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Gasping for air: soccer players’ passing behavior at high-altitude

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Published/Copyright: December 23, 2014
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Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports
From the journal Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports Volume 10 Issue 4

Abstract

A number of soccer officials have long debated whether to ban soccer games played at high altitude above sea level. This paper explores soccer player’s passing behavior when playing at high elevations using Copa Libertadores data. For this, I propose a range of direct indicators when playing at high altitude: the number of total passes, the number of passes in the opposition’s half, and the number of successful passes. I also review the effects on the percentage of successful passes and the percentage of successful passes in the opponents’ half of the field. Player’s passing abilities are compared for games played away above 2500 m (8202 feet) vis-à-vis those held below that threshold. The results show that the percentage of successful passes rises by about 5.6 percentage points, mostly driven by each player’s behavior in his own half. Following earlier findings by Romer (2006) and Palacios-Huerta (2014), who state that players behave conservatively under certain circumstances, I argue that players’ have prior believes about the effects of playing at high altitude and consequently their risk aversion to lose the ball increases.

Keywords: high-altitude performance; soccer; soccer players’ passing performance
JEL classification: L83; C21
Corresponding author: Jorge Tovar, Universidad de Los Andes-Economics, Bogota, Colombia, e-mail:

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Andrés Álvarez, Federico Echenique, Camilo Tovar, the editor, the associate editor and two anonymous referees for helpful comments and suggestions. I thank OPTA for providing players’ passing performance data.

Appendix

Table A1

Teams, stadiums and its altitude: 2013 Copa Libertadores.

StadiumCountryHome teamAltitude (m/feet)
Jesús BermúdezBoliviaSan José3731/12,241
Hernando SilesBoliviaThe Strongest3598/11,804
Inca Garcilaso de la VegaPeruReal Garcilaso3363/11,033
Nemesio DiezMexicoToluca2683/8803
Nemesio Camacho ‘El Campín’ColombiaMillonarios; Santa Fe2557/8389
Manuel Murillo ToroColombiaTolima1163/3815
Olimpico UCVVenezuelaCaracas FC865/2838
MineiraoBrazilAltético Mineiro853/2799
Estadio IndependenciaBrazilAtlético Mineiro843/2766
PacaembúBrazilCorinthians; Palmeiras766/2513
MorumbíBrazilSão Paulo753/2470
Estadio Nacional Julio MartirChileSantiago de Chile574/1883
Metropolitano BarquisimetroVenezuelaDeportivo Lara468/1535
General Pablo RojasParaguayCerro Porteño126/413
Alberto GallardoPeruSporting Cristal121/397
Defensores del ChacoParaguayOlimpia103/338
Dr. Nicolás LeozParaguayDr. Nicolás Leoz79/259
CalienteMexicoTijuana56/184
Parque CentralUruguayNacional52/171
Tierra de CampeonesChileDeportes Iquique48/157
Marcelo BielsaArgentinaNewell’s Old Boys32/105
Estadio Olimpico Joao HavelangeBrazilFluminense31/102
CentenarioUruguayNacional; Peñarol29/95
Monumental Banco PichinchaEcuadorBarcelona29/95
Estadio CAPChileHuachipato23/75
José AmalfitaniArgentinaVélez Sarsfield17/56
Monumental de VictoriaArgentinaTigre16/53
Sao JanuárioBrazilFluminense13/43
Alberto J. Armando ‘La Bombonera’ArgentinaBoca Juniors11/36
George CapwellEcuadorEmelec8/26
Arena de GremioBrazilGremio5/16
Julio H GrondonaArgentinaArsenal4/13

Source: Google Earth.

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Published Online: 2014-12-23
Published in Print: 2014-12-1

©2014 by De Gruyter

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  4. Scoring rules, and the role of chance: Analysis of the 2008 World Fly Fishing Championships
  5. Gasping for air: soccer players’ passing behavior at high-altitude
https://doi.org/10.1515/jqas-2014-0035
Keywords for this article
high-altitude performance; soccer; soccer players’ passing performance

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Stochastic model of the 2012 PGA Tour season
  3. Predicting the draft and career success of tight ends in the National Football League
  4. Scoring rules, and the role of chance: Analysis of the 2008 World Fly Fishing Championships
  5. Gasping for air: soccer players’ passing behavior at high-altitude
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