Medium-sided games in soccer: physical and heart rate demands throughout successive working periods

This research compared the physical and heart rate demands of three medium-sided games with the same number of players per team (six) but different playing areas throughout four successive working periods. The two games played in relatively larger areas (large and medium) were performed with regular goals and goalkeepers, so the most reduced game (short) was performed without goals. Nine professional soccer players participated in this study. Meaningful differences were found (p