Abstract
The aim of this study was to examine the key performance indicators of female professional soccer players during the 2011 and 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, played on different surfaces (natural and artificial turf respectively). A total of 438 women from 24 national teams who participated at Canada 2015 (artificial turf) and 283 players from 16 national teams who played in Germany 2011 (natural grass) were selected for this study. The collected data were provided by OPTA Sports. Twenty-nine key performance indicators were included for analysis. The variables were calculated for the total sample and independently by positions (defense, midfielders and forwards) for matches on natural grass (2011) and artificial turf (2015). A Mann–Whitney U test was used out to identify differences between the sport surfaces. Moreover, a discriminant analysis was performed with the forced entry method to find the variables that better differentiated between the FIFA Women's World Cup 2011 (natural grass) and FIFA Women's World Cup 2015 (artificial turf). Key performance aspects were very similar between the two tournaments, but on natural grass, we observed a significantly higher number of total passes, successful dribbles, total tackles, successful tackles and interceptions. However, on artificial turf there were significantly higher percentages of success in total passes, and a higher number of fouls. This is an important factor for the choice of an elite competition surface because technical actions are crucial to the quality of the game and can influence the future behavior of spectators and fans.
Highlights
Soccer is the most popular sport in the world
The complexity of soccer match performance can be reduced by using performance analysis techniques, which present the results in a systematic way, and integrate them into the coaching process [2]
Depending on the players’ position, defenders on natural grass showed a higher number of passes in the defensive third, successful passes in the defensive third and touches in the own half (ES from 0.13 to 0.16); while on artificial turf they showed a higher rate of success in passes in the middle third, and passes in the final third (ES from 0.10 to 0.17)
Summary
Soccer is the most popular sport in the world. The main analysis in sports includes technical and tactical evaluation, movement analysis, feedback provision, norm development and modelling [1]. The complexity of soccer match performance can be reduced by using performance analysis techniques, which present the results in a systematic way, and integrate them into the coaching process [2]. Among the methods of performance measurement, one of the most analysed domains has been the quantification of technical actions and their success [4].
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