Here is how far soccer players run during a World Cup match
The Mexican National Team gave fans one of the most exciting - and surprising - matches of the World Cup so far, with a thrilling 1-0 victory of reigning World Cup champions Germany.
For Mexico, the result was hard earned, particularly from an endurance standpoint. All but one of the outfield players for El Tri who started and went the full 90 in the match ran over five miles during the match, with defender Hector Herrera notching over seven. Even Guillermo Ochoa, the team's goalkeeper, ran over two miles!
Although it is only a one-game sample size, the numbers show how physically demanding a soccer match can be (in fact, Germany's players, in total, actually ran four kilometers more than the Mexican team's total, according to FIFA). So this chart is a good thing to keep in mind the next time fans of, say, baseball, insist that soccer is not a sport.
More World Cup coverage:
- Here's how far every team in the World Cup will have to travel - and one team is at a significant disadvantage
- Landon Donovan advertisement asks fans to root for Mexico in the World Cup, and they did not take it well
- Iceland's goalkeeper directed a Coca-Cola commercial for the World Cup and made brilliant use of the country's 'SKOL' rallying cry
- Here is the full schedule and the results so far for the 2018 World Cup
- World Cup Power Ranking: Where every team stands heading into Russia 2018
- The one player you need to know from every country competing in the 2018 FIFA World Cup