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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Sports Coaching: Performance and Development
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2024.1462932

Duration, Score, and Timing: Factors Influencing the Success of Offensive Transitions in Top, Marginal, and Emerging Football Leagues

Provisionally accepted
Pedro Eusebio Pedro Eusebio 1*Pablo Prieto-González Pablo Prieto-González 2Rui Marcelino Rui Marcelino 1,3
  • 1 University of Maia, Maia, Portugal
  • 2 Prince Sultan University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
  • 3 Portugal Football School, Portuguese Football Federation, Oeiras, Portugal

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective: The study aimed to increase our understanding of offensive transitions in football, focusing on the time spent executing them and how it is influenced by the period in which they occur and the instant score. The objective is to understand its temporal variables and how they influence the unfolding of the scoreline during a match. Methodology: This study analyzes 1649 goals resulting from offensive transitions in 1151 games across three leagues categories: Top, Marginal, and Emerging leagues. Multinomial logistic regression was performed to understand associations and predictors between the variables: "duration of a transition", "Time of offensive transition occur" and the "score at the moment". Results: The research reveals that, across all league categories, the last 15 minutes of the first and second halves, have the highest frequency of successful offensive transitions, particularly on the last 15 minutes of matches. In Top leagues, 69% of offensive transitions last for 9 seconds or more, with slower transitions more prevalent towards the end of games. In Marginal leagues, 41% of successful transitions took 13 seconds or longer, while in Emerging leagues, 53% of successful offensive transitions occurred when the game was not in a 0-0 state. The results show associations between all variables in Top Leagues. No associations were found in Marginal leagues. Associations between duration of the transition and the time of the game they occur were found on Emerging Leagues. Conclusion: These findings underscore the importance of tailored strategic plans for offensive transitions, to optimize scoring opportunities and performances.

    Keywords: performance analysis, Counterattacks, Offensive transition, Positive outcome, time, Soccer, Game moments

    Received: 10 Jul 2024; Accepted: 18 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Eusebio, Prieto-González and Marcelino. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Pedro Eusebio, University of Maia, Maia, Portugal

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.