The most interesting fitness stats from the 2015 Women’s World Cup

FIFA has released its technical report on the physical analysis of teams and players in the 2015 Women’s World Cup. This is part of ongoing efforts to increase the amount of scientific data and research in the women’s game. Here are some of the most interesting findings from the report.

Outfield players ran an average of 10.8 km/match

New Zealand, Germany, and the USA covered the greatest distance going >16km/h, which covers speed thresholds from high-speed running to sprinting

The United States showed a trivial decrease in work rate between first and second halves, i.e. on average they maintained about the same work rate for the full game

UEFA teams scored the highest goals per match (1.8) while conceding the fewest (0.9)

UEFA teams also had the highest number of passes, pass completion rates, and shots on goal, but were not the teams that spent the most time running at higher speeds; more running at higher speeds did not correlate to better results

Germany and the USA showed a trend of increasing distances covered at speeds >20 km/h as the tournament progressed

In the final, the USA covered 12.1% more distance in its middle third than Japan, compared to 2011 when Japan covered 33.1% more distance in its defensive third than the USA

Golden Ball winner Carli Lloyd covered a total of 11,685m at an average speed of 7.4 km/h, with an average maximum speed of 30.1 km/h (for comparison a horse can hit a max speed of about 70 km/h)

Ali Krieger hit the highest maximum speed in the final of any player, reaching 34.7 km/h

Lauren Holiday had the highest individual distance covered at 12,718m

The whole report is really worth reading, especially in the comparisons between 2011 and 2015. There’s an absolute wealth of data here that women’s soccer is just starting to collect and utilize in order to improve its game. Hopefully 2019 will see even more data available.