What's up people? Yesterday I stumbled upon some comments online regarding home and away games in football (soccer). It turns out that a lot of people don't understand why home teams have such an advantage and they tend to blame that to players psyche. Well I decided to break that myth and write all of the reason on why home games are much easier to play than away.
First reason should be pretty obvious and it really regards to players psyche. It's not the same thing when few thousand people are chanting for you and when those people are against you. Fans usually give home team big advantage in sense of moral and motivation. They are home team's 12th player and they'll give a big wind to the back of their team. When you think you're breaking they'll give you that extra atom of energy and strength to push through the game. They also tend to tease away team players to break their spirit.
Second reason also regards fans and their pressure to the referee. If we watch statistics then we can clearly see that the referees tend to push home teams. When there's some harsh tackle on home team player whole stadium gets up and starts whistling and 'booing'. This has some impact on referee decisions and if he isn't sure in his decision fans could be a deciding factor to give a second yellow or a penalty.
Third reason is of course knowledge of your home pitch. Not all pitches have the same size of 'playing field'. Boundaries for official matches are set to be between 64 and 75 meters (wide) and 100 to 110 meters long. Except knoweledge of lenght, the home team could purposley manipulate these boundaries before match if they are playing against some much stronger team. If home team sets their pitch to minimal 64x100m then they leave much less space for away team to work with. Football is a game of luck and chances and this factors could give a home team few percent higher chances to get a positive result.
Except dimensions of the pitch, some factors such as type and lenght of grass and lubricity should also be considered as advantage for home team. Home team has already played a big number of games at their stadium and they already know how fast should ball travel in certain conditions (rain, snow, sun etc.). If home team plays a big game against stronger opponent then they tend to engrain the pitch or even part of the pitch to make opponent chances for mistake higher.
One more factor that it's pretty obvious is regarding rest and comfort. Away teams often have a pretty long flights or bus rides that could affect the players mentally and physically. There is also a big difference in climate and weather conditions. Home team is already used to climate and weather conditons they play in. Just imagine FC Barcelona or AEK Athens playing against some Russian team in Siberia. Ice, snow and cold temperature could be a deciding factor in this game.
Except weather and temperature there could also be a big elevation difference which affects away team's breathing and lung capacity. Best example we can give you is stadium Hernando Siles in Bolivia. This stadium is situated on altitude of 3637 meters (11932 feet). Numerous big international teams such as Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay have fallen here because of height differential. Here's a picture of Angel Di Maria with an oxygen mask when playing against Bolivia. There was also information that Messi had troubles and that he vomited at half time.
All this factors have small influence on the game and when you add them up they could certainly make a difference. If you think there are some things that we forgot feel free to leave us a comment! :)
Feel the passion
Torcida (Hajduk Split)
Delije (Red Star Belgrade)
Gate 13 (Panathinaikos Athens)
La 12 (Boca Juniors)
BBB (Dinamo Zagreb)
Gate 4 (PAOK Solun)
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