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2010 Football World Cup Graphs

A team's strategy in one graph

By Javier López Peña and Hugo Touchette
School of Mathematical Sciences
Queen Mary, University of London
Holland

Player

Passes made

Passes received

Centrality

1 - Maarten STEKELENBURG

26

15

0,0146

3 - John HEITINGA

25

24

0,0091

4 - Joris MATHIJSEN

31

29

0,0146

5 - G. VAN BRONCKHORST

31

26

0,0193

6 - Mark VAN BOMMEL

33

25

0,0265

7 - Dirk KUYT

20

35

0,0265

9 - Robin VAN PERSIE

13

18

0,0091

10 - Wesley SNEIJDER

26

33

0,0265

11 - Arjen ROBBEN

8

11

0,0278

12 - Khalid BOULAHROUZ

11

7

0,0063

14 - Demy DE ZEEUW

5

6

0,0000

Analysis

  • Center of the network: Van Bommel (6)
  • Low number of total passes (229) when compared to Germany (330) or England (303).

  • Passes tend to concentrate on the left side of the pitch.
  • Unlike the English or German networks, centrality is concentrated on a few players. This is generally a bad sign, meaning that an effective block of those players will destroy the Dutch game.

  • Kuyt (7) and Sneijder (10) have a very high number of received passes (35 and 33 respectively), in stark contrast with the 12 received by Klose or the 9 by Defoe. On the low end, Robben (11) only gets 11 passes per game.

  • De Zeeuw (14) is the player involved in the lowest number of passes of all the analysed teams. From the point of view of ball circulation, he is completely out of the game.

  • Clear offensive take on the Dutch gameplay, involving a very low number of passes usually aimed at the forwards. This shows the Dutch preference for quick attacks and counterstrikes rather than intricate playing.

© HT, JL 2010