The value that I want to assign to the variable is printed, but it is not assigned to the variable, it says that it is null in php

In this function there is a value and it is not null. But when we put the same value in the variable and print the variable, it says that the variable is null.

public function h2h($game_id)
{
  $game = Game::find($game_id);
  $team1 = $game->team1;
  $team2 = $game->team2;

  $games = Game::where('team1', $team1)
    ->where('team2', $team2)
    ->orWhere('team1', $team2)
    ->where('team2', $team1)->get();

  $h2h = [];

  foreach ($games as $game) {
    $team1Goals = count(json_decode($game->stat->team1Goals));
    $team2Goals = count(json_decode($game->stat->team2Goals));

    $h2h[] = [
      'date' => verta($game->date)->format('l d M'),
      'team1' => [
        'name' => $game->home->name,
        'logo' => $game->home->logo,
        'goals' => $team1Goals
      ],
      'team2' => [
        'name' => $game->away->name,
        'logo' => $game->away->logo,
        'goals' => $team2Goals
      ],
    ];
  }

  dd($h2h);
  return $h2h;
}

The problem is:

count(json_decode($game->stat->team1Goals));

This piece of code, when assigned to a variable, says it is null, but when you print it, the correct value is printed.