Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the consistency of performance in successive matches for international soccer teams from Europe which qualified for the quarter final stage of EURO 2012 in Poland and Ukraine. The eight teams that reached the quarter final stage and beyond were the sample teams for this time series analysis. The autocorrelation and cross-correlation functions were used to analyze the consistency of play and its association with the result of match in sixteen performance indicators of each team. The results of autocorrelation function showed that based on the number of consistent performance indicators, Spain and Italy demonstrated more consistency in successive matches in relation to other teams. This appears intuitive given that Spain played Italy in the final. However, it is arguable that other teams played at a higher performance levels at various parts of the competition, as opposed to performing consistently throughout the tournament. The results of the cross-correlation analysis showed that in relation to goal-related indicators, these had higher associations with the match results of Spain and France. In relation to the offensive-related indicators, France, England, Portugal, Greece, Czech Republic and Spain showed a positive correlation with the match result. In relation to the defensive-related indicators, France, England, Greece and Portugal showed a positive correlation with match results. In conclusion, in an international soccer tournament, the successful teams displayed a greater degree of performance consistency across all indicators in comparison to their competitors who occasionally would show higher levels of performance in individual games, yet not consistently across the overall tournament. The authors therefore conclude that performance consistency is more significant in international tournament soccer, versus occasionally excelling in some metrics and indicators in particular games.
Highlights
In the last decade the application of notational analysis to understand the different aspects of performance in individual or team sports has become more popular among sport and exercise scientists
EURO soccer tournament in Poland and Ukraine were selected for this study
Instead of comparative studies through means difference or discriminative analysis, we applied a time series analysis in order to code and examine the correlations of performance indicators throughout the tournament. These findings showed that goalrelated and offensive-related indicators played a significant role in successful performance in international tournament soccer
Summary
In the last decade the application of notational analysis to understand the different aspects of performance in individual or team sports has become more popular among sport and exercise scientists. Many sports and many soccer clubs and national teams use different technologies to explore the tactical features of a game in order to enhance the likely group performance in future matches, by understanding their own or their opponents' strengths and weaknesses (Carling et al, 2005). 3 - Faculty of Educational Sciences and Sports, University of Vigo, Spain. Authors submitted their contribution of the article to the editorial board. Accepted for printing in Journal of Human Kinetics vol 38/2013 on September 2013
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