TACTICAL ANALYSIS OF ELITE FOOTBALL TEAMS – A MIXED METHOD APROACH

Soccer is a game with a random intermittent nature, whereby critical elements of the game are sometimes determined by chance. Research on match analysis in this sport has been mainly focused on the description of physical, physiological and technical game actions as an attempt to quantify the activity of players. Less work has been carried out on the match activities of soccer players, particularly the quantification of fundamental movement patterns of players during offensive sequences of play (for review see Sarmento et al. (2014)). Objectives: This study aimed to detect and analyse regular patterns of play in the counterattack of football teams, through the combination of the sequential analysis technique and interviews to first League Portuguese coaches.