Does the First Goal Scorer Win in Football? U 19 League Example

Abstract

This study was conducted to examine the effect of the first goals scored by the 18 football teams in the U-19 Elite Academy Football League. In this context, the distribution of the goals scored and conceded by the teams in home and away matches according to the time periods of 15 minutes each were analysed. The official web page of TFF (Turkish Football Federation) at https://tff.org was used to collect data. 34.21% of the first goals scored between 0-15th minutes, 39.29% of the first goals scored by the champion team were scored between 16-30th minutes. All teams in the league won 70.76% of the matches in which they scored the first goal, while only 14.91% of the matches in which they conceded the first goal were lost and 14.33% ended in a draw. It was concluded that the rate of leaving with a win the competitions in which the champion team scored the first goal was 82.14%, which is quite high. In the matches in which all teams in the league scored the first goal, the average points per match was 2.27, champion team was 2.57. As a result, it can be said that the first goal scored is mostly concentrated in the first half of the competitions and in the first 15 minutes, the first goal scored in football is important both in winning the matches and in achieving the desired point average per match, and coaches should develop tactical strategies on scoring the first goal.