GUIDES · BETSLIP DOCTOR
Why can Opta's corner-won and corner-taken totals differ?
Opta records a corner won for the team awarded it. A corner taken is recorded when the attacking team has or attempts to return the ball to play. Because those are different events, their totals can differ.
For Soccer fans and readers comparing team-stat tables · Updated
A corner won records the award
Opta’s glossary assigns a corner won to the team given the corner and a corner lost to the team conceding it. That count is tied to the award event.
A corner taken records the restart action
Opta records a corner taken when the attacking team has, or attempts to, return the ball to play from the corner event. It is a separate collection condition from the award itself.
This means that a corner can appear in the award total without a corresponding taken event in a provider’s aggregate. Do not treat the two labels as interchangeable names for one count.
Read the exact event behind each column
When the totals differ, check whether the table asks how many corners were awarded, how many were conceded or how many were put or attempted back into play. Opta’s source expressly says the aggregate won/lost and taken totals can differ because their collection criteria are different.
A fictional end-of-match event log
Suppose an imaginary log records three corners awarded to one side, but play ends before one of those awards has a restart attempt. The corner-won count is three and the corner-taken count is two. The gap comes from counting the award and the restart action separately; it is not a correction to either event. These are illustrative counts, not a real match record.
Related questions
Does a corner won mean the corner was taken?
No. The award and the action of returning the ball to play have separate collection criteria in Opta’s glossary.
Can the two Opta corner totals differ?
Yes. Opta states that corner-won or corner-lost aggregates and corner-taken aggregates can differ because they are collected under different criteria.