The main purpose of the present study was to assess if the intervention of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) had effects in the playing time and in the technical-tactical and physical performances of the teams in the Spanish LaLiga during 2018-19 season. A total of 375 matches were grouped according the number of VAR interventions: none (VAR0), one (VAR1) and two or three (VAR2). The variables recorded were: total (TPT) and effective (EPT) playing time, passes, dribbles, crosses, shots, goals, corners, fouls, width, length, height, distance from the goalkeeper to their defence, and total (TD) and above 21 km/h distance covered. The results were: I) there was a slight increase in the TPT in VAR2 compared to VAR1 and VAR0 (99.1 vs. 96.0 vs. 95.1, respectively); II) there was a decrease in the EPT between VAR0 and VAR1 (52.5 vs. 51.5); III) there was an increase in the number of goals (1.2 vs. 1.5 vs. 1.7, in VAR0, VAR1 and VAR2); and, IV) there was a slight decrease in the TD (108,916 vs. 107,916 vs. 106,977, in VAR0, VAR1 and VAR2). In conclusion, the findings of the study suggest that the VAR hardly changes the game in elite soccer.

The aim of this study was to describe in the way teams played for the last eight seasons (from 2011–12 to 2018–19) in the Spanish Football First Division (Spanish LaLiga Santander), taking into account team match performances (n = 5,518). Ten technical-tactical and physical variables grouped...

The aim of thisstudy wasto describe the team accumulated physical response per minute considering only the effective playing time (EPT) attending to different contextual and strategic variables in the Spanish Football First Division (LaLiga Santander). A sample of 2,959 performances was...

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the tactical and physical performance during official matches of a women’s soccer league and to correlate both dimensions in periods of 15 min. To do this, eight official matches of a semi-professional soccer team belonging to the Women’s Second Division of Spain (Reto Iberdrola) were analysed during the 2020–2021 season. The variables recorded were classified into two dimensions: tactical variables (i.e., Width, Length, Height and Surface Area) and physical variables (i.e., Total Distance Covered (TD), Total Distance Covered in High-Speed Running (HSR) and Total Distance Covered in Sprint). The main results were: (1) there were no differences between the periods in any of the tactical dimension variables; (2) in the physical dimension, a significant decrease in TD and HSR was described at the end of the match (period 60–75); and (3) some positive correlations were found among some variables of the tactical and physical dimension at the beginning and at the end of the match (periods 0–15, 60–75 and 75–90). The findings of the study suggest that connecting the tactical and physical dimension in the interpretation of team performance would allow for a better understanding of player and team performance and during competition.

The objective of this study was to compare the external load of training sessions using as a reference an official competition match in women’s football in order to find if the training sessions replicate the competition demands. Twenty-two semi-professional football players were analyzed during 17 weeks in the first phase of the competitive period of the 2020–2021 season of Spanish women’s football. In addition to the competition (Official Matches, OM), four types of sessions were distinguished: strength or intensity (INT), endurance or extensity (EXT), velocity (VEL), and activation or pre-competitive (PREOM). The external load variables recorded were total distance (TD), high-speed running (HSR), sprint (Sprint), accelerations (ACC2), decelerations (DEC2), player load (PL), distance covered per minute (TDmin), high metabolic load distance (HMLD), and total impacts. The main results were that the external load demanded was different according to the type of session, being, in all cases, much lower than OM. The variables referring to the neuromuscular demands (ACC2 and DEC2) were higher in the INT sessions, the TD variable in the EXT sessions and the velocity variables (HSR and Sprint) in the VEL sessions. We can conclude that there was an alternating horizontal distribution of training loads within the competitive micro-cycle in women’s football, although the order was not the usual one for tactical periodization.

This study aimed to analyse the performance of 5,518 collective observations of the Spanish LaLiga teams for eight consecutive seasons (from 2011–12 to 2018–19), considering the final league ranking. The teams were divided into four groups: Europe (from 1^st to 6^th), Upper-Middle (from 7^th to 11^th), Lower-Middle (from 12^th to 17^th) and Relegation (from 18^th to 20^th). The variables recorded were: Passes, Successful Passes, Crosses, Shots, Goals, Corners, Fouls, Width, Length, Height, distance from the goalkeeper to the nearest defender (GkDef), total distance covered (TD) and number of points accumulated. The main results were that: 1) Europe, being superior to the rest of the groups, showed lower values of Length from 2015–16, and lower values of GkDef from 2014–15; 2) Upper-Middle showed lower values of Length from 2015–16; 3) Lower-Middle showed fewer Shots from 2013–14, and lower values of Length, GkDef and TD from 2014–15; and, 4) Relegation barely showed significant differences between seasons in any variable. The study concludes that the teams of the Europe, Upper-Middle and Relegation groups showed quite stable performance, while the teams of the Lower-Middle group presented a worsening in different dimensions as the seasons progressed. The information provided in this study makes it possible to have reference values that have characterized the performance of the teams for each group.