In-Season Match Demands of Young Male Soccer Players: A Comparison by Playing Position, Match Location, and Match Outcome (Experimental Research)

İngilizce (OpenAlex)

Objective: This study examined whether physical match performance in young male soccer players varied by playing position, match location, and match outcome. Material and Methods: Twenty players (age: 18.1±0.75 years) were monitored across 21 official matches. The match running performance was obtained from three playing positions: defenders (n=9), midfielders (n=8), and forwards (n=3). Only players who played ≥75 minutes per match were included in the work. Data collected included total distance, high-speed running (19.8-25.1 km·h-1), sprinting (≥25.1 km·h-1), high-intensity actions (≥19.8 km·h-1), accelerations (>3 m/s²), and decelerations (<-3 m/s²), using 10 Hz Polar Team Pro GPS units. One-way non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis tests assessed position (defender, midfielder, forward), match location (home, away), and outcome (win, draw, loss). When the omnibus Kruskal-Wallis test was significant, Dwass-Steel-CritchlowFligner post hoc pairwise comparisons were performed to control the Type I error rate. Results: According to the analyses, significant positional differences were observed across all variables (all p≤0.002; ε²=0.087-0.325). Match location did not yield significant effects on any external-load metric (all p>0.05). By match outcome, only high-intensity decelerations differed (χ²=9.46, p=0.009, ε²=0.064); no differences were detected for the other metrics. Conclusion: In conclusion, positional roles influenced physical demands, with midfielders covering the most distance and forwards exhibiting greater high-intensity demands. Match outcomes, but not locations, affected workloads, with drawn matches requiring higher efforts. These findings highlight the need for position- and context-specific training strategies to optimize youth soccer performance.