Large side games and high intensity exercise in professional soccer players

Purpose: Soccer is a high intensity intermittent exercise that is characterized by high- intensity activities (Haycraft et al., 2017). The use of Global Positioning Software (GPS) technology to measure players’ training loads has become prevalent in professional soccer (Wehbe et al., 2014).The technical staff use GPS to quantify specific sport exercises and to evaluate the high intensity training load. Large Sided Games (LSG) are these sport-specific exercises carried out with a ball, on fields where each player exploits from 270 to 325 square meters (Sannicandro et al., 2021). This study aims to describe, analyse and compare the high intensity through external load deriving from LSG exercises during the 4vs4 and 5vs5 formats, with goalkeepers. Methods: 22 professional soccer players (average age:22.72 ± 3.57 years, weight:76.4 ± 8.2 kg; height:181.6 ± 5.4 cm). During the two LSG exercises, the players were monitored using GPS tool at 18.18 Hz (GPEXE SYSTEM, EXELIO srl, Udine, Italy). The external load variables detected and examined are: peak speed(km/h), peak acc(m/ s2), peak dec(m/s2), distance traveled in sprint([25.2 km/h). The LSG were carried out on a natural grass playing field. The 4vs4 ? 2 goalkeepers format were performed on a field 60 9 54 m (324 m2/player) while the 5vs5 ? 2 goalkeepers on 65 9 60 m (325 m2/player). After the warm-up, players began with LSG exercises: 4 sets of 5 min each (2 min passive recovery between each set). Results: The speed peak (p\0.05) and the sprint distance (p\0.005) are greater and significant during 5vs5. The deceleration peak is also higher in the 5vs5 while the acceleration peak is higher in the 4vs4 although not significant. Conclusions: From the analysis of the data, it emerges, how both exercises can be useful to be able to train the high intensity even if the format of the 5vs5 manages to obtain even higher speeds than the 4vs4. Instead, observing the values relating to accelerations and decelerations, it is evident that the two observed formats impose the same neuromuscular load.