Comparison of the six tournaments included in the analysis for the present study
| World Cup | Olympic Games | U-19 World Cup | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 2003 | 2000 | 2004 | 2002 | 2004 | |
| Participating teams* | 16 | 16 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 12 |
| Mean actual time* (min, s) | 55′, 35″ | 59′, 16″ | 60′, 23″ | 56′, 95″ | 55′, 45″ | 58′, 38″ |
| Qualification | 58′, 22″ | 57′, 36″ | 60′, 58″ | 56′, 35″ | 55′, 29″ | 57′, 42″ |
| Knockout | 52′, 48″ | 64′,15″ | 59′, 46″ | 57′, 50″ | 56′, 01″ | 59′, 33″ |
| Yellow cards* | 77 | 65 | 46 | 40 | 56 | 79 |
| Qualification | 62 | 49 | 31 | 21 | 41 | 51 |
| Knockout | 15 | 16 | 15 | 19 | 15 | 28 |
| Red cards* | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Goals/match* | 3.84 | 3.34 | 2.62 | 2.75 | 3.88 | 3.54 |
| Injuries/match† | 1.3 | 1.7 | 2.1 | 2.3 | 2.8 | 2.2 |
| Contact v non-contact ratio† | 3.2 | 3.9 | 5.4 | 3.7 | 4.2 | 4.6 |
| Tackle match | 144.8 | 149.2 | 153.7 | 157.7 | 142.5 | 139.3 |