Goal drought in Qatar

AL RAYYAN, November 26

A cautious approach from many teams in the opening round of the World Cup was behind a record-approaching number of goalless draws at the tournament in Qatar, FIFA’s technical study group said today.

But they predicted the games would get more expansive, and goals begin to flow, once teams had a chance to qualify for the knockout stages or were facing the prospect of an early exit.

There were four goalless games in the opening 16 matches – an unprecedented 25% return in the first round of group games – and a fifth on Friday as England and the United States played out a stalemate in their second game of the tournament.

The record number of 0-0 draws at the World Cup stands at seven, which happened at four different editions of the tournament, but Qatar 2022 is already close to that tally with only 20 of the 64 scheduled games completed before today’s matches.

At the last World Cup in Russia, there was a single goalless draw, when Denmark and France failed to produce goals in a group phase clash.

“Teams have not wanted to take too much of a risk,” said former Nigeria international Sunday Oliseh, part of FIFA’s panel of experts who are studying trends at the tournament. “Past data shows that some 70% of teams who lose their first game at a World Cup go out after the first round and I think teams are aware of that,” he added.

“Clearly many teams are relying on a cautious approach,” added colleague Alberto Zaccheroni, who won Serie A with AC Milan and the Asian Cup when he was coach of Japan. “There were a number of teams who fielded five defenders and played very tight and compact. They wanted to assure a minimum of a point from their opening game and if a chance came along try and grab it to win the game.” — Reuters

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