re: Importance of possession in soccer vs. other sports

Possession is one of those stats that can give you an idea of how a game was played even if you didn’t watch it. It’s an indicator.

Goals
Possession
Shots
Shots on target
Passing percentage
Fouls
Cards

Are all other indicators. While possession can’t be looked at to the exclusion of the others, aside from goals, it’s arguably the most important. While you can foul without the ball, possession is required in order to record stats in any of those other categories. Yes you can win without more possession, but unless you have an ineptness for finishing in front of goal the team with more possession has a statistically higher chance of recording those other stats and winning the game. You can’t score if you don’t have the ball.

In truth, regardless of possession stats, each team is going to create any number of chances in the course of a game. It’s what a team does or doesn’t do with those chances that is most often the difference in games. “Taking chances” they call it. It refers to the ability of a team to score after a promising attacking movement. If you are looking to single out a particular stat to help make sense of things I’d recommend that one. As discussed, possession can be a bit of a red herring.