title: Intra- and inter-group coordination patterns reveal collective behaviors of football players near the scoring zone.
abstract: This study examined emergent coordination processes in collective patterns of behavior in 3 vs 3 sub-phases of the team sport of association football near the scoring zone. We identified coordination tendencies for the centroid (i.e., team center) and surface area (i.e., occupied space) of each sub-group of performers (n=20 plays). We also compared these kinematic variables at three key moments of play using mixed-model ANOVAs. The centroids demonstrated a strong symmetric relation that described the coordinated attacking/defending actions of performers in this sub-phase of play. Conversely, analysis of the surface area of each team did not reveal a clear coordination pattern between sub-groups. But the difference in the occupied area between the attacking and defending sub-groups significantly increased over time. Findings emphasized that major changes in sub-group behaviors occurred just before an assisted pass was made (i.e., leading to a loss of stability in the 3 vs 3 sub-phases).
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Human Kinetics, Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal. rduarte@fmh.utl.pt
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Duarte
authors.forename: Duarte
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Araújo
authors.forename: Luís
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Freire
authors.forename: Hugo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Folgado
authors.forename: Orlando
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Fernandes
authors.forename: Keith
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Davids
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D003163:Competitive Behavior; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D004215:Distance Perception; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills; D009949:Orientation; D011174:Portugal; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012916:Soccer / Q000523:psychology*; D012933:Social Identification; D013037:Spatial Behavior; D013223:Statistics as Topic