A Qualitative Exploration of Collective Collapse in a Norwegian Qualifying Premier League Soccer Match—The Successful Team's Perspective

Abstract

The current case study focused on a crucial match in the qualification for the Norwegian Premier League (Eliteserien). In the match, the participants of the study experienced a radical change in performance toward the end of the second half, from being behind by several goals to scoring 3 goals in 6 min and winning the qualifying game. The purpose of this study was therefore to examine the perceptions and reflections of players and coaches (sporting director) on what occurred within their own team and within the opposing team. The momentum shift in the opposition team can be described as a collective collapse. In the study, the theoretical collective collapse process model was used as a guide for the design of the interview questions where five semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants involved in the match (players, coach, and sporting director). The participants watched excerpt clips from the match to recall the main events, which they subsequently reflected on. The results highlighted the importance of the “before-game” aspects (i.e., pressure, first game result), the “during-the-game” behavior (i.e., goals scored, playing with a low degree of risk) and the cognitive (i.e., feelings of pressure, despair) and emotional reactions (i.e., frustration, joy) to the match unfolding. In addition, social contagion processes were evident in both teams relating to emotion and behavior. Overall, the data from this study investigated the general structure of the process model of collective sport team collapse and found support for the notion of a temporal cascade of causes for a team collapse. Future research is encouraged to examine this model, to provide guidance to teams, coaches, and sport psychologists in order to make recommendations for dealing with collective collapse in sport teams.

The role of emotional convergence in sport: A scoping review.

“…A similar finding was discussed by handball players and coaches, who stated that the expression of negative emotions often amplifies the precarious situation of a collapsing team (Apitzsch, 2009). In addition, professional Norwegian soccer players reported to have observed opposite patterns of positive and negative emotional convergence in opponent teams during a single match (i.e., the emotional convergence of positive emotions in the team that is scoring, but of negative emotions in the team that is conceding goals; Schei et al, 2022).…”

“…For the studies with qualitative methods, some studies did not specify their qualitative approach (e.g., thematic analysis). Moreover, in a study investigating a collective team collapse within a specific match, interviews were conducted with players from the opposing team rather than those who had actually experienced the collapse (Schei et al, 2022).…”

“…Moreover, considering the finding that opposing teams exhibited contrasting emotional convergence patterns simultaneously, with the convergence of positive emotions in winning teams and convergence of negative emotions in losing teams (Schei et al, 2022), it is also important to take potential intergroup effects into account. These results are in line with other studies comparing the effects of emotional expressions in ingroup compared to outgroup contexts indicating contrary effects on one's own emotions (e.g., van der Schalk et al, 2011).…”

Exploring the relationship among soccer-related knowledge, attitude, practice, and self-health in Chinese campus soccer education

“… 33 Regarding soccer, Schei argues that an optimistic attitude enhances one’s performance and conduct. 34 …”