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Published online 9 June 2006 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news060605-17
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Goals beget goals
Score once and you're more likely to score again, say statisticians.
Football-minded mathematicians have proved one of soccer's classic clichés - the theory that once a team scores, the 'floodgates will open' and they will romp to victory with a flurry of goals.
Sometimes thought of as footballing myth, this goal fever can be seen in soccer results stretching back for decades, says mathematician Martin Weigel of Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, UK, who did the analysis with colleagues at the University of Leipzig in Germany, the nation hosting the World Cup.
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