The influence of the field orientation on physical demands in soccer small-sided games

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare the physical demands of SSG with either greater length (SSG_length) or width (SSG_width) with official soccer matches. Sixteen Brazilian U-20 national-level soccer players participated in two sessions with SSG_length (4v4, 40 m length and 26 m width) and two sessions with SSG_width (4v4, 26 m length and 40 m width). External and internal load variables were monitored and compared to official games (12.8 ± 8.9 games per player). Data were standardized to the time and compared between the experimental conditions by a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measures (level of significance set at p < 0.05). The effect size was calculated by the partial ETA squared (ɳp2). Results showed that the total distance covered during SSG_length was significantly higher compared to official matches (8.1%; p = 0.001) and SSG_width (5.2%; p = 0.049). Highest values were registered in the matches when compared to SSG_length and SSG_width for high-speed distance, sprint distance, maximal speed and number of sprints. The number of accelerations was significantly lower during official matches than SSG_width (36.5%; p = 0.002) and SSG_length (45.0%; p < 0.001). The number of high-speed actions was higher in official games when compared to SSG_width (47.1%; p < 0.001). No differences were found between matches and SSG_length (p = 0.059). We concluded that the physical demands of the 4v4 SSGs adopted in this study were different from the physical demands of official match play. The use of a field with a greater width rather than length does not appear to make the physical demands of the SSG more similar to the official games.