2021 Copa América ended with a dream final, a 28-year trophyless drought smashed and a first international title for Lionel Messi.
Pre-tournament chaos to identify a host nation set the tone for an end-to-end event that averaged 14% more fouls than the Euros, 23% more yellow cards and 45% more red cards per match. High pressing, energetic counterpresses and vulnerable rest defences led to an uptick in tactical fouls, but its the celebratory image of the legendary Barcelona forward that will forever define this tournament.
With three of the seven knockout round matches ending in penalty kicks and three more ending with a one-goal margin, the Copa América 2021 provided endless drama for a memorable summer.
Much like the Euro 2020 data analysis from a couple of weeks ago, this Copa América 2021 analysis will look at the analytical trends of the tournament. InStats Copa América 2021 tournament report is our data source. This data analysis focuses on how goals were scored, themes in possession, defensive statistics and set-piece trends.
How they scored
Lets start by examining how each team got their goals. InStat’s report gives us insight into each nations level of success, shooting locations, attack duration and the average number of passes in goal-scoring moves. Well also see the breakdown in open play goals, distinguishing positional attack goals from counterattacking success and examining the role of set pieces.
Looking at the location of conceded goals, oddly enough, Bolivia and Venezuela, the two nations to miss out on the quarterfinals, bookend the list. Peru was the side to concede the most goals from outside of the box while Uruguay was the nation that conceded the fewest goals, allowing just two. One thing to note is these stats include penalty kicks taken during shootout. Youll notice Peru conceded 14 goals, but three of those came in the shootout victory over Paraguay.
Argentina not only averaged the furthest distance on goals scored with a total of 13.8, but they also scored the most goals from outside of the box, registering three. Theres a significant disparity between first place Argentina and second place Columbia (13.8 to 9.7). The average distance on a goal was 6.6 in the Copa América, which compares to the average of 8 m distance from Euro 2020.
For the tournament, 69% of goals came from within 12 m, 19% and that second zone that reaches the top of the box, 6% from approximately 18 to 25 m and 5% from 25 m+.
One interesting stat from the Euro 202
