The importance of ball possession in football: an analysis of the Portuguese teams FC Porto and SL Benfica

Abstract

This work aims to analyze the importance of possession of the ball in football, as well as to verify if it is determinant for the success of a football team, for the analysis the Portuguese football championship was chosen, the choice is due to the good training of Portuguese coaches, and the study of the game of the University of Porto and the theorists Vitor Frade and Júlio Garganta. The survey was carried out using data from the official website of the Portuguese Championship called (Primeira Liga Nós), which has the Portuguese football federation as its responsible federation, 68 games in total in the championship (Primeira Liga Nós), 34 team games were searched. from Porto and 34 games from the Benfica team, and those games researched by these two teams were analyzed for their ball possession if it has any influence on the results of their games. Porto played 34 games in the Portuguese championship of those 34, Porto 29 games he had more ball possession than the opponent in the match, of those 29 games were 21 wins, 4 draws, and 4 losses, and only 5 games Porto was with less possession of the ball in the match than their opponent and in these 5 games Porto won them all. Benfica played 34 games in the Portuguese championship of those 34, Benfica 30 games he had more ball possession than the opponent in the match, of those 30 games were: 21 wins, 4 draws, 5 losses, and only 4 games Benfica stayed with less possession of the ball in the match than their opponent and in those 4 games Benfica won 3 games and drew 1 game. Concluded that yes it was fundamental for both teams during the championship, because almost always the two teams managed to win their games, and the game model of the Porto and Benfica teams are similar, in the offensive moment they are teams that keep the ball.