Question of the Day - 16 August 2021

I’d say the opposite - if you take this weekend’s English premier league games there were 92 shots on target leading to 34 goals across 10 games which gives a score rate of 37% or a save rate of 63%

Any NHL goaltender holding a save rate that low wouldn’t be between the pipes for very long

I’m not a sports guy at all, but considering that this is a gambling website, I thought the question was about scorekeeping and not about physical abilities.

In other words, I thought the question was referring to the statisticians job of counting the number of shots, who made them, who made an assist, etc. I.E. The data a bettor might be looking for. 

Thanks for those stats.  9.2 shots on goal for both teams, on average?  It's clearly much much more difficult to get a scoring chance in soccer, but if you do, you're more likely to score. An NHL goalie would love to face 4 or 5 shots per game (aside from getting rusty from lack of action).  

Soccer is intense with its meticulous nature, its sudden bursts of action and GOOOOOOOAAAAAAL!!  The difficulty of scoring is one its strengths, but also one its weaknesses.  

The number of goals tells the story.  The speed of the game, many more scoring chances, and more goals are why I prefer hockey.  

This is what I would have guessed, since there are more high scoring hockey games than soccer games.  However, I think a lot of it may be due to strategy.  When hockey teams get possession of the puck, they almost always attack, thus the generally close to 30 shots on goal per team, plus numerous other shots which don't hit the target.  Whereas in soccer it isn't uncommon to see a team pass the ball around at midfield or even in their own end with no attempt to attack.  

I suspect that when a soccer team actually decided to attack it is easier to score, because of the much larger target.  But in reality hockey teams will score a lot more.  An interesting comparison is penalty shots.  Soccer goalies rarely are successful in saving them while hockey goalies save them far more often than not.

Interesting question to say the least.  But as one who doesn’t care for either sport—not enough scoring action enjoyed your analysis.  

I would say hockey is harder. They do not even try to score in soccer. Boring boring boring. Of course I have been told I am to dumb to understand the super advanced strategy of soccer. To bore the other team to sleep so you can go down and score. 

the question was about harder, the answer is about frequency.  Soccer allows ties and other factors influence that. 

It would be nice to know the intent of the questioner. Easier to score when you get the chance? or easier to score within the scope of the game? I think Jerry did a good job of explaining the difference. Also, indoor soccer leagues produced higher scoring than most hockey games, but obviously, that's a different game. 

The real difference between the two sports is when someone goes down holding their face in hockey, there will usually be blood on the ice too. In soccer, it means a defender got too close to the player that went down.

Every soccer game goes like this: the two teams wander up and down the field until somebody accidentally kicks the ball into the goal. The fans then riot and burn down the stadium. So the score is always 1-0.

I'm with Randall; not sure it's a good idea to measure difficulty by frequency.
That's like saying that because Steph Curry hits 3 pointers more frequently than Ben Wallace hit free throws, then free throws must be inherently more difficult.