Looking at MTBS for the 2014 World Cup

Continuing our application of “mean time between” metrics to the World Cup, I consider mean time between stoppages.

These metrics, and all those related to the 2014 FIFA World Cup, are derived from data from Press Association‘s Match Story feed, which was distributed through the Soccermetrics API.  Below is a table of mean time between stoppages (MTBS) over regulation time of all matches of the tournament:

Home Team Away Team Referee 1st Half Stoppages MTBS (sec) 2nd Half Stoppages MTBS (sec)
Korea Republic Algeria Wilmar Roldán 58 48.54 80 34.15
Costa Rica Greece Ben Williams 63 44.82 68 43.58
Netherlands Chile Bakary Gassama 71 37.84 72 37.39
Côte d’Ivoire Japan Enrique Osses 55 47.94 56 53.64
Japan Colombia Pedro Proença 57 48.79 58 47.84
Argentina Iran Milorad Mažić 55 51.98 60 48.36
Australia Spain Nawaf Shukralla 66 42.45 53 52.94
Croatia Mexico Ravshan Irmatov 56 48.47 67 42.26
Greece Côte d’Ivoire Carlos Vera 60 49.25 58 48.84
Nigeria Bosnia and Herzegovina Peter O’Leary 36 75.20 51 53.32
Iran Nigeria Carlos Vera 56 50.24 61 45.35
Germany Ghana Sandro Ricci 56 47.85 72 40.52
Brazil Chile Howard Webb 68 41.34 60 47.59
Russia Korea Republic Néstor Pitana 53 50.40 54 50.83
Ghana USA Jonas Eriksson 63 47.45 69 40.93
Switzerland France Björn Kuipers 50 55.51 56 48.96
Italy Costa Rica Enrique Osses 57 49.96 73 38.79
France Honduras Sandro Ricci 56 51.56 56 50.13
Brazil Colombia Carlos Velasco 73 37.39 86 34.16
Ecuador France Noumandiez Doué 59 46.67 46 61.87
Brazil Mexico Cüneyt Çakır 59 46.40 56 49.09
USA Germany Ravshan Irmatov 60 46.08 55 51.04
France Germany Néstor Pitana 57 47.48 83 34.23
Netherlands Costa Rica Ravshan Irmatov 52 50.94 63 45.79
Korea Republic Belgium Ben Williams 74 38.48 58 50.04
Germany Argentina Nicola Rizzoli 65 42.88 54 49.00
Colombia Greece Mark Geiger 58 47.68 78 35.73
Netherlands Argentina Cüneyt Çakır 51 49.30 50 56.80
Spain Netherlands Nicola Rizzoli 58 47.68 59 48.69
Colombia Côte d’Ivoire Howard Webb 56 50.20 67 43.50
Switzerland Ecuador Ravshan Irmatov 70 39.58 56 49.82
Australia Netherlands Djamel Haimoudi 70 40.87 79 36.19
Brazil Croatia Yuichi Nishimura 61 46.87 74 38.95
Honduras Switzerland Néstor Pitana 57 48.70 55 50.28
Cameroon Brazil Jonas Eriksson 56 49.78 80 34.77
Japan Greece Joel Aguilar 69 39.76 61 47.33
Germany Algeria Sandro Ricci 58 47.04 61 45.70
Spain Chile Mark Geiger 82 34.05 60 50.02
Belgium USA Djamel Haimoudi 74 38.58 57 49.39
Colombia Uruguay Björn Kuipers 46 60.49 58 48.19
Uruguay Costa Rica Felix Brych 68 40.54 97 30.16
Germany Portugal Milorad Mažić 51 54.10 52 53.41
Brazil Netherlands Djamel Haimoudi 58 48.89 68 43.01
Mexico Cameroon Wilmar Roldán 68 41.09 53 54.87
Argentina Switzerland Jonas Eriksson 75 36.54 69 40.93
France Nigeria Mark Geiger 62 45.21 55 52.52
Chile Australia Noumandiez Doué 54 51.21 62 42.97
Argentina Bosnia and Herzegovina Joel Aguilar 57 47.43 50 53.51
Algeria Russia Cüneyt Çakır 58 47.65 77 37.79
Bosnia and Herzegovina Iran Wilmar Roldán 75 37.57 78 35.73
Belgium Algeria Marco Antonio Rodríguez 59 47.16 83 34.30
Uruguay England Carlos Velasco 77 35.80 61 47.93
Honduras Ecuador Ben Williams 63 46.52 73 38.68
Italy Uruguay Marco Antonio Rodríguez 80 35.44 68 44.15
Cameroon Croatia Pedro Proença 61 44.47 48 55.98
England Italy Björn Kuipers 43 66.10 54 54.83
Brazil Germany Marco Antonio Rodríguez 57 47.09 54 51.06
Belgium Russia Felix Brych 59 47.33 71 40.24
Portugal Ghana Nawaf Shukralla 67 39.85 82 35.95
USA Portugal Néstor Pitana 56 49.38 50 58.76
Nigeria Argentina Nicola Rizzoli 52 53.37 58 50.18
Netherlands Mexico Pedro Proença 39 71.87 60 49.39
Argentina Belgium Nicola Rizzoli 48 57.64 90 31.84
Costa Rica England Djamel Haimoudi 68 40.57 67 41.61

Mean time between stoppages of all matches at 2014 FIFA World Cup, regulation time only. Data sourced from Press Association MatchStory feed and served from Soccermetrics Connect API.

Below is the chart of MTBS over all matches officiated by World Cup referees.  They are sorted in descending order by MTBS over regulation time.  Mean time between stoppages is not only subject to the frequency of fouls, but also the frequency of the ball being out of play, which the two teams and the referee impact.  MTBS tends to vary between 35 and 55 seconds, but there are some exceptions, such as the first halves of matches officiated by Peter O’Leary and Björn Kuipers.  The variation between first and second half MTBS tends to be less than 10%, but there are some significant differences in the matches officiated by O’Leary and Kuipers.  Those differences could be discounted as a reversion to the mean, though.  More interesting are the drops in MTBS observed in the matches officiated by Yuichi Nishimura, Jonas Eriksson and Felix Brych, from figures in the first half near the average MTBS for all referees to the second-half figures are the low end of the range.  Bakary Gassama refereed just the one match, but the MTBF and MTBS were very low.

    Avg MTBS (sec)
Referee Matches First Half Second Half 90 Mins Diff
Peter O’Leary 1 75.2 53.3 64.3 -21.9
Björn Kuipers 3 60.7 50.7 55.7 -10.0
Pedro Proença 3 55.0 51.1 53.1 -4.0
Milorad Mažić 2 53.0 50.9 52.0 -2.2
Noumandiez Doué 2 48.9 52.4 50.7 3.5
Néstor Pitana 4 49.0 48.5 48.8 -0.5
Carlos Vera 2 49.7 47.1 48.4 -2.7
Cüneyt Çakır 3 47.8 47.9 47.8 0.1
Nicola Rizzoli 4 50.4 44.9 47.7 -5.5
Enrique Osses 2 49.0 46.2 47.6 -2.7
Sandro Ricci 3 48.8 45.5 47.1 -3.4
Joel Aguilar 2 43.6 50.4 47.0 6.8
Ravshan Irmatov 4 46.3 47.2 46.7 1.0
Howard Webb 2 45.8 45.5 45.7 -0.2
Mark Geiger 3 42.3 46.1 44.2 3.8
Ben Williams 3 43.3 44.1 43.7 0.8
Marco Antonio Rodríguez 3 43.2 43.2 43.2 -0.1
Yuichi Nishimura 1 46.9 39.0 42.9 -7.9
Nawaf Shukralla 2 41.2 44.4 42.8 3.3
Djamel Haimoudi 4 42.2 42.6 42.4 0.3
Wilmar Roldán 3 42.4 41.6 42.0 -0.8
Jonas Eriksson 3 44.6 38.9 41.7 -5.7
Felix Brych 2 43.9 35.2 39.6 -8.7
Carlos Velasco 2 36.6 41.0 38.8 4.5
Bakary Gassama 1 37.8 37.4 37.6 -0.5

The second chart displays the average MTBS of World Cup finalists over all of their matches played.  As with the referee table, the rows are sorted in descending order by MTBS over regulation time.  In contrast to the referees, the range of MTBS for teams is much narrower — between 40 and 50 seconds.  The narrow range could be a result of teams playing more matches than the referees; after all, only four referees appeared more than four times, while sixteen of the 32 finalists played at least four matches.  Nigeria was the lone side whose average MTBS exceeded 50 seconds over all halves of regulation time, but France and Mexico were very close to this mark as well.  At the low end, Uruguay’s MTBS was consistently low between both halves of regulation time.   Most of the finalists experienced variations of MTBS within five seconds, with matches involving Ecuador (+5.9 sec) and Spain (+9.2 sec) experiencing longer intervals between stoppages, and matches involving Nigeria (-5.7 sec), Bosnia (-5.9 sec), Russia (-5.5 sec), and Colombia (-7.0 sec) experiencing shorter intervals.

Avg MTBS (sec)
Team Matches First Half Second Half 90 Mins Diff
Nigeria 4 56.0 50.3 53.2 -5.7
Bosnia and Herzegovina 3 53.4 47.5 50.5 -5.9
Mexico 4 52.0 48.9 50.4 -3.1
France 5 49.3 49.5 49.4 0.3
Côte d’Ivoire 3 49.1 48.7 48.9 -0.5
Portugal 3 47.8 49.4 48.6 1.6
Italy 3 50.5 45.9 48.2 -4.6
Argentina 7 48.4 47.2 47.8 -1.2
England 3 47.5 48.1 47.8 0.6
USA 4 45.4 50.0 47.7 4.7
Honduras 3 48.9 46.4 47.6 -2.6
Japan 3 45.5 49.6 47.6 4.1
Netherlands 7 49.6 45.3 47.5 -4.3
Ecuador 3 44.3 50.1 47.2 5.9
Germany 7 47.5 46.4 47.0 -1.1
Cameroon 3 45.1 48.5 46.8 3.4
Switzerland 4 45.1 47.5 46.3 2.4
Croatia 3 46.6 45.7 46.2 -0.9
Spain 3 41.4 50.6 46.0 9.2
Russia 3 48.5 43.0 45.7 -5.5
Korea Republic 3 45.8 45.0 45.4 -0.8
Colombia 5 48.9 41.9 45.4 -7.0
Iran 3 46.6 43.1 44.9 -3.5
Greece 4 45.4 43.9 44.6 -1.5
Australia 3 44.8 44.0 44.4 -0.8
Brazil 7 45.4 42.7 44.0 -2.7
Belgium 5 45.8 41.2 43.5 -4.7
Uruguay 4 43.1 42.6 42.8 -0.5
Chile 4 41.1 44.5 42.8 3.4
Algeria 4 47.6 38.0 42.8 -9.6
Costa Rica 5 45.4 40.0 42.7 -5.4
Ghana 3 45.1 39.1 42.1 -5.9

I’m still working through an explanation of what these figures mean.  It’s possible that mean times between fouls and stoppages have some meaning, and it’s possible that they have very little.  In the next few posts, I hope to present some more analysis to further examine these metrics.

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