Comparison of Official and Friendly Matches through Acceleration, Deceleration and Metabolic Power Measures: A Full-Season Study in Professional Soccer Players

Abstract

Soccer is a popular team sport and highly demanding activity that requires high effort and long-term training plans. The goals of this study were to compare the accelerations, decelerations and metabolic power between official and friendly full matches, between the first and second halves of the matches, and between both halves of official and friendly matches. Twelve professional soccer players (age, 28.6 ± 2.7 years; height, 182.1 ± 8.6 cm; body mass, 75.3 ± 8.2 kg; BMI, 22.6 ± 0.7 kg/m2) participated in this study. A total of 33 official and 10 friendly matches were analyzed from the Iranian Premier League. All matches were monitored using GPSPORTS systems Pty Ltd. The following variables were selected: total duration of the matches, metabolic power, accelerations Zone1 (<2 m·s−2) (AccZ1), accelerations Zone2 (2 to 4 m·s−2) (AccZ2), accelerations Zone3 (>4 m·s−2) (AccZ3), decelerations Zone1 (<−2 m·s−2) (DecZ1), decelerations Zone2 (−2 to −4 m·s−2) (DecZ2) and decelerations Zone3 (>−4 m·s−2) (DecZ3). The major finding was shown in metabolic power, where higher values occurred in friendly matches (p < 0.05 with small effect size). Furthermore, total duration, AccZ3, DecZ1, DecZ2, and DecZ3 were revealed to be higher in official matches, while AccZ1 and AccZ2 were higher in friendly matches. The second half of the official matches revealed higher values for total duration compared to friendly matches (p < 0.05, moderate effect size). In conclusion, this study observed higher values of metabolic power in friendly matches compared to official matches. AccZ3, DecZ1, DecZ2, and DecZ3 were higher in official matches, while AccZ1 and AccZ2 were higher in friendly matches.

Differences between official and non-official matches in worst-case scenarios in elite futsal players

“…This could be explained by the importance of the OFF games, in which "winning" is the main goal, and players are more likely to engage in maximal intensity efforts as opposed to friendly matches that are mainly focused on developing tactical, technical, and physical capacities [26]. Comparing acceleration, deceleration and metabolic power measures between offcial and friendly matches in soccer, differences in match activities were identified as well [27].…”

Variability of External Intensity Comparisons between Official and Friendly Soccer Matches in Professional Male Players

“…Then, GPS was placed in the dock system that allow downloading the information to save it through the Team AMS software. The same steps were described in a previous study [ 36 ].…”

Wearable Inertial Measurement Unit to Measure External Load: A Full-Season Study in Professional Soccer Players

“…This study was a cross-sectional cohort that included a full season of attending a professional football team during 48 weeks in the Persian Gulf Premier League and knockout tournament in the 2018-2019 year. Due to the limited number of subjects, we tried to divided players according to the similar physical demands of playing position [39][40][41]: (i) lateral defenders and wingers (LDW; n = 4 lateral defenders, n = 4 wingers); (ii) central defenders and forwards (CDF; n = 4 central defenders, n = 3 forwards); and (iii) midfielders (MDF; n = 6 midfielders). During the whole season, 7 weeks congested (i.e., two or more matches within 7 days), 30 weeks non-congested; 44 matches, 200 training sessions; and 141,26.75 min of time play and sessions were held.…”