The underdog should always fire the first salvo against Brazil

Abstract

A popular myth in football (soccer) that it is unwise tactically to score early against Brazil is busted using data from 1993 to 2010. This result provides further evidence about the choice of timing of effort exertion by an underdog in a finite-length industry contest against a more favoured opponent.

Keywords:

• contests
• modelling
• sport

JEL Classification:

• C21
• L83

Notes

¹ The implicitly suggested optimal strategy is to keep the game goalless until the latter stages, scoring with only a few minutes remaining, thereby curtailing Brazil's opportunity to retaliate.

² The 1999 Copa América group match (1-0 versus Chile) was abandoned at M85 due to fog, MREM was not adjusted. The 2001 Confederations Cup play-off for third match (0-1 versus Australia) is counted as neither GPST nor KOST.