Estadísticas deportivas

Sports statistics

In the 1970s a figure began to emerge with force that remained for many years in the glittering firmament of Argentine soccer, curiously it was not a player, not even a coach. He was a rapporteur of the matches between teams and local tournaments first and soon extended his work to the different cups that the Argentine teams played mainly in America, but also in competitions in the rest of the world, mainly in Europe where in those years he competed, and still does, with South America for world supremacy in this sport.

The narrator of my publication today was called José María Muñoz and many called him "the fat one" due to his broad physical build not precisely developed by genetic inheritance but rather due to excess food, it is also true that, in those years Calling a person fat was considered something habitual and normal, it was not a discriminatory term as we now understand it.

Muñoz became famous for a precise story, although sometimes somewhat and if you will, too exaggerated, he had imposed a distinctive touch on that profession that made him stand out above the rest. I perfectly remember when he announced a free kick and gave the exact distance, he thought the ball was from the goal, and he said to his commentator: "...Ricardo, the distance is approximately 27.60 meters, are you okay?", I suspect the commenter was always nodding so as not to contradict his co-worker and because there was no way to know for sure if that number was real. For Muñoz it was just one more resource that made him stand out and probably a good ability to estimate based on the demarcation lines of the playing field.

Today the opposite is the case and technological advances can and do measure anything with absolute precision, we have all kinds of metrics and statistics and not only in football, perhaps this sport despite being the most practiced and popular in the world, He was not among the first in terms of statistical measurements, he was always more traditionalist. My friends who love baseball can probably tell me if this sport has been a pioneer and the king of measurements, I think so.

A few days ago, a piece of information and a discussion arose that particularly amused me and I must thank you for allowing me to write about it today.

The author of the disagreement was Messi, when Messi was not the subject of news, although he generally shies away from these issues, he ends up being the center of the world soccer universe thanks to his game that never stops amaze us.

The reason for all this was the goal that he scored against the Philadelphia team just a few days ago, kicking from 31.8 meters away at the opposite fence, taking by surprise a goalkeeper who was very badly located and that was the work of his extraordinary ability to know where his teammates and rivals are at all times. It was immediately billed as the longest-range goal of his career. However, shortly after someone came out to deny it, mentioning another that he converted to Mallorca in 2012 where he supposedly kicked at the goal from exactly 32 meters.

Honestly, I don't know what this statistic will be used for, probably just to sell more news because I don't imagine how this type of information can improve the game and win more matches.

Obviously, José María Muñoz was a forward and it helped him to excel in his profession, sports statistics keep track of everything we can imagine and more, now we can say that we know the distance and exact position of the ball at the time of executing a shot from the fence.