Ball possession in women´s football: The game of the best teams

Abstract

Scientific knowledge on tactical performance in women’s soccer has developed mainly in recent years. For this reason, the number of publications on this topic is still low.The objectives of this work were to describe how the top-ranked teams developed possession of the ball at the FIFAWomen’sWorld Cup France 2019 and to understand the tactical differences in the start, development and result of possession of the ball between these teams.To achieve these objectives, 1,148 ball possessions carried out by the semifinalist teams in the final phase of the FIFAWomen’sWorld Cup France 2019 were analyzed using the observational methodology.The results of this study made it possible to test the existence of differences between the selections analyzed for the criteria: match status (p