As we did with the Men's tournament, we also analysed how much top scoring teams and players used diving as one of their tactics during the Women's World Cup in France. Here are the results:
Sweden were the third highest scoring team but they had the highest Goal per Dive ratio (1.2). They were the only team in either World Cup (Women’s and Men’s) to score more often than they dived (12 goals vs 10 dives).
The top scoring players in the tournament were Alex Morgan (United States), Ellen White (England) and Megan Rapinoe (United States), with 6 goals each. But the Golden Boot was awarded to Megan Rapinoe, as she played the least amount of time during the tournament, giving her the best Goal per Minute ratio. Nevertheless, of the three top scoring players, Ellen White dived the least (1 dive).
However, the most honest high scoring player was Wendie Renard (France) who scored 4 goals without a single dive. This made her the only high scoring player to refrain from diving in either the men’s or women’s tournament.
Header photo by Steffen Prößdorf
A remarkable player from many different points of view, also one of the few top ranked players who didn't dive during the World Cup
MoreVAR is unable to vet set pieces outside the penalty box allowing negative impact on matches.
MoreThe United States were the team that produced the highest number of dives.
More