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Did you know that Lionel Messi was the best young captain in 2015 Copa América? Did you know that Goalkeepers and Forwards were better captains in this tournament? Did you know that Italian clubs had highest non-native representation in this tournament? Did you know thatJuventus has the highest player representation in semi-finals and finals? Did you know that higher aged and higher experienced squads have been more successful in the tournament?
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In this article, I cover all these aspects in the following 11 incredible statistics – a result of post-tournament analysis on 2015 Copa América.
1. Higher the average squad’s age, longer the country remained in 2015 Copa América
Top 3 teams with highest average aged squads (Chile, Paraguay and Argentina) have all reached semi-finals
Quarter-finalists were the exceptions: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay together had the lowest average age of the players.
2. Countries with higher international experienced players have performed better
Both finalists (Chile and Argentina) have the highest average international appearances of their squad.
Though the quarter-finalists are younger than the group stage exiting teams, they were more experienced.
3. Combining age and experience, Chile in the highest quadrant has won the title
Same analysis on the FIFA 2014 world cup squads has revealed a different picture. Two outliers with opposing characteristics ended up in the finals there: Germany with low average age & high international appearances and Argentina with high average age & low international appearances.
4. Among the top 5 European leagues, Italian and English leagues dominated representation in Copa America with 27 players
5. In semi-finals, Italian and German league players have dominated
6. In the finals, representation from Italian leagues was twice that of English leagues
This article has been contributed by a member of the SK Featured Bloggers Club. It was originally published on the ‘Stat Screamer’ blog here.
7. From group stage till finals, Italian league players have fared well with 52% of the participated players reaching finals. 75% of German league players reached semi-finals, but only 25% of them reached finals. English league with the largest representation only had 26% in finals and only 4% in the winning team Chile.
8. Juventus is the largest represented club in the finals of the competition. They were followed by Barcelona, Manchester City and Napoli
9. Even with entire semi-finalists under consideration, Juventus were the only club with 4 players. Presence of Fiorentina and Napoli also from the list gives a hint that Italian league was shaping up in the right direction.
10. This one is for Lionel Messi supporters! Only 5 countries had captains less than or equal to 30 years of age. Among these 5, one dropped out in group stage, 3 out in Quarter-finals and magical Messi is the only one who has managed till finals.
11. Goalkeepers and Forwards were the most successful captains in the tournament with everyone of them reaching at least till quarter-finals
This article has been contributed by a member of the SK Featured Bloggers Club. It was originally published on the ‘Stat Screamer’ blog here.
