four goals scored by Norveç's goal machine Erling Haaland and three of the six goals recorded by Arjantin star Lionel Messi went into the net in this manner, specifically with a first touch. Additionally, an average of 2.9 goals per game was scored in the group stage, leaving behind the 2.5 average in Katar. The expansion of this year's tournament to feature 48 teams, and consequently more matches, had a significant impact on this increase. During this period, Almanya, Hollanda, and Fransa stood out as the highest-scoring teams, with each scoring 10 goals.

Twenty-five percent of the goals in the group stage of the tournament came from set-piece situations, with 28 from corners, five from direct free-kicks, six from throw-ins, and seven resulting from attacks developed from set-piece positions. While the goal rate from set pieces in the Katar Dünya Kupası was 21 percent, this increase indicates that teams are placing a greater emphasis on set-piece tactics. Furthermore, Panama became the only team to leave the tournament without scoring a single goal in the group stage in their second Dünya Kupasi appearance. In contrast, four new participants of the tournament—Jordan, Cape Verde, Özbekistan, and Curaçao—managed to score at least one goal in the group stage. Notably, Cape Verde, participating for the first time, managed to advance to the next round by achieving an outstanding tackle success rate of 78 percent, essentially giving a lesson in resilience.