Search Results (49)

Objectives: Soccer is the most practiced sport around the world. The injury incidence has an estimated rate of up to 70 injuries per 1000 h of play. FIFA 11+ is a program designed to prevent injuries and optimize performance. The purpose of this study was to analyze the acute effects of this program as a warm-up on different functional, physiological, and mechanical properties of various knee tissues and whether there were differences between genders. Methods: The sample included 45 recreational soccer players. Several muscular and tendon mechanical properties, muscular oxygen saturation, electromyography, maximum voluntary contraction, and rate of force development were analyzed, before and after performing the FIFA 11+. Results: Only a moderate significant increase in muscle oxygen saturation in men from pre- to post-test was reported. No other parameters showed statistically significant differences between groups, suggesting that the intervention may lack clinical relevance. The reported effect sizes were mostly trivial, so differences are unlikely to have significant practical relevance. Statistical analyses were performed using a 2 × 2 factorial repeated measures factorial ANOVA with Bonferroni post hoc comparisons. Conclusions: FIFA 11+ warm-up does not provide a sufficient stimulus to elicit mechanical or metabolic responses in the per-knee structures. Other warm-up designs may be more appropriate for finding these effects. Full article

Soccer is a widely practiced and highly mediatic sport discipline. For this reason, the incidence of injuries associated with the game is an active area of research. High-impact actions occur during the game, affecting the knee joint and resulting in osteoarthritis. In this line, knee osteoarthritis results from mechanical and biological stress due to lesions that are not adequately repaired, resulting in an inflammatory process. This occurs because the degradation of extracellular matrix predominates over synthesis by chondrocytes. Therefore, in soccer players, knee osteoarthritis results from joint traumatic actions, displaying a degenerative evolution. Osteoarthritis occurs in up to 32% of male soccer players, 3 times more than in the male general population. On the other hand, female soccer players are a main target population to suffer from knee osteoarthritis, with a higher significant incidence observed compared to men. In this context, certain diet supplements have an instrumental potential in the prevention and/or treatment of knee osteoarthritis. Therefore, the aim of this narrative review is to present possible research lines to implement treatments for knee osteoarthritis in female soccer players. Full article

The aim of this study was to examine the perception and gender typing of sports among students at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Kinesiology. The study was conducted on a sample of 268 students, with respondents categorizing 19 sports as male, female, or equally male and female. Data processing included descriptive statistics in the form of frequencies and percentages and the chi-square test with Bonferroni correction to test differences between groups for categorical variables. Differences in gender typing (perception) between two groups of participants based on gender were tested using the t-test. Five sports (rugby, formula, boxing, water polo, and soccer) were predominantly categorized as “male”, three sports as “female” (rhythmic gymnastics, aerobics, and synchronized swimming), and as many as eleven as “neutral” (athletics, skiing, swimming, tennis, karate, beach volleyball, gymnastics, handball, volleyball, sailing, and basketball). Regardless of active participation in a particular sport, the perception of gender typing of sports remained constant. The results indicate that in Croatia there is still a separation in the perception of sports that are either suitable for men, for women, or for both genders. Full article

The present study aimed to verify the (1) differences between players’ roles in relation to technical and tactical and time–motion indicators, and the (2) relationships between individual time–motion and technical and tactical indicators for each role in a men’s Italian football Serie A team. A total of 227 performances were analyzed (28 players: 8 forwards, FWs; 11 midfielders, MDs; 9 defenders, DFs). Technical and tactical indicators, such as ball possession (played balls, successful passes, successful playing patterns, lost balls, ball possession time), offensive play (total and successful dribbles, crosses, assists), and shooting (total shots, shots on target) were obtained by means of Panini Digital (DigitalSoccer Project S.r.l). In addition, a time–motion analysis included the total distance, distances covered at intensities of 16.0–19.8 km/h, 19.8–25.2 km/h, and over 25.2 km/h, the average recovery time between metabolic power peaks, and burst occurrence, the latter of which was performed by means of a 18 Hz GPS device (GPexe Pro2 system tool) worn by the players. Results showed role-specific differences: MDs covered more distance, while DFs had better ball possession. MDs and DFs had more successful playing patterns, and MDs and FWs performed more dribbles and shots. Strong correlations (p < 0.01, ρ > 0.8) were found between bursts and assists for FWs, high-intensity running and ball possession for MDs, and distance, dribbling, and shots for DFs. These findings highlight the importance of individual and tailored training programs to optimize role-specific performance demands. Full article

Background: We conducted a cross-sectional study to examine two-leg- and one-leg-type balance characteristics in athletes and explore factors related to their balance ability. Methods: A total of 213 participants, including athletes from various sports (gymnastics, boat racing, swimming, soccer, judo, and baseball) and non-athletes, were included (142 men, 71 women, average age 21.5 ± 2.1 years). Balance ability was classified into two-leg and one-leg types using the modified index of postural stability (mIPS) in a two-leg stance and the one-legged stance duration with eyes closed (OLS). Body composition, upper and lower limb strength, and lower limb sensation were also measured. To examine the balance characteristics of each sport, the mIPS and OLS were used as dependent variables in a multiple regression model with age, height, weight, and sex as independent variables. Results: The results showed a significantly higher mIPS in gymnastics (estimate: 0.22) and boat racing (0.14), and it was lower in swimming (−0.25). The OLS was significantly higher in soccer (16.98), judo (16.23), gymnastics (9.77), and baseball (9.12) and significantly lower in swimming (7.93). Additionally, the mIPS was independently associated with knee extension strength (0.12), sensory motor variables (−0.004), and height (−0.01). The OLS was associated with skeletal muscle mass (1.85) and height (−1.42). Conclusions: In summary, gymnasts showed superior two-leg and one-leg balance; boat racers excelled in two-leg balance; swimmers showed inferior two-leg but better one-leg balance; and soccer, judo, and baseball athletes demonstrated superior one-leg balance. Additionally, the mIPS was associated with knee extensor strength, plantar pressure sensation, and height, whereas the OLS was associated with skeletal muscle mass and height. Full article

Background: The objective of this systematic review is to analyze the influence of carbohydrate (CHO) intake on physical and technical aspects, glucose and muscle glycogen levels, fatigue, cognition, and gastrointestinal comfort involved in the performance of soccer players, as well as to examine whether there are any differences between men and women. Methods: A bibliographic search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and SportDiscus, resulting in 61 selected articles. The PRISMA recommendations and the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews guidelines were followed. Results: The results indicate that CHO intake before and during the match improves speed and the number of sprints, attenuates the decrease in shooting accuracy and speed, increases time to fatigue, and enhances cognitive function. There is no consensus on passing, dribbling, jumping, or agility improvements. Glucose levels drop during the first 15 min of the second half without affecting performance. Conclusions: It is recommended that players ingest 6–8 g/kg/d of CHO the day before, a meal with 1–3 g/kg 3–4 h before, and 30–60 g/h during the match. Muscle glycogen drops drastically at the end of the match, remaining low at 48 h. Hence, 1–1.5 g/kg/h is recommended during the first 4 h, starting from the first 20 min. Female soccer players have a similar physical demand to men, and energy availability is low, especially in the post-match periods, as they underestimate their energy expenditure and do not consume enough CHO. Therefore, the recommended guidelines should be followed, individualized, and periodized according to each athlete’s energy needs. Full article

The use of session rating of perceived exertion (sRPE) as a measure of workload is a popular athlete load monitoring tool. However, the nature of sRPE means the contribution of salient, sport-specific factors to athlete load in field sports is challenging to isolate and quantify. In rugby sevens, drivers of load include high-speed running and physical contact. In soccer and men’s rugby, union acceleration/deceleration also influences load. These metrics are evaluated using data from global navigation satellite system (GNSS) sensors worn by athletes. Research suggests that sensor data methods for identifying load in men’s rugby do not accurately quantify female athlete loads. This investigation examined how mass, contact, and accelerations and decelerations at different speeds contribute to load in women’s rugby sevens. The study evaluated 99 international matches, using data from 19 full-time athletes. GNSS measures, RPE, athlete mass, and contact count were evaluated using a linear mixed-model regression. The model demonstrated significant effects for low decelerations at low and high speeds, mass, distance, and contact count explaining 48.7% of the global variance of sRPE. The use of acceleration/deceleration and speed from GNSS sensors alongside mass, as well as contact count, presents a novel approach to quantifying load. Full article

Introduction: Football analysis is an applied research area that has seen a huge upsurge in recent years. More complex analysis to understand the soccer players’ or teams’ performances during matches is required. The objective of this study was to prove the usefulness of the expected goals on target (xGOT) metric, as a good indicator of a soccer team’s performance in professional Spanish football leagues, both in the women’s and men’s categories. Method: The data for the Spanish teams were collected from the statistical website Football Reference. The 2023/24 season was analyzed for Spanish leagues, both in the women’s and men’s categories (LigaF and LaLiga, respectively). For all teams, the following variables were calculated: goals, possession value (PV), expected goals (xG) and xGOT. All data obtained for each variable were normalized by match (90 min). A descriptive and correlational statistical analysis was carried out. Results: In the men’s league, this study found a high correlation between goals per match and xGOT (R² = 0.9248) while in the women’s league, there was a high correlation between goals per match (R² = 0.9820) and xG and between goals per match and xGOT (R² = 0.9574). Conclusions: In the LaLiga, the xGOT was the best metric that represented the match result while in the LigaF, the xG and the xGOT were the best metrics that represented the match score. Full article

Essential trace minerals are vital for general human health and athletic performance. Zinc (Zn) plays critical roles in several biochemical processes in exercise physiology, especially during intense physical exercise. This research aimed to analyze erythrocyte, platelet, plasma and urine Zn concentrations among men’s and female soccer players over a sports season. A total of 22 male soccer players (20.61 ± 2.66 years; 71.50 ± 5.93 kg) and 24 female soccer players (23.37 ± 3.95 years; 59.58 ± 7.17 kg) participated in this longitudinal quasi-experimental study. Three assessments were carried out over the season: 1st evaluation: first week of training (August); 2nd assessment: middle of the season, between the end of the first and second round (January) and 3rd assessment: last week of training (May/June). In all evaluations extracellular (plasma and urine) and intracellular (erythrocytes and platelets) Zn concentrations were determined, as well as physical fitness and several blood parameters. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry was used to measure Zn concentrations. Plasma and urinary concentrations were higher among male soccer players (p < 0.05) while erythrocyte and platelet Zn concentrations were higher in the female soccer players (p < 0.05). Additionally, variations in urinary and platelet Zn concentrations were observed over the season. The differences could be related to muscle mass, muscle damage or the specific sport’s physical demands. Full article

This study explores how open-source pose estimation can be utilized to identify goalkeeper dive initiation during soccer penalty kicks. The purpose of this study is to provide an accessible, low-cost heuristic methodology for identifying goalkeeper dive initiation. This study uses single-camera broadcast footage (1080 p resolution, 50 frames per second) of all 41 penalty shootout kicks attempted during the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup. We isolated each penalty kick and recorded the frames of goalkeeper dive initiation and flight. We then identified goalposts to create a homography matrix to account for camera movement and identified the goalkeeper’s skeletal keypoints through pose estimation. From these keypoints, we derived frontal plane kinematics for the torso and legs. We identified local extrema for each kinematic variable and isolated the last observed extrema prior to goalkeeper flight for each variable. Using OLS regression, we found that the last local extremum of the goalkeeper centroid’s y-value was the strongest predictor of labeled commitment to the dive side, with an R2 of 0.998 and a p-value of 0.00. The results of this research are preliminary but demonstrate the promise of pose estimation in identifying sport-specific action timing during live game play using a single camera. Full article

Among the many factors that can affect men’s soccer performance, technical and tactical actions can obscure relevant game data, even affecting specialists in both the programming and design of training tasks. We aimed to evaluate the technical and physical load variables of different positions in U18 semi-professional soccer players and observe the differences between the first and second halves during 10 matches of the 2021/2022 Spanish Football U18 National League Championship. A total of 246 match records (10 matches) were collected from the 2021/2022 Spanish Football U18 National League Championship. Two teams participated, with a total of 49 athletes. Our study’s results indicate that, concerning technical performance, no significant differences between halves were found for goalkeepers, wingers, and forwards. However, significant declines were observed in the number of ball contacts, different actions per time, and possessions per time among central defenders, lateral defenders, and central midfielders. Regarding the observed physical load demands, it was noted that in outfield players, there was a significant decline in total distances covered at different speed thresholds, as well as a decrease in the number and distance of acceleration measures, most of which were lower in the second halves compared to the first, irrespective of playing positions. This study contributes to enhancing our understanding of the multifaceted dynamics of soccer performance and provides valuable insights for coaches, players, and researchers aiming to optimize player performance. Full article

Although, in recent years, it has been common to monitor players in team sports using EPTSs (Electronic Performance and Tracking Systems) devices, most of the studies have focused on the optimization of individual performance rather than collective work or tactical analysis. Moreover, almost all these studies focus on men’s teams with little focus on women’s teams. In this work, data from women’s soccer teams at different levels (competition and grassroots) have been collected using both a low-cost personally developed EPTS and a commercial EPTS. With these systems, we have built a dataset consisting of more than 16 million records, paying special attention to spatio-temporal variables collected in the form of geographical coordinates. Different methods have been applied to the collected dataset to solve the problem of determining the position (individual role) of each player on the field based solely on spatio-temporal variables. The methods include algorithms based on clustering, centroid calculation, and computer vision. We have verified the effectiveness of these methods and propose an alternative method based on image recognition algorithms applied to heat maps generated from the position of the players monitored during the matches. As shown in this paper, the validity of the proposed method has been verified, exceeding the performance of existing methods and extending the range of application of these techniques. Full article

Background: The benefits of sport in mental health have been broadly studied. However, few studies have examined these outcomes in high-performance athletes. We aimed to analyze the state of the mental health of the Villarreal Soccer Club’s first- (FD) and second-division (SD) players and the possible mediating effects of sex and professional category. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study with an initial sample of 108 soccer players (final sample n = 54). Data from MINI, HARS, HDRS, BARRAT-11 and SCSRQ questionnaires were analyzed. Results: The mean age was 23.41 years (SD = 4.56) and 61.1% (n = 33) were men. A proportion of 24.1% (n = 13) stated that they had undergone mental health treatment, 7.4% (n = 4) had taken psychotropic drugs, and 2.1% (n = 1) had made a suicide attempt. Differences were observed between the FD and SD players in terms of the sensitivity to punishment (t = −2.2; p = 0.033), overall impulsivity (t = −3.1; p = 0.003), unplanned impulsivity (t = 3.4; p = 0.001), and the HDRS (U = −110.5; p = 0.004), HARS-Total (U = −104.0; p = 0.006) and HARS-Psychological subscale scores (U = −104.0; p = 0.001). Differences were also observed between the female and male SD players for the HARS-Somatic subscale (U = 136.5; p = 0.028). Conclusion: The low values obtained in the clinical scales, together with the reported psychopathological histories, suggested that the Villareal players showed better mental health than the general population. Full article

Exercise can disrupt the fluid balance, hindering performance and athlete health. Limited data exist on fluid balance responses in varying climates, sexes, and ages. This study aimed to measure and compare fluid balance and urine values among elite soccer players during training at high and low temperatures, examining the differences between sexes, playing positions, and competitive levels within men’s soccer. During the 2022–2023 competitive season, a descriptive observational study was conducted on 87 soccer players from an elite Spanish soccer team. The study found that none of the groups exceeded weight loss values of 1.5% of their body mass. Additionally, the soccer players studied experienced higher weight loss, fluid intake, and a higher sweat rate (SR) during summer training compared to winter training. During the summer, male U23-21 soccer players exhibited higher levels of weight loss, fluid intake, and a higher SR compared to female soccer players or the U19-17 male category. No significant differences were found between playing positions. In conclusion, differences in the fluid balance were observed based on the climatic conditions, competitive level, and sex. Full article

Soccer is a sport practiced all over the world and whose practice begins in young athletes. Currently, the consumption of nutritional supplements is essential to achieve the maximum performance of players. The aim of this study was to describe the consumption of sports supplements (CSS) by elite soccer players and its association with their competitive level, playing position, and sex. A comparative descriptive and non-experimental study was performed during the 2021–2022 competitive season. A total of 70 elite players completed one online questionnaire about their CSS. We found that sports drinks (55.7%), sports bars (50.0%), whey protein (48.6%), caffeine (47.1%), and creatine (60.0%) were the most consumed supplements by the total sample. Relative to the categories, the CSS was higher in the senior teams for both men and women. Regarding playing positions, caffeine was more consumed by midfielders and forwards (p = 0.013). Finally, in relation to sex, significant differences were found in the consumption of sports confectionery (p = 0.036), whey protein (p = 0.002), β-alanine (p = 0.013), and melatonin (p = 0.016). Soccer club SS questionnaires gather data to understand patterns, assess effectiveness and risks, and aid research. In conclusion, differences were found in the CSS according to competitive level, sex, and playing position. Full article