Youth Soccer Teams Research Articles

Effective Team Strategies: Developing “Game Sense” in Youth Soccer Programs

Discusses the team strategies used with an elite youth soccer team, and shows how these strategies develop players' game sense and life skills. The strategies discussed can be applied in many different sport settings

Anthropometric, Muscular Fitness, and Injury History Comparisons by Gender of Youth Soccer Teams

Soccer knee injuries are common and adolescent girls are particularly at risk. This investigation compared and contrasted anthropometric, fitness, agility, playing experience, ankle/knee injury history, and footwear between adolescent female and male soccer players, and compared them with selected age- and gender-matched norms. Two soccer clubs (1 F, 1 M, 16 members each) participated in this investigation. Boys were stronger, taller, leaner, and more agile, and had more endurance, while girls had greater musculotendinous extensibility (p ≤ 0.001). Female lean body mass standardization produced nonsignificant (p > 0.05) torque or single-leg broad jump differences. No differences were found for abdominal muscle endurance. Ankle/knee injury history revealed nonsignificant differences. Girls had less ankle plantar flexor extensibility (p < 0.001). This may provide them compensatory dynamic joint stability for injury prevention in the presence of commonly related differences in knee muscle torque production, knee biomechanics, body fat %, and footwear fit.

Anthropometric, Muscular Fitness, and Injury History Comparisons by Gender of Youth Soccer Teams

Anthropometric, Muscular Fitness, and Injury History Comparisons by Gender of Youth Soccer Teams

Longitudinal and cross-sectional analysis of group performance measures in competitive youth soccer

The longitudinal research design consisted of a first-year (62 games) and a third-year (47 games) study of a male youth soccer team. During the second year (53 games) of the research, a team of players comparable in skill and age was examined to allow a cross-sectional comparison on the team performance measures. The clearest results were significantly different mean numbers of direct and indirect free kicks, and the numbers of goals scored were significantly more variable in the older age group. One higher-order factor and two second-order orthogonal factors were extracted from each data set. The most interpretable factor was termed game domination: high positive factor loadings were from game measures of shots, goals, corner kicks, and game outcome. High negative loadings were from goalkeeper touches of the ball, goalkeeper saves, and goal kicks.

Performance measures of game activity and team effectiveness in competitive youth soccer

Analysis of performance measures over 49 important games for a youth soccer team (males under 12 years of age) indicated significant reliability for win-loss record, goals scored, goal kicks, direct free kicks, and offsides calls. One performance measure had no reliability: indirect free kicks other than for offsides. Throw-ins became less reliable over the season. Corner kicks, goalkeeper touches of the ball, and goalkeeper saves increased in reliability over the season. Effectiveness measures for the attacking players were relatively stable within the team for scoring the first and/or deciding goal in a match. Over the season, it became more difficult for both teams to score goals. The effectiveness measure for the defensive unit (number of scoreless halves for both teams) was stable. The multiple regression equation (R=.79) developed on the first 25 important games accurately predicted 21 of 24 game results (p <.001) during the last half of the season.