The influence of the field orientation on physical demands in soccer small-sided games
Marcelo S. Luchesi, Bruno Pena Couto, Tim J. Gabbett, Gibson Moreira Praça, Mariana Paulino Oliveira, Mark Sayers
Abstract
The aim of this study was to compare the physical demands of SSG with either greater length (SSG length ) or width (SSG width ) with official soccer matches. Sixteen Brazilian U-20 national-level soccer players participated in two sessions with SSG length (4v4, 40 m length and 26 m width) and two sessions with SSG width (4v4, 26 m length and 40 m width). External and internal load variables were monitored and compared to official games (12.8 ± 8.9 games per player). Data were standardized to the time and compared between the experimental conditions by a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measures (level of significance set at p < 0.05). The effect size was calculated by the partial ETA squared (ɳ p2). Results showed that the total distance covered during SSG length was significantly higher compared to official matches (8.1%; p = 0.001) and SSG width (5.2%; p = 0.049). Highest values were registered in the matches when compared to SSG length and SSG width for high-speed distance, sprint distance, maximal speed and number of sprints. The number of accelerations was significantly lower during official matches than SSG width (36.5%; p = 0.002) and SSG length (45.0%; p < 0.001). The number of high-speed actions was higher in official games when compared to SSG width (47.1%; p < 0.001). No differences were found between matches and SSG length ( p = 0.059). We concluded that the physical demands of the 4v4 SSGs adopted in this study were different from the physical demands of official match play. The use of a field with a greater width rather than length does not appear to make the physical demands of the SSG more similar to the official games.