TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Baert, Stijn
AU  - Amez, Simon
        TI  - No Better Moment to Score a Goal than Just Before Half Time? A Soccer Myth Statistically Tested
        PY  - 2016/Jun/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 9980
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp9980
        AB  - We test the soccer myth suggesting that a particularly good moment to score a goal is just before half time. To this end, rich data on 1,179 games played in the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League are analysed. In contrast to the myth, we find that, conditional on the goal difference and other game characteristics at half time, the final goal difference at the advantage of the home team is 0.520 goals lower in case of a goal just before half time by this team. We show that this finding relates to this team's lower probability of scoring a goal during the second half.
        KW  - fixed effects regression models
KW  - soccer
KW  - sports
KW  - goal scoring
        ER  -