What the data on ‘signature’ passes says about your favorite World Cup team
Each of the 64 teams that played in the 2026 FIFA World Cup had a distinctive passing pattern. We highlight the data on seven different ‘signatures.’
Each World Cup team’s passing patterns reveal distinctive “signatures” that show whether a team relies heavily on its star player or focuses strategy on playing against an opponent’s strengths, data shows.
“A lot of teams produce the same passes in the same areas, because some of the game has the potential to be a bit formulaic in certain parts of the game. What really makes teams shine or what characterizes a team above and beyond that baseline is tactical instructions and individual capabilities that allow for certain patterns of play,” said Brennan Klein, director of Northeastern University’s NetSI Sport research group.
Klein and his team mapped out five passing patterns that distinguished each World Cup team from the others. The most distinctive completed pass patterns are marked in blue, and then in descending order of distinction in red, green, gold and purple.
“In order to use data to actually uncover those patterns, we can try to ask what types of patterns of passes, in which areas of the pitch, do certain teams do above and beyond what we might expect?” he said.
The similarities among the distinctive passing signatures of the final four teams – Argentina, Spain, England and France – suggested a winning strategy of passes concentrated in a U-shape near their opponents’ goalie box.
“As you start to have this mindset of — ‘What do I expect?’ and ‘What teams deviate from this in which ways?’ — you can get much more interesting insights about the nature of the game,” he said.
Here are seven teams with varying passing signatures and an explanation behind them, according to the data.
When it comes to Argentina’s signature passing patterns, it might as well be the “Lionel Messi Show“.
The 39-year-old captain and forward “thrives” where the purple and golden arrows live on Argentina’s map of distinctive passing clusters.
“These purple passes are trying to find Messi. These red passes are trying to find Messi. These blue passes might be passes that Messi’s playing forward progressive up the pitch,” Klein said. “More often than not, we see this impact this way.”
Spain’s most distinctive passing pattern shifts to the left, where the ball will find left-back Marc Cucurella or left midfielder Álex Baena.
“Even though one of them is a defender and one of them is an attacker, they’re oftentimes very close together, and they play a lot off of each other, and so that blue cluster typifies that,” Klein said.
The two longer passes to the right, seen in green and purple, show a signature for 18-year-old phenom Lamine Yamal.
“Oftentimes, their midfielders will go out of their way to find passes to him,” he said. “If he receives the ball in this space, that’s his most dangerous area to pick up the ball and start running at defenders. This is a really advantageous pass to make, to be characterized as this unique Spanish pass.”
What stands out about Norway are long passes from the goalie box, usually to the right side of the pitch. That’s where someone like center-forward Erling Haaland or right-winger Alexander Sørloth shines. They are both 6 feet 5 inches tall and their height gives them an advantage for these longer passes.
Klein said Norway was “extremely right-side dominant,” which could also be because of Martin Ødegaard, Norway’s captain and a midfielder who acts as “this conductor who creates a lot of tempo for Norway.”
“He’s left-footed, but he often finds himself in these right-hand pockets of the pitch, receiving the ball to open up into the field and try to curl a ball in his left foot,” Klein said. The purple and gold arrows suggest Ødegaard’s signature.
Morocco’s most distinctive passing patterns are concentrated on the right side of the pitch. This “extreme dominance on the right side,” Klein said, shows the team’s deference to Achraf Hakimi and Brahim Díaz.
“The two of them are their two best players, and they’re their source for much of the goals and assists that they were able to create,” he said.
Mexico’s distinctive passing patterns veered left, suggesting that the team emphasizes two star players, Julián Quiñones and Raúl Jiménez.
Similar to Norway, Mexico’s most distinctive passing pattern was at or near the goalie to the left side of the field to find these two players.
“They’re not as big or as imposing as (Norway’s) Haaland, but they’re good at winning possession from these long balls,” Klein said. “Mexico sees Quiñones as such a threat on the pitch, that it’s actually in their best interest to do these long crosses to find him quite wide in these attacking positions.”
These can be seen in the purple arrows, but also in the golden ones that serve as a sort of buildup to pass to these two players ultimately.
Brazil had “one of their more disappointing tournaments,” Klein said. And that can be seen through their distinctive passing patterns.
All five patterns are horizontal passes concentrated in the center of the pitch, rather than vertical dribbles toward the goal.
“It’s not all to say that the midfield for Brazil or the defense for Brazil was so focused on this conservative, cautious play. It’s also maybe that they weren’t enabled to play progressive attacking soccer because the people who were supposed to be running into good positions to receive the ball weren’t finding those good positions,” he said.
Belgium had two different identities when it came to its distinctive passing pattern, forming what looks like a bouquet. The team either used “hopeful” long passes from the goalie box out to the opponents’ half, or bursts of “extremely dangerous attacking positions” near their opponent’s goal, Klein said.
Why? Partially because of reliable personnel, like Romelu Lukaku, Klein said.
“Other times, they would have much more technical, skillful players who maybe won’t win the header if it comes to them up top, but they can play cute little short passes on the side of the box or into the box to find themselves in a tackling position.”
He added: “Belgium, I think, scored a lot in this tournament, conceded a lot, surprised us a lot, underwhelmed a lot, overwhelmed a lot, and I think they were one of the more inconsistent teams. This is really what I see in their passing patterns.”
