One way to evaluate playmaking in soccer is to look at the difficulty of the passes that a player completes. For an individual pass, we can calculate the likelihood that it was completed based on its target location. So for all passes that a player makes, we can then determine the overall probability that he completed them, and weight the passes accordingly. Brazil's performance is shown below:
| Player | Team | Position | Passes | Avg Quality | Norm Passes |
| Gilberto Silva | Brazil | Midfielder | 57 | 16.0 | 43.1 |
| Felipe Melo | Brazil | Midfielder | 57 | 15.6 | 42.2 |
| Lucio | Brazil | Defender | 48 | 17.1 | 38.9 |
| Maicon | Brazil | Defender | 46 | 17.8 | 38.9 |
| Robinho | Brazil | Striker | 31 | 25.5 | 37.4 |
| Michel Bastos | Brazil | Defender | 42 | 16.7 | 33.2 |
| Juan | Brazil | Defender | 48 | 12.9 | 29.4 |
| Kaká | Brazil | Midfielder | 25 | 24.8 | 29.4 |
| Daniel Alves | Brazil | Substitute | 14 | 29.3 | 19.4 |
| Julio César | Brazil | Goalkeeper | 23 | 14.8 | 16.1 |
| Luis Fabiano | Brazil | Striker | 14 | 24.3 | 16.1 |
| Elano | Brazil | Midfielder | 11 | 20.0 | 10.4 |
| Ramires | Brazil | Substitute | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
The way to read this – Gilberto Silva completed 57 passes with an average likelihood of completion of 84% – so the average quality of those passes is 100% – 84% = 16%. Overall, the probability of completing a pass is 21.1%, so his weighted pass total is 43.1 = 57*16%/21.1%. The player rankings don't move around that much, but Robinho's 31 passes up front come out as much more valuable than Juan's 48 passes from the up.
Ivory Coast follows:
| Player | Team | Position | Passes | Avg Quality | Norm Passes |
| Yaya Touré | Ivory Coast | Midfielder | 37 | 25.9 | 45.5 |
| Siaka Tiéné | Ivory Coast | Defender | 43 | 18.4 | 37.4 |
| Guy Demel | Ivory Coast | Defender | 33 | 22.1 | 34.6 |
| Cheikh Ismael Tioté | Ivory Coast | Midfielder | 26 | 17.7 | 21.8 |
| Emmanuel Eboué | Ivory Coast | Defender | 15 | 28.0 | 19.9 |
| Aruna Dindane | Ivory Coast | Striker | 16 | 25.6 | 19.4 |
| Gervinho | Ivory Coast | Substitute | 13 | 28.5 | 17.5 |
| Kolo Touré | Ivory Coast | Defender | 20 | 17.5 | 16.6 |
| Didier Zokora | Ivory Coast | Midfielder | 22 | 15.5 | 16.1 |
| Salomon Kalou | Ivory Coast | Striker | 15 | 20.7 | 14.7 |
| Boubacar Barry | Ivory Coast | Goalkeeper | 19 | 14.7 | 13.3 |
| Romaric | Ivory Coast | Substitute | 9 | 27.8 | 11.8 |
| Kader Keita | Ivory Coast | Substitute | 5 | 20.0 | 4.7 |
| Didier Drogba | Ivory Coast | Striker | 3 | 26.7 | 3.8 |
There's even more limited movement here – Cote D'Ivoire players who handled the ball a lot also tended to be those players who put the ball into positive territory. The biggest mover is Yaya Touré, who could get the title of playmaker of the game.
It's also amazing how much of an offensive game Didier Drogba plays and how little playmaking he does! (As opposed to scoring, which he does a lot.)
