Soccer research has traditionally focused on technical and tactical aspects of team play, but few studies have analyzed motor skills in individual actions, such as goal scoring. The objective of this study was to investigate how Lionel Messi, one of the world's top soccer players, uses his motor skills and laterality in individual attacking actions resulting in a goal. We analyzed 103 goals scored by Messi between over a decade in three competitions: La Liga (n = 74), Copa del Rey (n = 8), and the UEFA Champions League (n = 21). We used an ad-hoc observation instrument (OSMOS-soccer player) comprising 10 criteria and 50 categories; polar coordinate analysis, a powerful data reduction technique, revealed significant associations for body part and orientation, foot contact zone, turn direction, and locomotion. No significant associations were observed for pitch area or interaction with opponents. Our analysis confirms significant associations between different aspects of motor skill use by Messi immediately before scoring, namely use of lower limbs, foot contact zones, turn direction, use of wings, and orientation of body to move toward the goal. Studies of motor skills in soccer could shed light on the qualities that make certain players unique.

The aim of this study was to explore how the use of temporary numerical imbalances during small-sided Game SSGs affects team’s exploratory behaviors (i.e., variety and quantity of responses given in an ever-changing game context and its rate of change) in different age groups. Two different age groups (under−15 and under−23) of football players participated in the study. For each age group, three teams of five players played six small-sided games of 5 min duration in different conditions: (i) numerical balance (GK + 4 vs. 4 + GK); (ii) temporary numerical imbalance, which consisted of a numerical change of teammates and opponents every one minute. Latitude and longitude GPS coordinates were used to determine the positioning-derived variables. The dynamic overlap (i.e. the measure of average similarity of the game patterns that take place in increasingly larger time intervals) was used to provide information of the rate and breadth of exploratory behavior. The results revealed that the long-term exploratory breadth increased for the under−23 age group. Non-clear effects were found for the short-term rate of exploration, but with an increasing trend. In the under−15 group, the exploratory behavior was more likely to increase in the long term. The increase for the short-term rate of exploration was unclear, but it follows an increasing trend. These results suggest that the use of temporary numerical imbalances could offer coaches more dynamic training situations and different adaptive training environments similar to matches.

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