The Relationship Between Individually Assessed High-Intensity Accelerations, High-Intensity Decelerations, Sprints, and Technical Performances During Soccer Matches: A Full Season Analysis

Abstract

Purpose: This longitudinal study analyzed the relationship between players’ physical (sprint distances, number of high-intensity accelerations and decelerations assessed with individual and relative thresholds) and technical (retrieved from SofaScore platform) performances during competition. Methods: Twenty elite players were monitored across a full season. Physical performances were monitored with GNSS devices, retrieving time (s), velocity (km.h−1) and distance (m). Sprint distances were calculated as > 80% of the match peak speed registered across the season. High-intensity accelerations and decelerations were calculated as >75% of the peak values registered across the season. Pearson (r) correlations (with 95% confidence intervals) were calculated to assess the relationship among different physical performance variables and between the physical and technical performance variables. Results: Sprint distances correlated with the number of ball touches (r = −0.36 [−0.49, −0.23], p