title: Acute effects of the number of players and scoring method on physiological, physical, and technical performance in small-sided soccer games.
abstract: This study aims to examine the effect of differences in the number of players and scoring method on heart rate responses, time-motion characteristics, and technical/tactical performance during small-sided soccer games. Ten male amateur soccer players (26.4 ± 5.3 years old, 8.4 ± 3.2 years of practice, 179.3 ± 5.2 cm body height, 71.2 ± 7.1 kg body weight, 45.8 ± 2.6 ml.kg(-1)min(-1)VO2max) from the Portuguese regional league played nine different small-sided games (i.e., 3 formats × 3 scoring methods). The study used two-way MANOVA, two-away ANOVA, and one-way ANOVA, depending on the specific procedure for the analysis. Compared with other formats, 2v2 induced significantly greater values of technical/tactical indexes (p = 0.001), 3v3 induced significantly higher %HRreserve values (p = 0.001), and 4v4 led to significantly greater distance coverage and speed (p = 0.001). The study provided evidence for coaches to set different small-sided game conditions depending on the training purpose in terms of physiological, physical, and technical performance.
authors.affiliation: a Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra (Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra), ESEC, DE , Rua Dom João III - Solum, 3030-329 , Coimbra , Portugal.
authors.forename: Filipe Manuel
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Clemente
authors.forename: Del P
authors.initials: del P
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Fernando Manuel Lourenço
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Martins
authors.forename: Rui Sousa
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Mendes
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D054874:Athletic Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012916:Soccer / Q000502:physiology*; D013996:Time and Motion Studies
keywords: match analysis; performance analysis; task constraints; team sports assessment procedure