Match analysis in Futsal: the influence of goalkeeper throwing and the type of attack on attacking outcomes in different age groups

Abstract

Futsal is an indoor 5-a-side game classified as Team Sport. The Notational Analysis has been widely applied to understand the match performance of futsal adult athletes, although few have been known about youth competitions. This methodology assumed the influence of the origin of goals and the goalkeeper's action on the performance. However, evidence on how these variables impact youth athletes' performance in different age groups is scarce. Thus, the present study has two objectives: a) to analyze the frequency of goals originated from organized attack, counter-attack and set pieces in four age groups (under-11, under-13, under-15, and under-17); b) to investigate the association between the type of goalkeeper throwing actions (short or long) and in the result of action (maintaining the ball possession, getting a throw-in, getting faults, and shooting on goal). Sixty schoollevel futsal matches (fifteen of each age) were filmed and analyzed by experts. The chi-squares tests of proportion and association were used. The significance level was set at 5%. The standardized adjusted residuals were analyzed when significant differences were observed. The results showed a high incidence of goals originated from a counter-attack in younger ages (U-11 and U-13) and an increased incidence of goals originated from organized attacks in older ages (U-17). There is often an offensive numerical superiority in counter-attack situations, which facilitates the obtention of goal-scoring opportunities in younger ages because of the players' lower level of tactical knowledge.On the other hand, older teams tend to reduce counter-attack goal-scoring opportunities for the opposing teams, which requires older players to search for organized attack goal-scoring alternatives. Besides, the short goalkeeper throwings actions indicated a higher frequency of the "keep possession of the ball" outcome, while the long goalkeeper throwings actions presented a higher frequency of the "loss of ball possession". A possible explanation for the results is the low exigence of technical skills the short throwings for both the goalkeeper and the outfield players. In conclusion, in Futsal, different age groups obtain goals in different ways. Furthermore, teams' offensive outcomes are influenced by the type of goalkeeper throwing actions. These findings may help the coaches improve the training process in youth futsal.

Headnote

Abstract:

Futsal is an indoor 5-a-side game classified as Team Sport. The Notational Analysis has been widely applied to understand the match performance of futsal adult athletes, although few have been known about youth competitions. This methodology assumed the influence of the origin of goals and the goalkeeper's action on the performance. However, evidence on how these variables impact youth athletes' performance in different age groups is scarce. Thus, the present study has two objectives: a) to analyze the frequency of goals originated from organized attack, counter-attack and set pieces in four age groups (under-11, under-13, under-15, and under-17); b) to investigate the association between the type of goalkeeper throwing actions (short or long) and in the result of action (maintaining the ball possession, getting a throw-in, getting faults, and shooting on goal). Sixty school-level futsal matches (fifteen of each age) were filmed and analyzed by experts. The chi-squares tests of proportion and association were used. The significance level was set at 5%. The standardized adjusted residuals were analyzed when significant differences were observed. The results showed a high incidence of goals originated from a counter-attack in younger ages (U-11 and U-13) and an increased incidence of goals originated from organized attacks in older ages (U-17). There is often an offensive numerical superiority in counter-attack situations, which facilitates the obtention of goal-scoring opportunities in younger ages because of the players' lower level of tactical knowledge.On the other hand, older teams tend to reduce counter-attack goal-scoring opportunities for the opposing teams, which requires older players to search for organized attack goal-scoring alternatives. Besides, the short goalkeeper throwings actions indicated a higher frequency of the "keep possession of the ball" outcome, while the long goalkeeper throwings actions presented a higher frequency of the "loss of ball possession". A possible explanation for the results is the low exigence of technical skills the short throwings for both the goalkeeper and the outfield players. In conclusion, in Futsal, different age groups obtain goals in different ways. Furthermore, teams' offensive outcomes are influenced by the type of goalkeeper throwing actions. These findings may help the coaches improve the training process in youth futsal.

Key Words: indoor soccer, notational analysis, performance, technical action, younger players

Introduction

Futsal is a 5-a-side team sport in which the dynamic and complex context requires the players to be fast and precise in their actions to a successful performance (Castagna et al., 2009; Iedynak, Galamandjuk, et al., 2019; Iedynak, Marzec, et al., 2019). An improvement of these actions is possible by identifying patterns in the game (Sarmento et al., 2014), which are obtained through match analysis. Therefore, match analysis is a relevant resource used by coaches to improve players' and teams' performances (Agras et al., 2016; Oliveira et al., 2016). Previous studies on match analysis resorted on the notational analysis to gather information regarding the teams' performance (Agras et al., 2016) by analyzing, for example, the offensive actions (Sarmento et al., 2015) and the type of attack (Méndez, Gonçalves, et al., 2019) employed by the teams. These variables were often analyzed to understand which behaviors could be considered as successful performance indicators of adult futsal teams (Santos et al., 2020). For example, a high incidence of finalizations originated of positional attacks has been verified on adult futsal teams (Méndez et al., 2019; Sarmento et al., 2015). However, these studies were focused on adult futsal, in which the players show a technical and tactical high-level performance. That said, the abovementioned players' behaviors and performance indicators might not be representative of the youth level. This indicates the need to further investigation in youth competitions - how the types of attack relate to goals in different age groups? The information gathered through notational analysis can increase the coaches' knowledge about the game and improve players' and teams' performances.

The literature suggests differences in players' performance from different age groups (for example, U17 and U-11) because of the time of deliberate practice and maturational aspects (Malina et al., 2005; Seabra et al., 2001). At this point, older players (U-17) showed a higher level of strength (Nikolaidis et al., 2019) and higher motor (Naser & Ali, 2016), and tactical (Müller et al., 2016) performances. Based on that, younger players (U-11) might be expected to show difficulties in building attacks, which requires collective synchronization and good perceptual-cognitive skills, increasing the possibility of scoring from set-pieces and counter-attacks, which frequently occur under numerical superiority conditions. On the other hand, it is suggested that older groups (U-17) would tend to prefer using positional attacks. However, no study has investigated the patterns of goal-scoring in different age groups in Futsal. The goal-scoring opportunities were extensively investigated concerning the goalkeeper's actions in futsal matches, mainly when this player acts as an outside player to create a momentary numerical superiority for the team in possession (Méndez-Domínguez et al., 2019; Méndez, Gómez, et al., 2019). However, other actions performed by the goalkeepers (scarcely investigated in the literature) might impact the offensive outcome (Santana & García, 2007; Souza, 2010). For example, goalkeepers can quickly achieve goal-scoring opportunities by adopting a long throwing targeting the pivot. These actions, however, require good controlling skills from the players to keep the ball under control after such a long throwing and precision from the goalkeeper to hit the target. On the other hand, short throwings are easily executable but require the teams to develop more complex attacking patterns to allow the progression of the ball until the opposite side. In this way, investigating the impact of the goalkeeper's throwing on offensive actions in different age groups will help coaches better understand the game dynamics and enhance players' and teams' performances. Based on the expected differences in maturation and experience between players from different age groups, it is suggested that long goalkeeper throwings will increase the loss of ball possession in younger groups. In comparison, older groups (U-17) will benefit from the higher skills to adopt this strategy and keep the ball possession more frequently. These hypotheses were not previously tested in the literature.

Based on this rationale, the aims of the study are twofold: a) to analyze the frequency of goals obtained through the organized attack, counter-attack, and set pieces in four futsal age groups (U-11, U-13, U-15, and U17); and b) to analyze the association between the type of goalkeeper throwing (short or long) and the outcome of the offensive process (keeping the ball possession, conquering a kick-in or a set-piece, and shooting on goal) on the four abovementioned age groups.

Material & methods

Sixty futsal matches from U-11 (n=15), U-13 (n=15), U-15 (n=15), and U-17 (n=15), played by fifty scholarly teams, composed the sample of the current study. These matches occurred during the Campeonato Metropolitano Escolar, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, during 2018 and 2019. The local ethics committee approved all the procedures.

Procedure This is an observational study. According to the specific taxonomy of this area, the study is classified as nomothetic, follow-up, and multidimensional (Anguera et al., 2011). The matches were recorded by two video cameras (Alloyseed Digital Video Camera, model DV HD 1080P) and a cellphone (Samsung S8, Android system, 4290x2800 pixel resolution to video, 4K). The software Windows Media Player (12 version) was used for the observational procedures, and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets were explicitly built for organizing the data. Trained observers were responsible for analyzing the video scenes.

Measure Three groups of variables were defined for the observational study: the type of attack in which the goals were scored (three levels) (used for the study aim #1), the type of goalkeeper throwing (two levels - table 1), and the offensive outcome (five levels - table 2) (both used for the study aim #2).

Reliability of the data

To assess the reliability of the data, within and between-observer reliability procedures were conducted. Two experienced researchers conducted these procedures. The test-retest within a 21-days interval was adopted (Robinson et al., 2007). As suggested by the literature, six matches (10% of the whole sample) were reanalyzed (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2007). The Cohen's Kappa coefficient was used to check the agreement and the observed values were 0.874 (0.1 - within-observer agreement) and 0.857 (0.1 - between-observers agreement), classified as "perfect" (Landis & Koch, 1977).

Statistical analysis

Regarding the study's first aim (to analyze the frequency of goals obtained from organized attack, counter-attack, and set-pieces in different age groups), the proportions chi-square test was used. The association chi-square test was used for the second aim (to analyze the association between the type of goalkeeper throwing - short or long - and the offensive outcome). In this, the standardized adjusted residuals (z score) were analyzed when significant associations were observed. As the chi-square association tests considered tables larger than the 2x2, the type I error was controlled by adjusting the alfa to 0.005 and the z-value to 2.9 (MacDonald & Gardner, 2000). The level o significance in the proportions chi-square was set at 0.05. The statistical software SPSS (Version 19.0 for Windows, SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) was used for all analyses.

Results

Table 3 shows the frequency of goals scored by all offensive situations in the four age groups. In all age groups, the distribution of the goals between the offensive actions was distant from the expected values (p<0.05 for all - see table 1 for the exact p-values). The standardized adjusted residuals indicated that counterattack goals were more frequent than expected in all categories (z>1.96 in all). In contrast, the frequency of goals obtained from the organized attack was lower than expected in the U-11, U-13, and U-15 age groups. On the other hand, U-17 matches were characterized by a higher-than-expected frequency of goals obtained through an organized attack.

Table 4 shows the frequency of the goalkeeper throwing (short or long) actions on the offensive outcome in each age group. Again, a significant association between the dependent variables was observed in all age groups (p<0.005 - adjusted). Furthermore, The standardized adjusted residuals indicated that the "Keep possession of the ball" were more frequent than expected in short goalkeeper throwing for all categories (z>2.9). Besides, the loss of ball possession and the keeping possession of the ball through earning a foul, winning a corner, or kick-in were more frequent than expected in long goalkeeper throwing for all categories.

Discussion

The current study employed notational analysis techniques to investigate whether the type of attack in which goals were scored differs between age groups in youth futsal. Also, we investigated the associations between the type of goalkeeper throwing and the offensive outcome in the same age groups. The results indicated a high frequency of counter-attacks in all age groups and a lower-than-expected frequency of organized attack goals in the U-11, U-13, and U-15 groups. Nevertheless, a higher-than-expected frequency of goals obtained from the organized attack was observed in the U-17 group. Both results are in line with the original hypothesis. Besides, a significant association was noticed between the goalkeeper throwing actions on the offensive outcome in all age groups. In the short goalkeeper, throwings actions indicated a higher-than-expected frequency of the "keep possession of the ball" outcome. In contrast, the long goalkeeper throwings actions presented a higher frequency of the "loss of ball possession". In both cases, the results are also following the original hypothesis.

According to the players ' age group, the literature reports differences in the match technical-tactical actions (Müller et al., 2016; Oliveira Bueno et al., 2020). In the current study, we observed a higher incidence of counter-attack goals scored by U-11 and U-13 players, while the oldest players (U-17) scored more goals from organized attacks. A possible explanation for these results is related to the level of tactical knowledge of the players. There is often an offensive numerical superiority in counter-attack situations, which facilitates the obtention of goal-scoring opportunities. At this point, the literature showed that counter-attack actions increase the goal-scoring in futsal matches (Sarmento et al., 2015). For this reason, it might be expected, based on the players' underdeveloped game-based skills (Barnabé et al., 2016), the need to explore more facilitated tactical scenarios, such as the counter-attack, to obtain goals. On the other hand, older (and, hence, more qualified) teams tend to reduce counter-attack goal-scoring opportunities for the opposing teams (Oliveira Bueno et al., 2020), which requires older players to search for organized attack goal-scoring alternatives. In summary, goal-scoring patterns seem to be age and expertise-dependent in youth futsal.

During a futsal match, the goalkeepers' actions might influence individual and collective behavior (Windoro et al., 2020). Confirming this, we observed a significant association between the type of goalkeeper throwing and the offensive outcome. Specifically, a more frequent team's ball possession maintenance was observed in the short goalkeeper throwing. Contrary, long goalkeeper throwings lead to the loss of ball possession. Therefore, we argue that short throwings seem to be a more efficient strategy, mainly for younger groups. The main reason for keeping the ball possession after short throwings seem to be related to the low exigence of technical skills in comparison to the long throwings for both the goalkeeper (to be precise in a long throw) and the outfield players (to control the ball after a long throwing).

The current study evidences some practical applications. We suggest coaches in youth futsal can emphasize the development of defensive tactics to counter-attack situations as this seems to be the most prominent goal-scoring method in youth groups. On the other hand, coaches can also develop collective offensive strategies that enhance the possibility to score from organized attacks, mainly using short goalkeeper throwings, as this seems to be a trend when players get older and more experienced.

Future studies should account for possible limitations in the current one. For example, the information regarding the court dimensions can be used to understand the goalkeeper's role in the offensive outcomes. Also, data from the collective positional data (synchronization, centroid position, and surface area) and physical performance can be used to build a multifactorial model to interpret offensive outcomes in Futsal. At this point, future studies should broaden the variables investigated in the current research and expand the current research problem to more age groups and countries.

Conclusions

Concerning the study's first aim, we conclude that age is a factor that affects goal-scoring patterns in youth futsal. Specifically, young groups (U-11, U-13 and U-15) tend to obtain more goals by counter-attack, while old groups (U-17) tend to get goal-scoring opportunities through organized attacks. These different patterns might be associated with the differences in the age's tactical knowledge, which allow younger players to better explore counter-attack situations, in opposition to the need for organized attack observed in the older players. Besides, concerning the second aim of the study, we conclude that the type of goalkeeper throw influences the offensive actions in youth futsal matches. It was observed that the short throwings increase the frequency of keeping the ball possession, while the long throwings lead the team to lose control of the ball. These results might allow coaches to better plan the teaching-learning-training process for youth futsal teams.

Conflicts of interest - The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Sidebar

Published online: September 30, 2021

(Accepted for publication September 15, 2021)

Corresponding Author: GIBSON MOREIRA PRAÇA, E-mail: gibson [email protected]

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