If you've used ScanGoal's live page, you've seen a horizontal bar that visually splits between green (home) and red (away). That's the dominance bar. The longer one team's side of the bar, the more that team is dominating the match right now.
What the bar measures
It's a weighted blend of:
- Possession (most weight)
- Shots (any kind)
- Corners taken
- Dangerous attacks reaching the box
Each component contributes a fraction. The sum is normalized to 100% split between the two teams. So a 60-40 dominance means home team has 60% of the weighted aggregate, away team 40%.
Why it's not the same as possession
A common mistake is treating dominance as "who has the ball more". That's only one input. A team can have 60% possession but lose dominance because:
- Their possession is sterile — passing in their own half without progression
- The other side is creating shots from the few possessions they have
- The other side is winning corners and forcing dangerous attacks
This happens often: a team holds possession to defend a lead, while the opposition aggressively presses. Dominance reflects who's actually doing damage, not who's holding the ball.
Reading the colours
Default visual: home team is green on the left, away team is red on the right. The bar updates every 30 seconds for live matches. We don't show numerical percentages — the visual length is the signal.
How dominance interacts with score
Dominant team trailing
The most interesting state. Team is doing all the attacking but trailing the score. Either: the trailing team will equalize soon (most likely), or the leading team is set up perfectly for counter-attacks (less common but high-value).
Dominant team leading
Boring but predictive: the leading team is keeping the squeeze on. Late goals likely to extend the lead.
50-50 split
Either no dominance or two-way game. Score result depends on tactical sub-game and not pressure.
Dominance flips midway
One of the most useful patterns. A team controlled the first 30 minutes, then pressure switches. Often coincides with: substitution, red card, formation change, or tactical adjustment at half-time. Always check the cards/subs columns when you see the dominance flip.
Comparing to the momentum chart
The two are related but different:
- Momentum chart shows the time series — what happened minute by minute
- Dominance bar shows the current 5-minute window — who's pressing right now
Use them together: scan the momentum chart for shape, then use the dominance bar for current state.
Limitations
The dominance bar measures pressure, not goal probability. A team can dominate from kickoff to fulltime and still draw 0:0. Football is partly about who's better at finishing, partly about who's better at defending — the dominance bar is one piece of the picture, not the whole.
It works best when combined with our Powerd column (pre-match strength), the live betting line (market consensus), and the score itself.