The Transition from Match Analysis to Intervention: Optimising the Coaching Process in Elite Futsal

Goal effectiveness after players’ dismissals in professional futsal teams

“…The second aim of the study was to establish a performance profile of attacks in numerical superiority by the elite futsal teams. This analysis is of great relevance due to the importance of coaches identifying and replicating real match scenarios during training (Sarmento et al, 2015). In fact, the two-step cluster analysis showed four types of attacks during situations of numerical superiority accepting the hypothesis of the study as it was expected to identify different game profiles with varying values of effectiveness in dismissal scenarios.…”

“…The first aim of this study was to identify the effect of players' exclusions on teams' attacking performance in professional futsal. As argued, coaches try to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their opponents from a collective point of view as a way to control and manage their strategies and tactics during the match (Sarmento et al, 2015). Thus, the analysis of the attacks in superiority in elite futsal matches integrating the contextual-related variables (quality of opposition, match location, match period, attacking team's fouls, opponent's fouls, match status, attack duration and match type) made it possible to determine their effectiveness on the match outcome.…”

“…The identified trends are of great relevance from the coach's point of view where the numerical superiority/inferiority context of play directly impacts the team's performance. These scenarios should be carefully trained for and controlled as they occur in competition (i.e., manipulating match periods, attacking team fouls, opponent team fouls and match status), allowing coaches to give immediate feedback and the key instruction to players in order to improve their performance in numerical superiority/inferiority situations (Sarmento et al, 2015). Accordingly, from a practical application point of view, training tactics and strategies should replicate these scenarios with adaptations to different defensive formations using inferiority (Gk+ 4-v-3+ GK); in opposition, the defensive formations may replicate a balanced situation using the goalkeeper as a player during the 2-min periods immediately after the dismissal (Gk+ 4-v-4+ GK) (Travassos et al, 2017).…”

“…However, despite the high probability of a goal being scored by the team with numerical advantage during the exclusion penalisation of the defending team, the available literature related to this moment of the game in futsal is scarce. According to Sarmento, Bradley, and Travassos (2015) one important way to improve the understanding of the game is to identify and analyse each moment of the game and the correspondent strategies used by coaches to successfully perform in each one. Also, there is a need to identify the contextual variables that constrain the outcome of attacks in elite futsal matches, to improve coaches' interventions during these periods and to adjust training sessions to be more representative of game demands (creation, control and definition of strategies for specific training scenarios that occur in competition).…”

Coach decision-making in Futsal: from preparation to competition

“…That is, for a good performance analysis that supports the coach intervention over the game, there is a need to define the most important information that coaches and also performance analysts need to attend to improve decision-making and action (Travassos, Davids, Araujo, & Esteves, 2013). However, more than to consider the predefined collective, strategical and tactical moves that should be considered, the coach should also must prepare himself with information from previous competition of the own or the opposite team, to deal with game dynamics and prospectively view possible game scenarios and strategies to manage competition, without additional information (Sarmento, Bradley, & Travassos, 2015).…”