Looking Past Just The Scoreboard
With many sports, the scoreboard of a sporting match does not particularly reflect the actual performance of two teams. Be it football, rugby, basketball, to see the actually individual merits of the team and analyse the quality and effectiveness of the attack and defence, one needs to look at all the little things that produced the end result of a win or a loss, rather than just the scoreboard.
The scoreboard might indicate a very high scoring affair between two teams and that might actually mean strong attack from both teams. What can be overlooked here is the actual defensive result of the game. Were the teams actually involved with an unusually high number of missed tackles or defensive lapses? Did the goal keeper let a few easy goals past and were there an unusually low amount of fouls in a game to signal less defensive aggression?
In a low scoring game, the opposite might be found. Although a quick scan might reveal attacking lapses, but statistics might actually reflect a super natural defensive effort that shut out all the very best plays. Both team and individual statistics can reveal much more, some telling a stronger story than others.
A team might have had very little possession but had a strong defensive statistic that allowed them to stay in the game. On the other hand, a team may have a lot of possession and fail to convert them to points when they walked into superior defence equal to the task of shutting down all the raids.
A team might have had very little possession but had a strong defensive statistic that allowed them to stay in the game. On the other hand, a team may have a lot of possession and fail to convert them to points when they walked into superior defence equal to the task of shutting down all the raids.
