Players' participation in team possessions of the 2014 FIFA® world cup semi-finalists

Abstract

Purpose. In soccer, teammates are required to behave in a synchronized fashion to generate an effective unity. The study aim was to compare the number of players participating in team possessions of the 4 semi-finalists of the 2014 FIFA® World Cup. Methods. The sample of this observational study comprised 2372 team possessions of the 2014 FIFA® World Cup semifinalists (Germany, Argentina, the Netherlands, and Brazil). Descriptive analysis was performed, and the Kolmogorov- Smirnov normality test was applied. The Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests served to verify the overall and specific effects of the number of players participating in team possessions. Effect sizes were reported as Pearson's r. The significance level was set at p < 0.05. The SPSS software version 22 was used for statistical procedures. Results. The tournament winners (Germany) displayed significantly higher means of the number of players per possession than the Netherlands and Brazil (U = 144.797; p < 0.001; small effect; and U = 158.501; p < 0.001; small effect, respectively), as did the runners-up, Argentina (U = 140.253; p = 0.012; negligible effect; and U = 154.226; p < 0.001; small effect, respectively). The Netherlands had a significantly higher mean number of players participating in team possessions than Brazil (U = 160.467; p = 0.014; negligible effect). Conclusions. The teams who reached the tournament final circulated the ball by using more players than those eliminated in the semi-finals. Future studies should verify the potential utilization of the number of players as an indicator of competitive success.