Comparison of Goal-Scoring Patterns in the Five Strongest Men’s Professional Football Leagues in CONMEBOL and Their Relationship with Overall (Re)classification

This dataset contains match statistics from the 2022 season of the five strongest CONMEBOL men’s professional football leagues, as ranked by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS). The leagues included are: Brazil (Serie A), Argentina (Primera División), Colombia (Liga BetPlay Dimayor), Ecuador (Serie A), and Paraguay (Primera División).
The dataset records goal-scoring behaviour across six 15-minute match periods (P1–P6), in addition to aggregated first-half, second-half, and total goals scored per match. Variables include:
• Team name
• League (country)
• Goals scored per period (P1–P6)
• First-half total goals
• Second-half total goals
• Overall goals per match
• Final league position
The purpose of the dataset is to enable replication and extension of the analyses reported in the article “Goal-scoring comparison across the five strongest CONMEBOL leagues and its relationship with overall classification”. Specifically, it allows researchers to examine temporal scoring patterns within and between leagues, and to explore the relationship between goal-scoring dynamics and final classification.
All data were extracted from the public platform BeSoccer.com (Pro Football DB), cross-checked with official IFFHS rankings, and cleaned for consistency. The dataset is provided in spreadsheet format (Excel/CSV).
Limitations:
• Data depend on the reliability of the BeSoccer database, which may differ from official match reports.
• Only regular season matches were included; play-off and international competitions were excluded.
• Data are descriptive and do not include advanced contextual variables such as possession, passing accuracy, or player-specific performance