The penalty in football: a performance analysis of the penalties occurred between 2010 and 2018 editions of the brazilian football championship

Abstract

The penalty in football is an important moment of the game, and it is often the subject of controversy in the sports context. On the other hand, the growing technology and performance analysis have favored decision making by the coaching staff and athletes. Thus, the objective of this study was to analyze the players' performance in the penalties that occurred during the last nine editions of the Brazilian football championship. In total, 3,420 games were analyzed, with 875 penalty situations. In the descriptive analysis the data were summarized in relative and absolute frequencies, and the Pearson's correlation to analyze the variables behavior. All analyzes were performed through Graph Pad Prism software. The results show that a greater amount of penalties was pointed to the home team, and in six seasons the visitors scored more than the home teams. During the analysed seasons there was a short variation between converted and missed penalties, with a moderate reduction (r=-0.59) in missed penalties by the home teams.