Santa Fe v Once Caldas — prediction, stats and goal analysis

Primera A · Monday, 3 August 2026. Final score 2–2 (half-time 1–0). Rebuilt from the season as it stood that morning, our rating would have been 44% for over 2.5 goals. This match is older than our frozen ratings ledger, which keeps 30 days, so that figure is a reconstruction from pre-match data rather than a number we published at the time — a distinction worth making, because only the frozen ones prove what we actually said beforehand.

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Our ratings for this match

MarketYesNoOur call
Over 2.5 goals44%56%Under
Over 3.5 goals20%80%no pick
Both teams to score52%48%Yes

The result model puts Santa Fe at 49%, the draw at 29% and Once Caldas at 22%, from expected goals of 1.35 and 0.8.

How we got this number

The league sets the starting point. Primera A has produced over 2.5 goals in 44% of its matches, and that is where a team with no record of its own would sit.

Each side's own record. Santa Fe have 12 in 24 this season (7 of 11 at home), Once Caldas 11 in 22 (4 of 10 away). Those records are pulled toward the league rate with the weight of about 24 matches — enough that two or three unusual games cannot swing a rating — giving 47% and 47%.

Last season still counts, briefly. With 24 and 22 games played this season, last season's rates are still blended in and fade out entirely by game 40 — the point at which our testing showed they stop adding accuracy. A single season is part luck, so each club's record is first pulled toward the league average by 34 games' weight. That moves the two figures to 46% and 46%.

The mix. Weighted 40% home side, 40% away side and 20% league — the split that beat every alternative across 30,582 matches of testing — that gives 46%.

Head to head. These sides have met 10 times in three years, producing over 2.5 goals in 30%. That nudges the number 5% of the way toward the head-to-head pattern — deliberately small, because fixtures change more than reputations do — landing on 45%.

Goal expectation. Separately a Poisson model built from attack and defence strength — using real expected-goals data where the league has it — puts this match at 37%, from expected goals of 1.35 for Santa Fe and 0.8 for Once Caldas. Folding in 30% of that view gives 42%.

Calibration. Tested against 97,729 past matches, our ratings below 55% have run consistently too pessimistic — a figure in the high 30s, for instance, has come in about four points higher. So ratings in that range are lifted part-way back, giving 44%.

This breakdown is generated from the same inputs the rating uses, so it cannot describe a calculation we did not perform. The full model is set out in the methodology.

Season form

TeamGamesO2.5O3.5BTTS
Santa Fe2450%25%75%
Once Caldas2250%27%77%

Head to head

26 Jan 26Once Caldas 1–1 Santa FeU2.5
2 Sept 25Santa Fe 1–2 Once CaldasO2.5
17 Jun 25Santa Fe 1–0 Once CaldasU2.5
6 Jun 25Once Caldas 1–2 Santa FeO2.5
16 Mar 25Once Caldas 0–1 Santa FeU2.5
9 Nov 24Santa Fe 2–1 Once CaldasO2.5

More: Santa Fe season stats · Once Caldas season stats · Primera A table and form. Ratings are calibrated probabilities, not tips — a 60% call is expected to miss two times in five.