Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine differences related to the offensive process between winning and losing teams among teams participating in the European Handball Federation Champions League (EHFCL) in 55 matches across five seasons. The key indicators used in this study are the offensive actions, team possession type and the zones of the field, goals, and shooting effectiveness. A total of 34 indicators were analyzed and compared using Mann–Whitney U tests. Sixteen key indicators are identified to confirm differences both from the aspect of the collective game in terms of assists (9.10 ± 2.75 vs. 7.29 ± 2.65), goals of positional attack (21.38 ± 4.60 vs. 18.20 ± 3.62) and from the aspect of individual goals from 6 m (16.67 ± 3.98 vs. 13.64 ± 3.70), and the effectiveness of shots (68.19 ± 6.83 vs. 59.41 ± 6.33). Winning teams performed better regarding the variables that defined the effectiveness of offensive shots, especially successful positioned attacks and fast attacks. They also had a greater number of assists. The profiles of the most successful teams can help coaches and practitioners to achieve better performances adjusting the training process according the performance indicators that seem to lead more often to success.
Highlights
Handball is a complex sport in which players’ performance can be analyzed and presented in various manners (Skarbalius et al, 2013)
The aim of the present study was to determine the differences between winning and losing teams participating in the European Handball Federation Champions League (EHFCL) of men’s handball in terms of their offensive processes using notational analysis from five sporting seasons
Fast attack – This is considered as a second offensive chance, made by later players in the defensive system, who progressed in the field with speed, through quick passes to the attack, in order to create a situation of superiority or defensive disorganization of the attack to opponents’ team
Summary
Handball is a complex sport in which players’ performance can be analyzed and presented in various manners (Skarbalius et al, 2013). Success in collective sports requires that a team integrate many factors beyond physical factors (Smith, 2003). Among these other success factors is match analysis (Hughes and Bartlett, 2002). Match analysis has evolved very significantly in several sports, such as football (Sarmento et al, 2014b, 2018a), futsal (Agras et al, 2016), or basketball (Courel-Ibáñez et al, 2017). The investigation in handball match analysis is not well established in the researcher’s scientific agenda (Ferrari et al, 2019)
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