Passing Success Percentages and Ball Possession Rates of Successful Teams in 2014 FIFA World Cup

This study was conducted to examine the ball possession and passing success percentage of successful teams in 2014 FIFA World Cup. The data were obtained from international TV channels publishing competitions and the database of the website of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association - FIFA through official overviews of the games. So the parameters such as ball possession percentages, passing attempted, passing success percentages, accurate and non-accurate passes of successful teams in matches were analyzed. These performance indicators were analyzed by e-Analyze Soccer computer program. The data obtained in this study was recorded in SPSS 16.0 program and interpreted by calculating frequency and percentage values. Ball possession percentages of the successful teams vary between 50.32% and 56.71%. Among 17102 passing attempts of successful teams, it was determined that 13378 were successful having a high rate of passing success such as 78.22%. As a result, in the organizations such as World Cup which elite athletes participated, while successful teams had high rates of the ball possession it can be said that having the ball in midfield and offensive region and passing attempt, successful passing scores, passing success percent at a high level are the most basic principles that bring success.