Abstract
The present study aims to identify the essential technical and tactical performance indicators that could differentiate winning and losing performance in the Asian elite beach soccer competition. A set of 20 technical and tactical performance indicators namely; shot back-third, shot mid-third, shot front-third, pass back-third, pass mid-third, pass front-third, shot in box, shot outbox, chances created, interception, turnover, goals scored 1st period, goals scored 2nd period, goals scored 3rd period, goals scored extra time, tackling, fouls committed, complete save, incomplete save and passing error were observed during the beach soccer Asian Football Confederation tournament 2017 held in Malaysia. A total of 23 matches from 12 teams were notated using StatWatch application in real-time. Discriminant analysis (DA) of standard, backward as well stepwise modes were used to develop a model for the winning (WT) and losing team (LT) whilst Mann-Whitney U test was utilized to ascertain the differences between the WT and LT with respect to the performance indicators evaluated. The standard backward, forward and stepwise discriminates the WT and the LT with an excellent accuracy of 95.65%, 91.30% and 89.13%, respectively. The standard DA model discriminated the teams from seven performance indicators whilst both the backward and forward stepwise identified two performance indicators. The Mann-Whitney U test analysis indicated that the WT is statistically significant from the LT based on the performance indicators determined from the standard mode model of the DA. It was demonstrated that seven performance indicators namely; shot front-third, pass front-third, chances created, goals scores at the 1st period, goals scored at the 2nd period, goals scored at 3rd period were directly linked to a successful performance whilst the incomplete save by the keeper attribute towards the poor performance of the team. The present finding could serve useful to the coaches as well as performance analysts as a measure of profiling successful performance and enables team improvement with respect to the associated performance indicators.
Highlights
Beach soccer is one of the world’s fastest growing sports, since FIFA began to promote and organize it through competitive matches, courses and other initiatives [1]]
It could be seen from the table that a total of 95.65% classification accuracy was obtained from the standard mode of the Discriminant analysis (DA) with only two misclassifications attributed to the WT with seven performance indicators discriminated against the WT and losing team (LT)
The standard mode model is able to discriminate a total of seven performance indicators that potentially differentiated the WT and LT
Summary
Beach soccer is one of the world’s fastest growing sports, since FIFA began to promote and organize it through competitive matches, courses and other initiatives [1]]. The beach soccer is played on a sandy surface with a depth of at least 40 cm deep. The beach soccer match is divided into three periods of 12 minute with an interval time of 3 minutes between the matches. The time is stopped when the play is interrupted; the total match duration lasts for about 36 minutes. The match breaks off when the referee deems necessary, i.e. when directing for a penalty or calls for doctor assistance. It is worth to highlight that a referee and two lines-men officiate the match
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