Just like millions of viewers around the world, I too have been spending hours watching FIFA world cup football matches on TV. I don’t like spending hours watching TV. But when its FIFA world cup time (which is once every 4 years), I am glued to the idiot box. Blame it on PaWaRa, my school teacher in 8th grade who instilled this passion.
So while watching the match day before yesterday (it was Holland vs. Chile), the commentator said, “This has been a world cup of late goals” as both teams maintained 0-0 until 77 minute mark when Leroy Fer scored a goal for Holland.
That got me thinking,
Is this really a world cup of late goals?
But I quickly brushed away the thought to focus on the match.
Later yesterday, I went looking and downloaded all the goal data for 2006, 2010 & 2014 FIFA world cup matches (2014 data for first 36 matches).
Lets examine the hypothesis “2014 has been a world cup of late goals”.
Attempt 1: Distribution of goals on 90 minute timeline
There have been 147 goals in 2006, 145 goals in 2010 and 117 goals in 2014 (as of 24th June, 2014). Out of all these goals, only 5 goals were scored after the 90 minute mark. So I ignored these 5 goals for our analysis.
Also, I assumed that any goals scored in injury time are part of the 45th minute or 90th minute mark (for simplicity).
One more: I have included data only up to 23rd of June, 2014 – so only first 108 goals of this edition are considered. This reflects accurately the moment commentator made that remark.
Lets see the chart.
Each dot depicts a goal. The dots are filled with semi-transparent color, so we can see the density of goals at each point of the 90 minute timeline.
As you can see, there is no clear pattern of late goals in 2014.
While we could see higher density of dots in first half of 2006 & 2010 editions, that can be attributed to having full data vs. partial data (for 2014).
Attempt 2: % of goals scored in each 15 minute block
May be if we look at % of goals scored in each 15 minute block, we can conclude something.
This gives an indication that 2014 world cup indeed has slow first half. But then you also see conflicting proof with more goals scored in last 30 minutes in 2006 & 2010 editions.
Attempt 3: What if we consider only first 100 goals in each world cup
Lets remove some noise. The commentator said this has been a world cup of late goals. If we consider only first 100 goals (ie first 30 odd matches) in each world cup may be we can see how 2014 fares compared to 2010 & 2006 editions.
Here too the chart does not reveal much. If anything, we can conclude that 2006 has clear pattern of high number of goals in first & last 30 mins.
While 2014 has high density in the last 30 mins, it has good distribution throughout the 90 minutes.
Attempt 4: Lets consider only the first goal of each match
I guess the impression of slowness is created if you have to wait a lot of time to see the first goal in any match. After that usually things pick-up.
So what if we consider only the first goal times in each match.
This is what we get.
Now this is clear. You can see that 2014 has high density in first half. Remember, for 2014 only 36 matches data is considered where as 2010 & 2006 have 64 matches data.
But we can also see the high density of goals in first half for 2006.
If you look at the average wait time for first goal, 2006 is the least with 30 mins and 2014 is in second place.
So if any, we could say 2010 was the world cup of late goals.
Attempt 5: Cumulative % of goals by minute
If a particular world cup has many late goals, then it will show thru when we plot cumulative goal distribution (as a %).
Here is what we get.
From this you can see that 2014 line lags behind 2006 & 2010 for first 60 minutes, before climbing to top place.
This does indicate that 2014 has a lot of late goals.
But the difference is negligible, so we cannot really say much.
What do you think?
I do feel that some of the matches are slow to watch. But this is purely because I have been looking forward to the world cup and could not wait for the action.
What do you think? Do you think this has been a world cup of late goals?
Also, tell me what you think about this analysis? Wow or meh?
About the data
Thanks to Soccer Worldcups & Wikipedia from where I obtained this data.
More like this
If you want to dig a few a more charts and see how they can help you analyze data, check out:
39 Responses to “11 very useful excel keyboard shortcuts you may not know”
You asked about a favorite keyboard shortcut: I often right click the navigation arrows at the bottom of an Excel workbook to get a list of the worksheets. I can click the one I want without having to scroll left or right.
I regularly use the networkdays(x,y,z) function to show the number of working days between two given dates. To exclude public holidays I reference a list of dates ("z" in the above reference) which I periodically update to reflect upcoming non-working days. To keep the sheet looking tidy for other users, I like to hide this column when I'm done, and then unhide it when I update the sheet.
With 40 separate workbooks to edit, these shortcuts make it a breeze...
? Hide selected column: CTRL+0 [zero]
? Unhide hidden column(s) within selection: CTRL+SHIFT+) [closed parenthesis]
If an "Autofit Selection" keyboard shortcut (not just a key sequence) existed, I'd be as happy as a clam!
you can use Alt+o+c+a to autofit selection
Is there a way to auto arrange the column width as you enter the data. Without a macro
You may use alternative key of hide the selected cell by ---print + H key
Unhide---prnt+U keys
You may use alternative key of hide the selected cell by ---print + H key
Unhide---prnt+U keys
[...] 11 very useful excel keyboard shortcuts you may not know [...]
[...] 11 very useful excel keyboard shortcuts [...]
[...] an Excel Conditional Formatting Rock Star 11 very useful excel keyboard shortcuts 73 Free Designer Quality Excel Chart Templates Tracking mutual fund / Stock portfolios using Excel [...]
Hello Chandoo, thanks for sharing this information. With some of the shortcuts I seem to have difficulties as they do not seem to work on the German keyboard.
Can you maybe verify that those combos are only working with the keyboard setup you are using? What would be a good source to lookup combinations for other layouts?
Regards, 1xoid1
@1xoid1 ... Thanks for visiting PHD and taking timeout to ask your question. Unfortunately all my German can be summarized to one phrase: "guten tag".
I wont be able to help you, but I can request other readers to respond. So if you know German or use German keyboard and can answer 1xoid1's question, then you get a free donut.
Guten Tag 🙂
To Sam Krysiak.
Shortcut to Autofit Selection (assuming you mean autofit columns). If you right click toolbar, click customise. From Commands tab/Categories select Built-in Menus.
In Categories window scroll down and select Columns and drag drop it onto toolbar. Then click the new toolbar Columns button and drag drop Autofit button onto your toolbar (note Autofit for Columns will no longer appear in your menus, only on toolbar).
Remove Columns button from toolbar (if you want to keep clutter down) drag and drop it off of your toolbar.
Close Customise box.
Now to Autofit columns just press "Alt" then "A".
Comment 8 correction - 2nd paragraph should read
"In Commands window...
@1xoid1:
Read the following text as follows: The key ,[;] is the one right to the M on the German keyboard. Here are the differences you have to know when using a German keyboard:
2. Press strg .[:] for inserting the current date (and strg shift .[:] for inserting current time)
3. Press strg ,[;] to copy values from cell above
8. Press strg shift –[_] to apply an outline border
10. Press strg-shift S to activate the font drop down (Schriftgroesse)
11. Press strg-shift G to activate the font size (Groesse)
Number 10 and 11 do not work with Excel 2007 anymore, but strg-shift-P shows the font tab of the cell format dialogue in Excel 2007.
All other shortcuts should work on a German keyboard exactly as Chandoo described them.
More information needed? Download a complete list with all shortcuts for Microsoft Excel in German (for free):
http://www.freeware-download.com/downloaddetails/5655.html
@Chandoo: please do not send a donut, unless you are able to attach one to an email. Otherwise the donut might be able to walk by itself, when it arrives here in Germany...
I forgot to mention:
For all readers using an English keyboard: Chip Pearson offers a comprehensive list of Excel shortcuts on the English keyboard:
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/ShortCuts.aspx
[...] your own keyboard shortcuts in Excel 2007, knowing a few keyboard shortcuts in excel is a huge help. Lyte Byte describes a nifty way to create your own key board shortcuts in [...]
[...] Select a bunch of cells and click on the Sigma symbol on the standard tool bar. Alternatively you can use Alt+= keyboard shortcut. [...]
I do some data entries column A,column B ,Column C , A and B have 10 to 12 digit codes , C has the names ; Kindly suggest me a format or formula for excel to avoid duplication of entries in all the the three columns.
Regards,
Prashant
@Prashant... You can use conditional formatting to highlight duplicate entries in the three columns. That way whenever you type a dupe value in a cell the formatting would highlight the values so that you can avoid the error.
check this post for more on using this way to handling duplicates: http://chandoo.org/wp/2008/03/13/want-to-be-an-excel-conditional-formatting-rock-star-read-this/
If you are looking for a way to remove duplicates from an existing range, you can try one of the various techniques we have described here. Try these tips:
http://chandoo.org/wp/2008/11/06/unique-duplicate-missing-items-excel-help/
http://chandoo.org/wp/2008/08/01/15-fun-things-with-excel/
[...] good alternative (although manual) is to use keyboard shortcuts CTRL + ; or CTRL + : to insert current date and time in the active cell. Since this places the [...]
Your site doesn't correctly work in safari browser
Hi GesyimmeliA: Can you tell me which version of Safari on which OS has this problem. I use Macbook at home and loaded the site quite often in Safari and never seen any layout or content issues. Are you facing any script issues while posting comments or somethings like that ?
Hey Chandoo. Great site. Learning lots.
My favorite Excel shortcut has got to be Alt+Down when over an autofilter drop down. Learning that changed my life. That was one of the last things I needed to use a mouse for. Changed my life.
[...] are a big advocate of keyboard shortcuts. I think learning a handful of keyboard shortcuts can improve your productivity tremendously, [...]
My favourit keyboard shortcut is control and 1 (use the 1 above the letters on the keyboard, not the number pad) for format cells.
Favourite shortcut: alt + shift + right/left arrow for grouping/ungrouping!
[...] Select a bunch of cells and click on the Sigma symbol on the standard tool bar. Alternatively you can use Alt+= keyboard shortcut. [...]
[...] clicking on these: excel keyboard shortcuts, excel mouse tips & tricks, excel productivity tips part 1 & part [...]
Martin Williamson thanks for the autofit tip! You rock.
In order to generate charts/bar graph with a single key:
1. Select the data
2. Press F11
3. Magic.... 🙂
F3 = Paste a Name or the entire list of Names
Crtl + F3 = Name Manager
Crtl + : = Inserts current time.
F12 = Save As
Mistake!
Crtl + Shift + : = Inserts current time.
SIR U R THE BEST PERSON WHO SHARES A WONDERFULL AND IMPORTANT TIPS IN EXCEL. THANKS AND KEEP ROCKING.
How do i hide / unhide a work sheet using the keyboard.
Great!
Other useful excel shortcuts
http://webtutorialplus.blogspot.com/2012/01/excel-quick-tip-useful-encoding-hotkeys.html
input in one cell 1a23bc output in two cell one of 123 and other one is abc how to possible, please help me.
Hey cool shortcuts but excel have more shortcuts then you listet.
i find a big database of supportet shortcuts for Excel 2007 here
http://www.veodin.com/excel-2007-shortcuts/
[...] INTEREST Date with my sheet – 10 tips on using date / time in excel http://chandoo.org/wp/2008/07/29/excel-keyboard-shortcuts/ [...]
Great article with some very useful follow-up comments and tips.
One simple question … how do you vertically align the drop-down filter button in a cell with a larger than normal height?
It’s easy enough to do so with a cell’s contents but the drop-down filter button stubbornly remains at the bottom and I need it at the top!
I’ve looked everywhere and haven’t located an explanation to what I am sure is considered an Excel basic.
Cheers