Soccer is a Team Game

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In this assignment I will design a template that I will use to analyse a team performance in soccer. First of all a background on soccer will be detailed. More than 240 million people around the world play soccer regularly according to the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), making it the most sport participated in worldwide. The game has evolved from the sport of kicking a rudimentary animal-hide ball around into the World Cup sport it is today with the last World Cup having 3.262 billion people watch it. Records trace the history of soccer back more than 2,000 years ago to ancient Chine, Greece, Rome, and parts of Central America claiming to have started the sport but it was England that transitioned soccer into the game we know today. The English are credited with recording the first uniform rules for the sport, including tripping opponents and touching the ball with the hands. As the sport developed, more rules were implemented to make the game fair for everyone involved including the penalty kick in 1891. FIFA became a member of the International Football Association Board of Great Britain in 1913. FIFA kept introducing rules to make the game fair as the years went on, for example red and yellow cards were introduced during the 1970 World Cup Finals. More rules have been introduced recently to constantly keep the game fair.

The demands of a soccer player will be discussed now. The typical distance covered by a top level outfield player during a match is 10-13 kilometers. A lot of the distance is covered by walking and low-intensity running but it is the high-intensity periods that are most important. The amount of high-speed running is what distinguishes top-class players from those at a lower level. A computerized time-motion analysis demonstrated that international top-class players perform 28% more high-intensity running, 2.43 km vs. 1.90 km and 58% more sprinting, 650 meters vs. 410 meters than professional players at a lower level (Mohr et al., 2003). Soccer players also need a combination of fitness attributes such as strength, endurance, power, co-ordination as well as speed and agility in order to play the high intensity games that last 90 minutes plus, therefore players also need to be mentally, technically and tactically prepared for competition. (Stolen et al, 2005)

Strength training is very important for any competing athlete as it corrects muscle imbalances and reduces the risk of injury, for safety it is important for everyone to apply good lifting technique to avoid injury (Croisier et al., 2005). Strength training can be divided into maximal strength, explosive power and muscular endurance. Maximal strength is proven to increase jumping ability and motor performance. The athlete’s main goal is to build as much maximal strength as possible so that they can turn this strength into muscular endurance and explosive power. Plyometric training has been shown to be the most effective way of improving and enhancing explosive power which is need for soccer players to jump up and win headers (Fleck and Kraemer, 2004). Dynamic movements such as headers, tackling, sprinting and kicks all involve a high level of muscle strength, endurance and power and are very important for soccer players. Players need strength to defend against components who try to push them off the ball while in the air or on the ground, (Cabri et al, (1988). Therefore it is important for athletes to improve their soccer specific strength in the preparation period as the athlete needs to be capable of using muscle strength and power effectively and also consistently within a 90 minute game. Soccer players require a lot of muscular endurance so they take part in circuit type training which concentrates on soccer specific exercises twice a week. With this they also work on their core stability and balance helping their co-ordination. Soccer players need a high level of aerobic fitness in order to produce and maintain power output during repeated high intensity efforts and in order to recover quickly. Around 90% of energy during a soccer game is from aerobic sources, therefore heart rate is a valid indicator of exercise intensity for most of the training. Anaerobic endurance is important for soccer players especially strikers, they require shorts bursts of anaerobic power when sprinting for a ball. To work on their speed and agility athletes train with agility ladders to improve foot speed and foot to ground contact, sprints, hops in different directions, push-ups, dribbling around cones and sprint drills.