Observational analysis of the offensive sequences that ended in a shot by the winning team of the 2010 UEFA Futsal Championship

Abstract

This article analyses the offensive phase of the national team than won the 2010 UEFA Championship. More specifically, the observational sampling includes all plays in which the Spanish national futsal team managed to “shoot” in the competition in question. This data was obtained by adapting an observational and recording tool typically used for football to the technical specifications of futsal; the SOF-CODER (Jonsson et al., 2006). Two types of analysis have been performed. One statistical analysis using the SPSS programme, version 15.0, the most relevant results from which refer to the significant differences found on linking: the zone from which the shot is made and the type of shot (χ² = 55.821, P = 0.006); and the contact surface used and the type of shot (χ² = 30.293, P = 0.017). And another, using the Theme programme, version 5.0, through which regular behaviour structures (temporal patterns) have been detected within the plays that include shooting. The temporal patterns obtained – in addition to elaborating on the relationship between the area from which the shot is made, the contact surface used and the type of shot – enable a tactical interpretation of the technical actions that support the development of the offensive phase of futsal.

Keywords:

• futsal
• observational methodology
• temporal patterns
• shot
• 2010 UEFA Championship

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Spanish government project Observación de la interacción en deporte y actividad física: Avances técnicos y metodológicos en registros automatizados cualitativos-cuantitativos (Secretaría de Estado de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación del Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad) during the period 2012-2015 [Grant DEP2012-32124].