Crossing in Soccer has a Strong Negative Impact on Scoring: Evidence from the English Premier League the German Bundesliga and the World Cup 2014

Abstract

We present statistical evidence that games with a smaller number of open crosses tend to lead to more goals. When we estimate the impact of open crossing on scoring of the individual teams using the multilevel Poisson regression model, we conclude that the net effect of crossing is negative for all the teams in all studied competitions. The quality of the attacking team is the major explanatory factor on the number of missed scoring opportunities due to open crossing while the actual conversion of open crosses to goals plays only a minor role.

Keywords: Crossing, Soccer, Poisson regression, Multilevel modeling, Sport statistics

JEL Classification: C52