Canada’s World Cup performance draws the attention of FIFA’s technical study group

Canada’s run to the round of 16 at the World Cup has drawn the attention of FIFA’s technical study group.

The panel features a who’s who of football talent under the guidance of Arsène Wenger, FIFA’s chief of global football development and former Arsenal manager.

The group’s findings at the conclusion of the tournament’s group stage were released Monday at a news conference in Miami.

Canadian Luc de Fougerolles topped the FIFA power rankings for defenders with a score of 7.4 out of 10, ahead of Spain’s Rodri and Aymeric Laporte, both at 7.3. Fellow Canadian Derek Cornelius was ninth at 7.1.

The rankings, new to the World Cup, are considered a measure of match and tournament performance with players receiving a score for each outing and for their overall performance in the tournament.

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In an event filled with marquee defenders, the 20-year-old de Fougerolles is an understudy making the most of the world stage.

De Fougerolles, who spent last season with Belgium’s Dender EH on loan from England’s Fulham, has been playing in place of Moïse Bombito while the star centre back recovered from a broken leg. He started all three group-stage games and came on for Bombito in the 59th minute of Sunday’s 1-0 round of 32 win over South Africa, making several key contributions.

When it comes to bench strength, the Canadian men were tied for second with Switzerland and Germany with three goals from substitutes. Senegal topped the list with four.

In all, 43 goals were scored by players coming off the bench during the group stage. Over the same period, it was 23 in Qatar and 10 in Russia. But bear in mind the group stage in this expanded 48-team format featured 72 games compared to 48 in the 32-team version in Qatar and Russia.

Jesse Marsch’s aggressive pressing style and the fact that the Canadian men have faced several teams playing a low defensive block is shown by the fact that Canada led the tournament in highest defensive line during the group stage.

Canada was also among the leaders in average ball recovery time.

In other words, the Canadians are playing high up the field in pressing their opponent – and using the press to win the ball back quickly.

The study group points to the U.S., Ecuador, Canada and Germany as teams “with clear plans to counter-press.” And it reports that winning teams had an average ball recovery time of 14.8 seconds, compared to 18.6 seconds on average for losing sides.

The technical study group features Switzerland’s Pascal Zuberbühler, German-born Ghanaian Otto Addo, American Tobin Heath, Germany’s Jürgen Klinsmann, Wales’ Jayne Ludlow, Northern Ireland’s Michael O’Neill, Brazil’s Gilberto Silva, Denmark’s Jon Dahl Tomasson, Costa Rica’s Paulo Wanchope, the Netherlands’ Aron Winter and Argentina’s Pablo Zabaleta.

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The group members analyze every match at the tournament, from the stadium itself or a dedicated performance suite in Miami. In both cases, they have access to six video angles and thousands of data points live during each match.

A study of the group-stage games showed that they averaged 2.96 goals per contest. That’s up from 2.50 four years ago in Qatar and 2.54 in Russia in 2018.

With nine goals from four matches, including the round-of-32 win, Canada averaged 2.3 goals a game.

While the Canadians ranked fourth in tournament scoring, behind the Netherlands, Germany and France all with 10 goals, they were 18th in attempts at goal conversion rate at 13 per cent (tied with Ghana, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Morocco and New Zealand).

Not counting Monday’s game against Brazil, Japan led that category with a 26 per cent conversion rate, ahead of the Netherlands (25 per cent) and Norway (24 per cent).

The average winning margin was also up – 2.26 goals per game compared to 1.74 in Qatar and 1.69 on Russia. The number was substantially higher after the first round of matches, but has since come down, according to FIFA.

France topped the field when it comes to goals scored versus expected goals, scoring 10 goals from five expected. Ecuador was last, with just two goals from 5.5 expected.

Canada ranked 27th in that category among the 48 teams.

Expected goals is a measure of quality of chances. A penalty kick, for example, has an expected goal of around .77, meaning there is a 77 per cent chance of conversion.

German forward Deniz Undav, deadly off the bench, topped FIFA’s attacking rankings with a score of 8.4, ahead of Argentina’s Lionel Messi at 8.3, France’s Kylian Mbappé at 8.1 and Brazil’s Vinicius Junior at 7.9.

Germany’s Michael Olise led the FIFA creativity rankings at 8.0 ahead of Belgium’s Jeremy Doku and Egypt’s Mohamed Salah, both at 7.3.

Statistics show the evolution of goal kicks and the goalkeeper as distributor. At the 2022 World Cup, 91 per cent of all goal kicks were taken by the ‘keeper. At this tournament that number was down to 52 per cent, with goalkeepers often involved in the second pass, taking the ball from a defender.

The number of times that goalkeepers attempted to play the ball behind the opposition defensive line has doubled as they look to beat the press.

Sweden’s Jacob Zetterström, South Africa’s Ronwen Williams and England’s Jordan Pickford lead in that category.

On the subject of hydration breaks, Zabaleta acknowledged that the three-minute pause in the middle of each half can help a team under duress to regroup.

But he saw other results too.

“The pause allows players to get a break,” the former Manchester City and West Ham fullback said through an interpreter. It allows them to regain some more strength for those last 20-25 minutes and that can change the dynamics in the match.”

The impact of the breaks has been noticeable in the second half, he added.

Canada has used such breaks effectively, showing better after consulting with Marsch on the sideline.

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