How to Keep Soccer Stats

For coaches, keeping track of soccer stats can be valuable for you and your team’s performance. But, is it always necessary?

Stats provide an overview of individual and team performance, allowing you to identify strengths and weaknesses and adjust your focus accordingly.

By measuring your progress over time, you can set goals and track your improvement.

For the younger ages, stats can be a distraction. At the same time, they may still provide some value so let’s explore the list of stats and how to keep them during a soccer game!

What Are the Different Soccer Stats to Track?

When it comes to keeping track of stats, there are a lot of different metrics you can measure. Here is a list of the most common ones:

• Goals (G): This is the total number of goals a player or team scores during a game, season, or career.
• Goals per Game (GPG): This is the average number of goals scored per game. This would be the total goals divided by the # of games played.
• Assists (A): This is the number of times a player sets up a goal for a teammate.
• Assists per Game (APG): This is the average number of assists per game. Divide the total assists on the season by the # of games played so far.
• Shots (SH): This is the total number of shots a player or team takes during a game, season, or career.
• Shots on Goal (SOG): This is the number of shots that are on target and require a save from the opposing team’s goalkeeper.
• Possession: This is the percentage of time a team has the ball during a soccer game.
• Goals For (GF): This is the total number of goals a team scores during a game, season, or tournament.
• Goals Allowed (GA): This is the total number of goals a team concedes during a game, season, or tournament.
• Goal Differential (GD): This is the difference between the number of goals a team has scored and the number of goals they have conceded.

Other soccer stats include:

• Minutes (Min): The minutes played during a game or season.
• Yellow Cards (YC): The amount of yellow cards received in the match or season.
• Red Cards (RC): The number of red cards given to a player during a game or season.
• Touches (T): The number of touches a player gets on the ball during a game. This stat shows how active the player was in the game.
• Turnovers (TO): This shows how many times the ball was turned over by a player or team. Unlike American football and basketball, soccer naturally has many turnovers during a game.

By tracking these stats over time, you can identify trends and patterns that can help you make better decisions about your team’s strategy and tactics.

Recording Basic Soccer Stats

Here are the essential stats you should be recording for each game.

Tracking Goals in Soccer

The most obvious stat to track in soccer is goals. For each game, record the number of goals scored by each team. You can further break down goals into categories such as:

• Penalty kicks
• Free kicks
• Header goals
• Shots from inside/outside the box

Counting Assists in Soccer

An assist is awarded to the player who passes the ball to the goal scorer.

Recording assists can help you identify players who are good at setting up goals, as well as players who may need to work on their passing skills.

Calculating Save Percentages

For goalkeepers, save percentage is an important stat to track.

To calculate the save percentage, divide the number of saves by the number of shots on goal. This will give you a percentage that represents how effective the goalkeeper is at stopping shots.

It’s also important to track other goalkeeper stats such as:

• Goals allowed
• Clean sheets (games where the goalkeeper doesn’t allow any goals)
• Penalties saved

Advanced Soccer Stats

In my experience, advanced soccer metrics is a distraction for most youth players and teams. They are just unnecessary.

However, for elite players and high-level teams, they can help understand player and team performance.

Measuring Possession

Possession is a crucial aspect of soccer, and measuring it accurately can provide valuable insights into your team’s performance.

One way to track possession is by calculating the percentage of time your team has the ball compared to the opposition. To do this, simply divide the amount of time your team has possession by the total time of the game.

Another way to measure possession is by tracking the number of passes your team completes compared to the opposition.

This can give you a better idea of how well your team is controlling the ball and maintaining possession.

Analyzing Pass Success Rate

This metric measures the percentage of passes your team completes successfully compared to the total number of attempted passes.

A high pass success rate can indicate that your team is playing well and maintaining possession effectively.

On the other hand, a low pass success rate may suggest that your team needs to work on their passing accuracy and decision-making.

Determining Expected Goals (xG)

Expected goals (xG) is a statistic that measures the quality of goal-scoring opportunities.

This metric takes into account factors such as shot location, shot type, and the number of defenders in the way to determine the likelihood of a goal being scored.

By tracking xG, you can gain a better understanding of your team’s offensive performance and identify areas for improvement.

For example, if your team consistently generates high-quality scoring opportunities but struggles to convert them into goals, you may need to work on your finishing skills.

Final Thoughts

Keeping soccer stats can be part of your program. By tracking key metrics such as goals, assists, and shots on goal, you can gain valuable insights into how your team is performing and identify areas for improvement.

Most youth leagues will keep track of the team wins, losses, goals, etc. on their website.

However, there may be times when you want to track player stats. This requires more effort and detail on your part.

By taking a thoughtful and strategic approach to keeping soccer statistics, you can gain valuable insights into your team’s performance and make data-driven decisions that lead to success on the field.

I hope this explanation helps! That’s what I’m here for 😃