Goals Scored - the most meaningless stat in all sports

oh canada

oh canada

GOLD
Last week, fellow Canadian Christine Sinclair, broke Abby Wambach's most international goals record by any player, man/woman at 185. Sinclair is a good person and congrats to her. But while at first blush this stat sounds impressive, when you really start to think about that statistic and the nature of the soccer game, it has to be the most useless and meaningless statistic in all sports. Especially for women. Why?

Well, for one, Canada (and the USA) women players hugely benefit from playing international teams that would struggle to compete against a CalSouth State Cup 2007 birthyear winner. Consider that in Sinclair's record-setting game, the final score was 11-0 vs. St. Kitts/Nevis. Sinclair scored twice. USA beat Panama the other night 8-0. And lest we forget the 13-0 drubbing of Thailand in the WWC wherein Alex Morgan scored 5 goals. She probably had a harder time styling her hair that morning.

Next, unlike baseball or hockey or basketball or other team sports where every player gets multiple chances to hit, shoot, score, etc., soccer is very plutocratic. The "wealthy" forwards get most of the chances and the 9 is the player who all the other players consistently pass the ball to for a goal. You might say well, in football they keep track of TDs and the quarterback is the only one to throw the ball. True, but there is one more thing to consider that is unique to soccer. Read on.

Lsst I checked, football doesn't have a situation where all the players except two are moved to the center of the field so Tom Brady can try to throw a TD into an end zone defended by only one player. Yes, scoring a PK goal isn't simple, but every TD that Rogers or Mahomes throws is fully earned with the full defense on the other side of the ball. PK's are also another example of the plutocratic soccer goal scoring system wherein the goal scorer gets exclusive opportunities to score more goals.

Finally, while it is true you can't win a soccer game without scoring a goal, you also can't win a game if you give up a goal. Just like in the NFL, valid arguments can be made about soccer that defense is more important and defenders are more valuable than goal scorers.

So, for the above reasons, I say, "Goals scored"? Meh.

(Written by a parent of one defender, one forward and one midfielder.)
 
For 3 years I’ve tracked a number of stats on my DD’s team, including goals. Interestingly, the top goal scorers emerge consistently despite the level of competition and despite which forward position they played.
Statistics are never perfect storytellers. By itself, goals scored is by no means a comprehensive stat, but goals per game is a pretty good stat to compare forwards against each other, especially over time.
Now, if the level of competition is always different between the two players or groups you are comparing, then I agree the stat is meaningless.
(Parent of one forward/mid and one defender/mid)
 
oh canada said:
Last week, fellow Canadian Christine Sinclair, broke Abby Wambach's most international goals record by any player, man/woman at 185. Sinclair is a good person and congrats to her. But while at first blush this stat sounds impressive, when you really start to think about that statistic and the nature of the soccer game, it has to be the most useless and meaningless statistic in all sports. Especially for women. Why?

Well, for one, Canada (and the USA) women players hugely benefit from playing international teams that would struggle to compete against a CalSouth State Cup 2007 birthyear winner. Consider that in Sinclair's record-setting game, the final score was 11-0 vs. St. Kitts/Nevis. Sinclair scored twice. USA beat Panama the other night 8-0. And lest we forget the 13-0 drubbing of Thailand in the WWC wherein Alex Morgan scored 5 goals. She probably had a harder time styling her hair that morning.

Next, unlike baseball or hockey or basketball or other team sports where every player gets multiple chances to hit, shoot, score, etc., soccer is very plutocratic. The "wealthy" forwards get most of the chances and the 9 is the player who all the other players consistently pass the ball to for a goal. You might say well, in football they keep track of TDs and the quarterback is the only one to throw the ball. True, but there is one more thing to consider that is unique to soccer. Read on.

Lsst I checked, football doesn't have a situation where all the players except two are moved to the center of the field so Tom Brady can try to throw a TD into an end zone defended by only one player. Yes, scoring a PK goal isn't simple, but every TD that Rogers or Mahomes throws is fully earned with the full defense on the other side of the ball. PK's are also another example of the plutocratic soccer goal scoring system wherein the goal scorer gets exclusive opportunities to score more goals.

Finally, while it is true you can't win a soccer game without scoring a goal, you also can't win a game if you give up a goal. Just like in the NFL, valid arguments can be made about soccer that defense is more important and defenders are more valuable than goal scorers.

So, for the above reasons, I say, "Goals scored"? Meh.

(Written by a parent of one defender, one forward and one midfielder.)
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Goals make headlines, and defense is hard to judge without seeing the whole game. The peak of my son's college career was in his junior year, the year he moved back from midfield to defense. Despite becoming a defender, 2 weeks in a row he was conference offensive player of the week because he had multiple goals and/or assists those weeks. The conference defensive player of the week both weeks were goaltenders. I would suggest that there should be a GK of the week so that someone actually playing defense could be honored, but I don't know how they would pick that one.
 
I dunno our youngest son keep track until he passed 500 goals in his U15 yr, he could tell you about 100 of those goals especially the game winners...coming backing from 0-3 to win 4-3 couple times in tournaments or post season play or the extra time winners, golden goals, take the shirt off, celebrate with your teammates in the corner type deals.

So fun to watch, amazing at times but appreciate all aspects of the game. Glad he learned to play and has at every position. Defense, Playing out, Passing, teamwork, tactics all go into scoring those goals so good to teach that also.

Personally would recommend every youth player train & play regularly at least 2 positions especially the youngers
 
It's not meaningless as "the goal" IS the actual objective of the game.

People who know the sport know that it does not mean best player. For example, Samchis and Butragueño were the best players in Real Madrid even when Hugo Sánchez was the one scoring.

Mesi and Cristiano are the exceptions. They have been the best players in their teams and the ones who make the goals. But behind them we have had great players in all the positions throughout the years like Modric, Xavi, Iniesta, Marques, Marcelo, etc etc.

So, it's not useless but it doesn't indicate the best player.
 
I consider offside and icing rules in ice hockey really good rules that should be brought into football.

It would promote more dribbling (hockey's offside rule) and discourage mindless kick ball (icing rule)
 
oh canada said:
But couldn't you say the same about any sport? TD is the "actual objective" of football, run in baseball, goal in hockey, etc.?
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Or - preventing your opponents from gaining the objective.

Especially in soccer, where one of the most common scores is 1-0, if they don't score you can't lose.
 
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