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Purpose. The purpose of this study was to analyse the goals in soccer Italian League Serie A (2018)(2019) in relation to (a) the number of total attempts; (b) the time reached; (c) the area from which the final action occurred. Also, the effect of achieving the first goal in the match outcome was studied. Methods. A total of 380 matches were studied, with 1019 goals scored. All matches were analysed with the SportScout software. chi-square test was used to find differences between the display frequencies of each variable. Results. More goals were scored in the second half of the match ( 2 = 25.438, p < 0.05) and in the last 15 minutes. Most goal attempts were made through the penalty box and outside of it ( 2 = 2365.002, p < 0.05), though the highest success rates were shown in the attempts from the goal box. Overall, 30% of the total number of goals were scored from set plays ( 2 = 171.493, p < 0.05), most of them after a corner shot ( 2 = 18.488, p < 0.05). Furthermore, it appeared that the first goal had a strong impact on the final outcome since in 67.34% of the cases, the team that scored first won the match. Conclusions. More goals were scored in the second half, especially in the last 15 minutes. coaches should prepare their players to be fit to cope with the whole match. They will also need to improve their defensive and offensive tactics in set plays.

The presence of the relative age effect (RAE) has been widely reported. Most of the studies have been performed on elite youth soccer players. The purpose of the present study was to examine if anthropometric and performance characteristics were different amongst older and younger soccer players of amateur clubs born in the same year. One hundred seventy six players in three different age group (U10, U14, U15) participated in the study. Anthropometric measurements (height, weight, body mass index, body fat) and the performance in physical fitness tests [long jump (LJ), countermovement jump (CMJ), T-test, Yo-Yo intermittent endurance test level 1 (YYIET1)] were the dependent variables. In U14 the older players jump higher to CMJ (p = 0.05) and in U15 the older players performed better to CMJ and YYIET1 (p = 0.01 and p = 0.05, respectively). We observed differences in some fitness test performances between older and younger soccer players. These differences are indicative of RAE presence, but more studies are required on youth soccer players of amateur clubs and of different ages.