Aerial duels are inherently messy. Winning the next action is often about structure, anticipation, compactness, and bodies around the ball. Measuring second-ball wins turns that chaos into something you can coach.
Setting the criteria and defining the second ball
Our tracker are able to capture what happens before or after an event making it easy to track second balls. We define second balls as a team regaining possession within 3 seconds of an aerial duel being contested.
But Volume ≠ dominance, so to measure efficiency we need to count total aerial duels that are contested by a team, and then find out the proportion of those that end with them collecting the second ball.
Measuring second balls efficiency: % second balls won = second-ball wins P90 ÷ aerial duels contested P90
Results
Chelsea and Barcelona lead our dataset at 16.62% second-ball win rate. Bayern follow at 15.59%, with Manchester City next at 14.73%—proof that control teams still prepare to hoover up loose balls.
Volume ≠ dominance: Clubs like Mainz (34.8 aerial duels p90) and Bochum (37.1/90) live in high-aerial games but convert fewer second balls (~12% and 8.6%). By contrast, City contest far fewer aerials (14.8/90) yet keep one of the best second-ball rates.
Italy’s grinders with efficiency: Bologna combine 28.9 aerials/90 with a strong 13.5% second-ball rate; Atalanta sit close at 13.3% on 26.3 aerials/90.
How clubs can use this
- Scouting: Finding midfilelder who recover second balls after your aerial duels.
- Opponent prep: Where opponents kick long, measure how often their shape wins the next action, and attack the weak side.
- Team performance: Second-ball work is a sequence, not an event: duel → reaction → regain. Track the regain.
