Collective behaviour in high and low-level youth soccer teams

ABSTRACT

Background

An expert/non-expert paradigm often helps understand the underpinnings of sports expertise; however, this method is scarcely extended to the complexities of collective behaviour in youth soccer.

Aim

Therefore, the objectives of the current study are to investigate differences in the collective behaviour of youth soccer teams by expertise level.

Methodology

Soccer players aged 15 to 20 years from high (n = 35) and low (n = 40) playing levels competed in two age-matched 5v5 small-sided games. For each game, teams’ skill involvement (shot, pass, dribble, touch), passing networks (closeness, density, betweenness), and spatiotemporal characteristics (stretch index, effective area, length (L) & width (W), LpW ratio, synchrony) were measured using video footage and GPS coordinates.

Results

High level teams had more attempted (p = .009), and completed skills (p = .003), particularly for the number of passes (p = .001) and shots (p = .012-.045). However, there were no significant between-group differences for either the passing networks or spatiotemporal characteristics.

Conclusion

The findings from the current research suggest that the high-level teams can quickly and effectively move the ball within existing team structures and may better optimise their afforded space to execute desired skills when compared to the low-level teams.

KEYWORDS:

• Sports performance
• small-sided games
• constraints
• dynamical systems
• social network
• spatiotemporal analysis

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge all of the soccer clubs and participants for their contribution to the project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research received no external funding.