The business end of the 2026 FIFA World Cup begins later this week, but let’s first take a break and look at some of the most interesting trends we have seen in North America thus far.
The 2026 World Cup has been an entertainment-packed spectacle from start to finish.
It’s had it all – a bucket-load of goals, drama on and off the pitch, huge upsets – and that’s not even scratching the surface.
Amid all the action, there are a number of interesting trends we’ve noticed. We took a deep dive into the stat-packed quirks that have made this World Cup truly unique.
Penalties Have Become… Hard to Score?
The 2026 World Cup has seen players struggle to convert penalties more than ever before.
Including shootouts, 20 of the 59 penalties taken in North America have been missed. At a rate of just 66.1%, it’s the lowest penalty conversion rate at any World Cup on record (since 1966).
This is a continuation of a downward trend that has been present in recent years, with the penalty conversion rate dropping at every World Cup since 2014.
Penalty-taking has not always been such a treacherous practice. In fact, all 13 of the penalties taken across the 1966 and 1970 World Cups were converted.
Given that the VAR now rigorously checks goalkeepers’ foot placement and player encroachment, this downward trend is slightly surprising, as players should theoretically have more opportunities to re-take missed penalties.
But it can perhaps be explained by the rise of data in modern football, with keepers having the ability to analyse every career penalty taken by their opponents and respond accordingly.
Nevertheless, penalties are supposed to be one of the ‘easiest’ shots at goal, and the best players in the world should be able to put the ball exactly where they want from 12 yards out. So far in 2026, that’s certainly not been the case.
Old is Gold
In football, it’s more often the young starlets who grab the headlines. Cristiano Ronaldo, who is 41 years of age.
The 2026 tournament has, on average, seen the oldest starting XIs since 1966 (when records began).
At the 2026 World Cup, the average age of a starting XI has been 28 years and 117 days. This is a fair amount older than at the 2022 World Cup, which saw the third-oldest starting XIs on average (27 years and 299 days).
The ‘youngest’ World Cup was in 1970. Hosted in Mexico, the average starting XI age of teams in 1970 was 26 years and 76 days old. That’s over two years younger than in 2026, and the average squad age was 26 years, 53 days.
Old is clearly still gold.
We Are Physically Seeing More Football
This section isn’t about the expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams, but the new rule changes which have helped keep the game flowing and subdued the effects of the ‘dark arts’ of the game.
FIFA have been clamping down on time-wasting, and their efforts have been relatively effective so far.
In the two specific facets of the game that FIFA’s rule changes targeted, improvements have been noticeable.
A five-second countdown was introduced to deter time-wasting during goal-kicks, and it has seen the average time taken for a goal-kick reduce to 23.8 seconds in 2026 from 27.7 seconds in 2022. Goal-kicks are currently taking the lowest amount of time, on average, at any tournament since 2010.
Notable improvements have also been made with regard to throw-ins, where a five-second timer was also introduced. The average time taken for a throw-in has reduced to 13.3 seconds, down from 15.7 seconds in Qatar. That’s a 15.5% decrease overall.
Just over two seconds per throw may not sound like a lot, but those time savings have meant the average time taken to throw the ball back into play over an entire game has reduced by 2 minutes and 45 seconds compared to 2022, with an average of 35.9 throw-ins per game at this year’s tournament.
Ticket prices in North America have been very high, but at least fans are getting (slightly) better value for money.
Subs Are As Super As Ever
When a substitute scores, everybody involved wins: the player is lauded as a hero, the manager a genius.
If a game isn’t going to plan, the manager will take a glance over to the bench and assess their options. To have a World Cup-winning team, you must have a World Cup-winning squad.
At the 2026 World Cup, the emphasis on a strong squad is greater than ever. To see the success of substitutes, take a look at the goal scorers; a whopping 18.6% of goals have been netted by players coming off the bench.
So far, this year’s edition falls just short of 2014, where 18.7% of goals were scored by substitutes. Two other tournaments have also seen substitute goals scored at a rate of 17.4% (1990 and 2022).
Multiple factors could explain why 2026 has seen an increase in goals off the bench. Firstly, it’s just the second World Cup (after 2022) that has allowed teams to make five substitutions. More substitutes naturally increase the chance that it’s a substitute who scores.
But there’s also another factor: fatigue.
The conditions at this World Cup are difficult. The humidity is unbearably high, and some stadiums are situated at far-higher altitudes than others (we’re looking at you, Estadio Azteca).
Combined, these factors can cause players to tire at a faster rate, and lead to a drop-off in performance towards the end of matches.
On top of this, many of the world’s top players have entered this tournament off the back of extremely long domestic seasons. Some players simply cannot play a full 90 minutes every single match after having done so week-in, week-out for their club since August.
As a result, we have seen an increase in the impact of fresh legs off the bench, with 52 goals out of a total 250 scored by substitutes.
The 2026 World Cup Has Been the Late, Late Show
No, we’re not talking about kick-off times. The 2026 World Cup has seen an increase in goals scored in injury-time, likely linked to the increased efficacy of substitutes.
Of all goals at this year’s tournament, 11.4% have been scored in injury-time (either 90+ min or 120+ min), the highest of any edition in World Cup history.
2018 falls just behind, with an injury-time goal share of 11.2%; both of these editions are ahead of the rest by quite some way, with the third-highest percentage belonging to 2022 (8.7%).
The reasoning behind this trend is likely similar to that behind the rise in substitute goals: fresh legs are always bound to prevail against fatigued ones.
In fact, 17 of the 32 last-minute World Cup goals (90+ or 120+ minutes) at this year’s tournament have been netted by substitutes (53.1%).
Another key factor behind the increase, however, is the introduction of hydration breaks.
With three minutes of action guaranteed to be added on at the end of every match due to the break midway through the second half, there is greater opportunity for last-minute goals.
With more and more games being squeezed into the football calendar, it is likely that the trend of late goals could continue to rise in years to come – though it remains to be seen whether hydration breaks will become a permanent fixture at the World Cup.
UEFA Sides Have Looked Dominant
The notion that UEFA nations struggle at tournaments hosted outside of Europe has long been a hot topic of discussion.
In each of the last four World Cups hosted in Europe (2018 Russia, 2006 Germany, 1998 France, 1990 Italy), six of the eight quarter-final spots have been taken up by European teams.
Compare this to editions hosted outside of the continent (2022 Qatar, 2014 Brazil, 2010 South Africa, 2002 South Korea & Japan, 1994 USA, 1986 Mexico), and six or more UEFA teams have reached the quarter-final just once, in 1994 (seven).
With the 2026 World Cup hosted across North America, the trend of European nations struggling away from the continent was expected to continue, but this hasn’t been the case – we have instead seen a full-circle moment with history repeating itself across the pond.
Switzerland were the sixth and final European team to reach the quarter-final in this year’s tournament, making 2026 the third consecutive edition where UEFA will provide over half the quarter-finalists (six).
It had happened only once in the previous four editions (six in 2006), demonstrating a clear change in recent years.
European football has always been played at a very high level, but this could suggest the gap between UEFA teams and those from other governing bodies is increasing even more.
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Super Subs, Late Goals and Penalty Woes: Six 2026 FIFA World Cup Trends Opta Analyst.
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