Analysis of offensive and defensive actions of young soccer goalkeepers

Abstract

Purpose. the study aimed to investigate the defensive and offensive technical-tactical actions of elite young football goalkeepers. Methods. the goalkeepers who participated in our study (n = 3; mean age: 16.6 years) had 8 years of experience in the position, were Portuguese, and competed in the Portuguese National Championship U-17. thirty championship games were observed. the observational instruments used were constructed and validated for the investigation, and the technicaltactical actions were coded with the Lince® software. the data were processed through a descriptive analysis, by using the Microsoft Excel® computer program. Results. Defensive actions with most occurrences were goal defence (25.33 ± 8.14), deviation to punch (13.67 ± 12.5), with 2 hands (45.66 ± 21.38), and in zone 1 (50.33 ± 34.81). Offensive actions started more frequently with delayed pass (38.33 ± 28.01), for zone 1 (28.7 ± 20.60). the goalkeepers executed goal kick most frequently (17.33 ± 14.29), followed by short hand replacement (16.67 ± 12.06) and short pass (14.33 ± 10.02). the preferred pass zone was 9 (17.33 ± 10.26), and actions sought to initiate positional attack (86 ± 61.02). Conclusions. In the defensive process, the goalkeepers' actions are mostly focused on the objective of goal defence; in the offensive process, technical actions with the hands and feet are important in the participation in positional attack construction.

T-pattern analysis of offensive and defensive actions of youth football goalkeepers

“…The action of GKs in set pieces also provides relevance of evidence (Santos et al, 2022), an important moment that contributes in many matches to the definition of the results (Kubayi and Toriola, 2019;Leite, 2020). T-patterns have been recorded in this form of intervention through the technical actions of high deviation and reception of the ball with two hands.…”

“…T-patterns have been recorded in this form of intervention through the technical actions of high deviation and reception of the ball with two hands. It should be noted that there has been frequent recording of technical actions of high deviation and high reception in senior (López-Gajardo et al, 2020) and young GKs (Santos et al, 2021c(Santos et al, , 2022.…”

“…Airspace control is of great importance to GKs, and considerable ineffectiveness in this type of action is verified in young GKs (Lapresa Ajamil et al, 2018). Developed studies show us the importance of these actions, considering the significant number of occurrences (Soares et al, 2018;Santos et al, 2021cSantos et al, , 2022.…”

“…Two observation systems were used to codify the actions: the observational system of defensive technical-tactical actions and the observational system of offensive technical-tactical actions. Both observation systems underwent a validation process (Santos et al, 2022). Table 1 shows the observational system of defensive technical-tactical actions of GKs, consisting of four criteria and 34 categories.…”

“…Among GKs aged 14-16 years, great effectiveness of passing was demonstrated, and there were behavior patterns in these actions with the foot and hands (Lapresa Ajamil et al, 2018). In the offensive process, Santos et al (2022) observed that the participation of a GK resulted from late passes of teammates, showing fundamental technical actions with the feet in the offensive construction of the team, preferably to the side flanks.…”