Identification of Explanatory Variables in Possession of the Ball in High-Performance Women’s Football
[Abstrac] Women’s football is a phenomenon that is experiencing an unstoppable increase in recent years. The objective of this study was to analyze how ball possessions are performed in highperformance women’s football. For this, the 52 matches played by all the national teams participating in the Women’s World Cup 2015 were analyzed. A total of 3740 ball possessions were examined. Using the “move outcome” variable as a reference criterion, a statistically significant relationship was found between possessions that ended in success and possessions that have failed. Specifically, the successful possessions were those that were made in the offensive zone, with a clear intention to progress to…
Multivariate Exploratory Comparative Analysis of LaLiga Teams: Principal Component Analysis
The use of principal component analysis (PCA) provides information about the main characteristics of teams, based on a set of indicators, instead of displaying individualized information for each of these indicators. In this work we have considered reducing an extensive data matrix to improve interpretation, using PCA. Subsequently, with new components and with multiple linear regression, we have carried out a comparative analysis between the best and bottom teams of LaLiga. The sample consisted of the matches corresponding to the 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2017/18 seasons. The results showed that the best teams were characterized and differentiated from bottom teams in the realization of a great…
Offensive Transitions in High-Performance Football: Differences Between UEFA Euro 2008 and UEFA Euro 2016
[Abstract] Coaches, footballers and researchers agree that offensive transitions are one of the most important moments in football today. In a sport where defense over attack dominates, with low scores on the scoreboard, the importance of these actions from the offensive point of view becomes very important. Despite this, scientific literature is still very limited on this topic. Therefore, the objectives set out in the present investigation have been two: first, by means of a proportion analysis and the application of a chisquare test, it was intended to describe the possible differences between the offensive transitions made in the UEFA Euro 2008 and UEFA Euro 2016; then, through differen…
Possession in Football: More Than a Quantitative Aspect – A Mixed Method Study
The aim of the present study was to identify and differentiate the factors that determine the possession times of successful and unsuccessful elite football teams, with the purpose of identifying a more effective possession model. For this, match corresponding to the round of eighth-finals, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final of the 2016 UEFA Euro France in which 2,636 offensive sequences occurred, were analyzed. Video recordings of matches were analyzed and coded post-event using systematic observation. The performance indicators recorded and analyzed were: phase; match period; type of start-up; interaction context; intention; field zone; possession time, passes, attack outcome; match st…
Identification of Defensive Performance Factors in the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa
The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy of defensive play in elite football, to identify variables associated with the direct recovery of ball possession, and to propose a model for predicting the success of defensive transitions. We analyzed 804 transitions in the final stages of the Fedération Internationale Football Association (FIFA) World Cup 2010, and investigated the following variables using univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analyses: duration of defensive transition, possession loss zone, position of players at the start and end of the defensive transitions, defensive organization, general defensive approach, time of the match, position of defense, zone in which t…
Differences in Technical Development and Playing Space in Three UEFA Champions Leagues
[Abstract] The analysis of football grows exponentially, with many researchers adopting it as an object of study. The thematic range that addresses it, as well as the different methodologies used, are of a very different nature—physical, psychological, technical, tactical—enriching every day the knowledge, and understanding of the game itself. The objective of this study has been to identify the differences between the different styles of play that lead to becoming the champion of the UEFA Champions League in the last 3 years of the pre-COVID stage, by analyzing the spatial performance developed, the association between the players that make up the different lines of the game system and the…
Multivariate analysis of defensive phase in football: Identification of successful behavior patterns of 2014 Brazil FIFA World Cup
The aim of this study was to identify variables associated with direct recovery of the ball during defensive transitions in elite soccer and to propose a model with certain guarantees of success based on a multivariate analysis in which binary logistic regression was used to explore interaction between variables. 1,722 defensive transitions were analysed in the final stages of the FIFA World Cup 2014 in Brazil and investigated the following variables: duration of defensive transition; possession loss zone; position of players at the start and end of the defensive transitions, defensive organization, general defensive approach, period of the match, position of defence line, zone in which the…
Application of multivariant decision tree technique in high performance football: The female and male corner kick.
The use of multidimensional statistical technique based on decision trees is of recent application in sports science. In the case of football, this technique has not yet been sufficiently proven. The aim of the present study was to search for different success models for the cor- ners in the FIFA World Cup 2014 and FIFA Women's World Cup 2015. For this, the statistical analysis focused on the search for classification models for the different criteria considered (shot, shot between the three posts and goal), based on the creation of different decision trees that allow the most important variables to be identified quickly and efficiently. For this, 1117 corners were collected between the two…
Possession Zone as a Performance Indicator in Football. The Game of the Best Teams
Possession time in football has been widely discussed in research but few studies have analyzed the importance of the field area in which possession occurs. The objective of this study was to identify the existence of significant differences in the field zone of ball possession between successful and unsuccessful teams and to acknowledge if the match status modulates the possession model. To this end, 2,284 attacks were analyzed corresponding to the matches in the final phase of the UEFA Euro 2016 France, recording possession time and field zone in which possession occurred. Video recordings of matches were analyzed and coded post-event using notational analysis. We have found that successf…
Gender differences in technical-tactical behaviour of La Liga Spanish football teams
[Abstract] The aim of this study was to identify differences in technical-tactical behaviour between the men and women first division football teams of the Spanish league, to this end 68 matches corresponding to 2016/17 season were analysed. A comparative analysis of the medians was carried out using the Mann-Whitney U-tests were conducted as post hoc tests. The size effect of this test was calculated and, finally, we performed a grouping of the variables through the clustering bootstrapping technique in both groups. We have detected statistically significant differences (p <0.01) regarding all accurate passes, in favour of men, as well as a greater number of yellow cards. In female footbal…
La influencia del estado del partido en la posesión del balón en el fútbol femenino de alto rendimiento
[Abstract] The objective of this study was to examine the effect of the situational match status variable on the ball possession of the teams that participated in the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. The 52 games played during the championship have been collected, and 3,740 ball possessions made by the teams were analyzed. The teams have been divided into successful and unsuccessful. Three types of analysis have been carried out: a univariate analysis for both groups with the categorical and continuous variables selected; a bivariate analysis, using chi-square tests and the exact Fischer test; and finally, a multivariable technique such as the decision trees was incorporated. The available resu…