Data Behind Youth Footballer’s Impressive Wins
Over the past few days, Bermuda’s youth football teams have won eight consecutive games to win two international tournaments, and we delved into the numbers behind this exceptional showing by the island’s young footballers.
The Under 14 Boys Team won their group in the Caribbean Football Union Challenge Series in the Cayman Islands, while the U15 Girls Football Team won the Division Two at the Concacaf Women’s U15 Championship in Florida; with both teams maintaining an undefeated record.
Combined, the two undefeated teams won 8 games, while recording 86.20% of the 29 goals scored in all eight games, which Bermuda were generally playing against nations with significantly larger populations.
Undefeated U14 Team
The Bermuda Under 14 Boys Football Team won their group in the Caribbean Football Union Boys’ U14 Challenge Series in the Cayman Islands, winning all three of their matches to maintain an undefeated record.
They hammered the US Virgin Islands by a score of 11-0, defeated Cuba by a score 2 – 1, and also claimed a 4 – 0 win over Cayman.
Undefeated U15 Team
The Bermuda Girl’s U15 football team won the Division Two at the Concacaf Women’s U15 Championship in Florida; also maintaining an undefeated record.
They recorded a 3-1 win over Antigua & Barbuda, a 1-0 victory over Barbados, a 2-1 win over Curaçao, a 1-0 victory over St. Lucia, and they defeated Grenada 2-1 in the finals.
Bermuda Scored 86.20% Of All Goals
The boys team scored a total of seventeen goals and conceded only one goal in their three games, while the girls team scored a total of eight goals and conceded only three during their five matches.
Combined, there were a total of 29 goals scored in the eight games, and Bermuda scored 25 of those, and conceded only four, meaning of all the goals scored in those games, 86.20% of those were by Bermuda, while 13.80% of all the goals were scored by their opponents.
Defeated Significantly Larger Nations
As one of the smallest countries, or to be technical, territories, in the world, Bermuda generally has to play sports against larger nations, and these two tournaments were no different.
Cayman was the only island with a population similar to ours, and the largest nation we defeated was Cuba, which has a population of over 11.4 million people, and is the first Caribbean nation to ever compete in the prestigious FIFA World Cup.
With the exception of Bermuda-sized Cayman and super-sized Cuba, the islands we defeated have populations ranging from 100,963 to 284,996, according to World Bank statistics, which ranks our population at 65,331.
Looking at the numbers, the average population of teams we competed against worked out to an average of over 1.5 million, however that statistic is heavily weighted by the inclusion of the much larger Cuba.
However even when excluding Cuba and averaging the remaining seven islands, the average population is still over 140,000, meaning our youth teams remained undefeated against islands with populations that averaged over double our size, and in Cuba’s case, around 200 times larger.
Very impressive stats!
Somebody is doing somerhing right!
Well done everyone!
The future is bright!
something sorry pressed send b4 I proofed! Sorry!
I think much of this success stems from Drew Bascome and his determination to improve coaching quality at youth level across the island. Of course it is not just him, the coaches who upped their game deserve credit too, as do indeed the players and volunteers over the years. Well done all…Keep it up!
impressive performances by our youth teams and great analysis from Bernews.