Comparison of Official and Friendly Matches through Acceleration, Deceleration and Metabolic Power Measures: A Full-Season Study in Professional Soccer Players

Hadi Nobari, Sara Mahmoudzadeh Khalili, Rafael Oliveira, Alfonso Castillo-Rodríguez, Jorge Pérez-Gómez and Luca Paolo Ardigò
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Hadi Nobari: Department of Physical Education and Sports, University of Granada, 18010 Granada, Spain
Sara Mahmoudzadeh Khalili: HEME Research Group, Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Extremadura, 10003 Cáceres, Spain
Rafael Oliveira: ESDRM-IPS-Sports Science School of Rio Maior—Polytechnic Institute of Santarém, 2040-413 Rio Maior, Portugal
Alfonso Castillo-Rodríguez: Department of Physical Education and Sports, University of Granada, 18010 Granada, Spain
Jorge Pérez-Gómez: HEME Research Group, Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Extremadura, 10003 Cáceres, Spain
Luca Paolo Ardigò: Department of Neurosciences, Biomedicine and Movement Sciences, School of Exercise and Sport Science, University of Verona, 37134 Verona, Italy

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 11, 1-9

Abstract: Soccer is a popular team sport and highly demanding activity that requires high effort and long-term training plans. The goals of this study were to compare the accelerations, decelerations and metabolic power between official and friendly full matches, between the first and second halves of the matches, and between both halves of official and friendly matches. Twelve professional soccer players (age, 28.6 ± 2.7 years; height, 182.1 ± 8.6 cm; body mass, 75.3 ± 8.2 kg; BMI, 22.6 ± 0.7 kg/m 2 ) participated in this study. A total of 33 official and 10 friendly matches were analyzed from the Iranian Premier League. All matches were monitored using GPSPORTS systems Pty Ltd. The following variables were selected: total duration of the matches, metabolic power, accelerations Zone1 (<2 m·s ?2 ) (AccZ1), accelerations Zone2 (2 to 4 m·s ?2 ) (AccZ2), accelerations Zone3 (>4 m·s ?2 ) (AccZ3), decelerations Zone1 (?4 m·s ?2 ) (DecZ3). The major finding was shown in metabolic power, where higher values occurred in friendly matches ( p < 0.05 with small effect size). Furthermore, total duration, AccZ3, DecZ1, DecZ2, and DecZ3 were revealed to be higher in official matches, while AccZ1 and AccZ2 were higher in friendly matches. The second half of the official matches revealed higher values for total duration compared to friendly matches ( p < 0.05, moderate effect size). In conclusion, this study observed higher values of metabolic power in friendly matches compared to official matches. AccZ3, DecZ1, DecZ2, and DecZ3 were higher in official matches, while AccZ1 and AccZ2 were higher in friendly matches.

Keywords: acceleration; deceleration; friendly match; load monitoring; metabolic power; official match; performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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