World Cup Shooters Keep Misfiring From Long-Range

Scoring is up at the World Cup, but it would be even higher if more players could shoot straight.

Teams have taken 221 shots on direct free kicks or off shots set up by direct free kicks. TruMedia, a soccer stats supplier to ESPN, has developed a model, based on club soccer data from Opta, to predict the probability of any shot going in, according to its location and other variables. That model predicted that those 221 shots should have yielded 21 goals. But just 11 have gone in the net.