The relationship between entries into penalty box and the result of a football game

This study examines the entries into the penalty area as a performance indicator that distinguishes between winning, drawing and losing football teams. It touches upon the topics as whether the entries into the penalty area are influenced by match status, style of play, quality of the teams and preferred zones of attacking. Although the crosses were found the most utilized passes to enter the box by the teams, the rate of a goal conversion from the passes into the box is higher in through passes and dribbling into the box. The teams which chose an offensive style of play entered the box more often. The match status as winning during a game affected the box entering more positively. Ball possession was not shown a major indicator as affecting the box entries. Though, the possession in the zones of the playing field in the opponent half was shown a major indicator in affecting the box entries positively. The study mainly assesses the correlation between amount of box entries and the results of the games. The study was completed in cooperation with U17s team of FC Honka. Its aim was to identify whether box entries play a role in the results of the games. The amount of box entries was shown to be a main indicator for the results of the majority of the games, but the number of entries into penalty box did not always mean for a positive result. The studies about the topic are relatively new and very limited. Keywords Entry into penalty box, performance, results, playing style, match status, footbal