Analysis of patterns of offensive of the Spanish National Soccer Team in the 2014 FIFA® World Cup

Abstract

This paper aims to identify the patterns of offensive transition (defense-attack) of the Spain National Soccer Team during the 2010 FIFA® World Cup through the analysis of frequency of the forms of ball acquisition/recovery (FAR) and the areas of the field where these actions took place. The sample comprises 895 offensive sequences performed during the 7 matches of the Spain National Team in the tournament. For data collection, it was performed observations of televised matches. Data were registered and quantified by Excel spreadsheets. Descriptive analysis (frequency and percentage) was performed for the variables "area" and "FAR". Chi-squared test (χ2) was used to compare case distribution among the values of the analyzed variables with significance level of p < 0.05. It was calculated the standardized residuals (e) of "FAR" according to the area of the field and also of the areas of the field according to "FAR". For statistical procedures, IBM SPSS v.20 was used. The variables "interception" and "constant match fragments" showed significant higher frequency than the other FAR in all areas of the field, whereas "interception" presented higher frequency value in defensive (e = 2.73), pre-defensive (e = 5.51) and pre-offensive (e = 2.41) areas, and the variable "tackle" had significant higher frequency in the defensive area (e = 4.85). It is concluded that there were higher frequency of constant match fragments in the defensive area, interceptions in the pre-defensive and pre-offensive areas and, once more, of constant match fragments in the offensive area, what suggests that the Spain National Team shows predisposition to avoid 1v1 challenges in the defensive area.