Jesús Rico-Sanz, PhD
Soccer Performance & Science Institute
Match performance grading is essential in order to evaluate the abilities of players during competition. The grading of performance requires objective criteria so each player and action is graded fairly and reproducibly. With the Soccer-Grade Performance Average (Soccer-GPA) players are graded during a match based on established criteria for each action with the ball. The grade for each action executed by each player is recorded and a series of GPAs are generated for each attacking action (passing, dribbling, ball control, and scoring attempts GPAs). The global attacking technical GPA is generated as well from all the grades given for each action. The GPAs help to judge and rank the attacking technical performance of players and teams. In previous articles, I reported the match GPA for the attacking technical actions for the players and teams competing in the UEFA Champions League Finals as well as the GPA for the USA Men's National Team (USMNT) during qualifiers for the World Cup 2022 (https://www.soccerpsi.com/blog). In this article, the GPA of the USMNT during the first game of group B of the World Cup 2022 against Wales is presented.
ATTACKING AND DEFENDING TECHNICAL ACTIONS
The game against Wales ended in a 1-1 tie. The USMNT had 1,105 attacking technical actions in open play (including 462 ball controls, 527 passes, 94 dribbles, 15 headers, and 7 goal scoring attempts).
The players with the highest number of attacking technical actions were the two central defenders (Zimmerman 161, Ream 134) and one of the outside backs (Dest 139). The total number of technical actions by the four defenders and the defensive central midfielder (and defensive sub Yedlin) was 658 compared to 410 technical actions performed by the five attacking players (and attacking subs Aaronson, Acosta, Morris and Wright); that is, the defensive players were in contact with the ball 1.6 times more than the attacking players indicating the conservative style of play by the USMNT during the first game of the World Cup 2022.
The total number of technical defending actions was 141 (including 33 blocked passes and dribbles, 3 blocked shots and saves, 56 interceptions, 49 defensive headers and clearances). Adams was the player with the highest number of technical defending interventions with 26 actions followed by A. Robinson with 23 actions.
Of the seven scoring attempts generated by the team during the entire game only one was on target and ended up being the only goal scored by the USMNT. The goal came about after a series of passes involving the three forwards; starting with a simple drop pass in the midfield line from Sargent to Pulisic whose first touch enabled him to continue making a run upfield dribbling the ball under pressure to then pass the ball between two defenders and behind the Wales defensive line (picture below). Pulisic's pass eliminated 3 defenders and the goalkeeper as his touch on the ball was not too hard which otherwise could have given a chance to the goalkeeper to intercept it.
Before scoring, Weah made a diagonal run perfectly timed to Pulisic's dribbling and pass. As he approached the ball, he still had a lot to do to score being under pressure on his right side and having to secure the ball passed the approaching goalkeeper. His decision to use the outside of his foot was the quickest and most efficient option he had to put the ball in the back of the net as illustrated in the picture below.
ACCURACY vs GPA OF ATTACKING ACTIONS WITH THE BALL
As I discussed in previous reports, percent accuracy for any technical action, including passing, is not a good indicator of the quality of a player. Of the 1,105 attacking technical actions that were evaluated for the USMNT, 989 were successful (90% accuracy or a decimal value of 0.90). Four attacking players had below average success in their attacking technical actions; Weah 88%, McKennie 80%, Pulisic 78%, and Sargent 74%. Most ball controls, dribbles, and passes among defensive players including goalkeepers are easy to execute, thus the larger percent accuracy on the attacking technical actions for the defensive players (Zimmerman and Ream had both 98% accuracy, Turner 95%, Adams and Dest both 94%). Although a defender, Robinson had many incursions as an outside back and technical actions in the more difficult attacking part of the field; thus, his lower percent success at 85% compared to the rest of the defensive players. The point system established for the Soccer-GPA gives higher value to the difficult technical actions; thus, players have generally a GPA larger than 1. The largest discrepancy between the accuracy and the GPA was seen with Weah. He had an accuracy decimal score of 0.88 on all attacking actions, while his GPA was 1.60 (see graph below). The GPA of all technical actions (ball controls, passes, dribbles, and scoring attempts on the goal) represents the ability of players to successfully execute technical actions according to level of difficulty. Thus a higher GPA indicates a higher quality and success of the player's actions.
ATTACKING TECHNICAL GPA BY POSITION
In the graph below, the technical GPA for the attacking actions for each of the starting eleven players for the USMNT during the game against Wales is shown by the positions on the team. As opposed to the percent accuracy, where each action has a value of 1 (successful) or 0 (unsuccessful) the GPA reflects the different levels of the successful actions based on the difficulty of the action. Each attacking technical action for each player was graded following the established Soccer-GPA criteria. The team technical GPA was 1.21 for the attacking actions. The player with the highest attacking technical GPA was Weah with a GPA of 1.60, followed by Pulisic with an attacking technical GPA of 1.38 and McKennie with a GPA of 1.37.
MATCH TECHNICAL GPA BY POSITION
The match technical GPA includes grades for all the technical attacking and defending actions. The match GPA is shown below for each of the starting eleven players of the USMNT. The team GPA was 1.39 for all match actions with the ball. For the defenders, A. Robinson had the highest match GPA at 1.49. Regarding the midfielders, the best match GPA was earned by Adams at 1.57. For the forwards, Weah had the best performance for the offensive line as well as the team with a match GPA of 1.63. Adams defensive performance was very significant which earned him the 2nd place in the team after Weah (Adams' GPA on attacking actions ranked 5th on the team).
THE SOCCER-GPA DOES JUSTICE TO PERFORMANCE QUALITY
The grading system implemented with the Soccer-GPA to evaluate players' performances enables coaches to compare with a high degree of certainty the quality of players when executing technical actions during the course of a soccer match. In this and other reports we have presented the attacking technical GPA. In this article, I have also reported the match GPA which includes the defending actions. Thus, based on the match GPA, the top 5 performances from the USMNT in the first game of the World Cup 2022 were from:
Weah, GPA = 1.63
Adams, GPA = 1.57
McKennie, GPA = 1.54
Pulisic, GPA = 1.50
A. Robinson, GPA = 1.49