Tournament News
SWC 2010: Numbers game
2010-07-12 10:26
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Cape Town - As the dust begins to settle on an epic 2010 World Cup, it’s time to reflect on the footballing statistics that tell their own story of the tournament’s success.
The common way to stack the World Cups up against each other is to compare the numbers of total tournament goals and the number of bums on seats at all the matches. So, instead of breaking that tradition, let’s just start there:
Goals
The 2010 World Cup was supposedly very light on goal action, however, goals in South Africa totaled 145 – an infinitely better number than the 115 scored in Italy ’90, and in line with Spain ’82 (146), USA ’94 (141) and Germany ’06 (147).
Perhaps the one telling statistic is the low-ish number of goals by individuals, with Thomas Mueller, Diego Forlan, David Villa and Wesley Sneijder all scoring 5 goals in total to top the table.
When compared to previous Cups, it’s true to say 5 is not really that spectacular (Just Fontaine’s record of 13 still stands!), but at least there are 4 players who scored 5 goals, meaning the talent was spread out across players and teams.
Bums on seats
So to our next stat – bums on seats. There were many who, prior to the 2010 World Cup, predicted record lows for attendance, citing distance, fears over safety, poor planning, lack of infrastructure, and high costs as factors which would limit spectator numbers…how wrong they have been proven!
South Africa 2010 ranks as the third most successful tournament ever, with a total stadium attendance of 3 094 366 (an average attendance of 49 670 people per game, or a 93% full rate). The only tournaments to have been more successful are USA ’94 (with 68 991 people per match totaling 3.58 million spectators) and Germany ’06 (52 491 people per match totaling 3.36 million spectators).
Taking into account the proximity of wealthy neighbours, the total populations of those two countries and their relative affluence, South Africa has achieved something remarkable by coming so close to those record figures.
Keeping the peace
World Cups are also renowned for controversy, so it’s important to highlight aspects such as how many cards were dished out, who was sent off and when, and what remarkable achievements (or failures) punctuated the event.
South Africa 2010 was, by comparison to recent World Cups, a relatively peaceful affair, with only 245 yellow cards (lower than France ‘98’s 250 cards, Korea/Japan ‘02’ 260 cards and Germany ‘06’s 307 cards!). Red cards were low too, with 17 players falling completely foul of the referees in 2010.
Notable red-cards went to Netherland’s John Heitinga in the final – he is only the 5th player to have been sent off in a final – as well as Brazil’s Kaka for an innocuous second yellow against Ivory Coast and South Africa’s goalkeeper Ithumeleng Khune for a foul on Uruguay’s Luis Suarez (who did hit the deck rather too easily).
Notable achievements and failures from the 2010 World cup include:
South Africa being the first ever hosts to be knocked out in the Group Stages: Fail!
Paraguay topping their group and making to the last 8 for the first time ever: Success!
England smothering themselves in mediocrity by taking the record for the team with the most goalless draws in World Cups (10 stalemates in 59 matches): Fail!
Argentina simultaneously recording their country’s oldest goalscorer (36-year-old Martin Palermo against Greece on June 22) and their youngest captain (Lionel Messi at 22 years and 363 days). Success!
Japan putting 3 goals past an opponent for the first time in World Cups – 3-1 against Denmark on June 24: Success!
Finally, although the exact figures are to be confirmed, it’s estimated that over 700 million people worldwide watched the final on July 11 between Spain and the Netherlands.
In South Africa, record television viewer figures of 7.7 million were revealed for the opening match against Mexico. This exceeds the previous record (6.2 million for Brazil vs SA in the 2009 Confed Cup) by over 1.5 million viewers.
South Africa has largely been praised buy both local and international media, as well as foreign and local tourists for having exceeded expectations in terms of transport, safety, venues, tourist activities and local spirit and flavour.