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Uruguay-South Korea Passing by Score

By Hawerchuk
Getty Images

According to the game stats, South Korea had 60% of the possession in this game. We see the same split in the passing data, both in raw completed passes and location-weighted passes:

Mins Team Passes Weighted Team Passes Weighted
93.95 South Korea 414 97.2 Uruguay 252 56.7

SK Poss% SK Pass% SK Weight%
60 62 63

So they dominated Uruguay and were unlucky to lose, right? Not exactly. When two of the top 20 teams in the world play each other, we see huge score effects - the trailing team will dominate possession while the leading team plays to limit opportunities. This game was essentially split into four distinct time periods by score:

Score Mins Team Passes Weighted Team Passes Weighted
0-0 7.63 South Korea 26 4.8 Uruguay 31 7.8
0-1 60.60 South Korea 304 72.2 Uruguay 143 30.6
1-1 12.58 South Korea 24 4.2 Uruguay 51 13.1
1-2 13.13 South Korea 60 16 Uruguay 27 5.2

Combining by goal differential, we see that Uruguay controlled the passing when the game was tied:

Score Mins Team Passes Weighted Team Passes Weighted
Tied 20.22 South Korea 50 9.0 Uruguay 82 20.9
Down 1 73.73 South Korea 364 88.2 Uruguay 170 35.8

Or put more simply:

Score SK Pass% SK Weight%
Tied 38 30
Down 1 68 71

When it counted, South Korea got dominated. The possession stats merely reflect that they spent most of the game trying to tie a much better team.