Associate Professor A.G. Polivaev¹
1Ershov Ishim Pedagogical Institute (branch), Tyumen State University, Ishim, Russia

Keywords: futsal, competitive performance, efficiency rates, player’s contribution rate, 2016 UEFA Futsal EURO

Background. Competitive performance (CP) in sports on the whole and teams sports in particular may be viewed as a specific human activity rateable by team/ individual performance efficiency rating criteria, and this is the reason for the CP analyses being given a top priority in a wide variety of sport disciplines. In the team sports this kind of analysis is necessarily supported by comprehensive mathematical/ statistical/ computerized data processing tools due to the data arrays being quite voluminous [3; 6; 7]. When the competitive performance studies apply integrated rating systems, they involve a wide range of the process parameters including competitive performance and technical/ tactical action rates plus training process, mental fitness, morphological-functional and biomedical rates [1; 4; 5; 8; 9].

Many team sports – including ice hockey, football, basketball, volleyball etc. - apply quite dependable and effective individual/ team CP rating systems that provide objective and timely data to rate and analyze the CP efficiency. Modern futsal, however, is still in need of such rating and analyzing system, and its data, in our opinion, could be highly beneficial for practical applications.

As things now stand, it is not always easy for sport specialists, coaches, players, competent spectators and mass audience to objectively rate the team/ individual performance in the futsal matches and tournaments. Even the recent 2016 UEFA Futsal EURO has left more questions than answers on many subjects, for example: Who was the best and most efficient player? What was the team performance on the whole if it made it to the quarterfinals only? Who was the best goalkeeper of the tournament? Answers to these and other questions are mostly limited by subjective opinions of a few focused specialists.

Objective of the study was to obtain and analyze the futsal players’ CP rates in the 2016 UEFA Futsal EURO as a top-ranking international event based on the player’s contribution rate (PCR) calculations. 

Methods and structure of the study. The CP data analysis was performed based on the 2016 UEFA Futsal EURO match protocols and video records. Subject to the study were 15 matches of the top three winner teams including the national teams of Kazakhstan, Russia and Spain. A special subject to the analyses were the individual technical and tactical actions of the players in attack and defence including individual playtime, shots, shots on target, goals, resultant dribbling, passes on goal, accurate/ inaccurate passes, ball tackles/ saves for goalkeeper; dispossessions/ conceded goals for goalkeeper. The analysis was performed based on the PCR (players’ contribution rate) computed by the following mathematical formula with weight ratios and factor analysis to assess importance of the CP efficiency rates [7]:

, with: КПИ – player’s contribution rate (PCR); Уд – shots (Sh); УдвСт – shots on goal (ShG); Голы – scored goals (Goals); ТП – accurate passes (AP); НП – inaccurate passes (IP); ЭО – resultant dribbling (RD); ГП – passes on goal (PG); От – tackles (Tack); Пот – dispossessions (Disp); ВрИ – individual playtime (IP).

For the goalkeeper’s competitive performance efficiency rating, the following formula will be used:

, with: Сейв – saves; ПМ – conceded goals.

Study results and discussion. For the CP efficiency rating data analysis, we applied an electronic automated protocol based on the standard MS Office Excel toolkit. Test calculation of the players’ contribution rates (PCR) showed the rates being highly variable for the players recording too short playtime (2-5 min). Having made 7-8 accurate passes, 1-2 tackles and 1 shot for goal for 2-3 minutes of the playtime, the player will score high PCR of 2.5-3 points. On the contrary, another player with the play time of 1-2 minutes may make 1 dispossession and/ or a few inaccurate passes and score a negative PCR (as was the case with players #4 and #5 of the Russian national team). Therefore, players’ efficiency rates for the minimum playtimes will be considered non-representative versus those for the players playing 25-30 minutes on the field (see Tables 1-2). These were the reasons for us to apply a playtime limit of at least 5 minutes to the PCR calculations (bolded in Tables):

Table 1. Spanish national team players’ contribution rating analysis, 2016 UEFA Futsal EURO

Table 2. Russian national team players’ contribution rating analysis, 2016 UEFA Futsal EURO

The above data gives quite a fair assessment of the individual players’ and team efficiencies. For instance, formally nominated best players of the tournament, Spanish Mario Rivillos and Miguelin, were rated first of top three teams by the PCR. A few players of the Russian national team (#10 and #15) also showed quite high PCR.

Table 3. Top three teams players’ contribution rating analysis, 2016 UEFA Futsal EURO

The study data processing by the mathematical statistics tools showed no significant differences in the PCR of the top two teams, with the total PCR of the Spanish team being higher than that of the Russian team that could be the reason for the Spanish team having advantage throughout the whole tournament including the final game. Despite most of the CP efficiency rates being statistically equal (PCR and the formal statistical data of the final game [3]), we believe that it was a fairly balanced team composition that was one of the key factors for success of the Spanish national team, and this notion is supported by the average playtime data and PCR values (Tables 1-2).

Conclusion. Preliminary analyses under the study showed the need in competitive performance data of individual players and teams at the 2016 UEFA Futsal EURO. The player’s contribution rating method that we developed and tested on the 2016 UEFA Futsal EURO records proved to be fairly objective in rating the individual and team competitive performance efficiency. The PCR calculations, among other things, helped identify the best players of the top teams and the championship, and the finding was compliant with the formal nominations [3]. Furthermore, the proposed CP efficiency rating method makes it possible to put the rating process on an objective basis, i.e. to fairly rate the player’s and team performance, make the performance benchmarking analysis and, with time, probably forecast and plan the team competitive performance.

The competitive performance data of the 2016 UEFA Futsal EURO made it possible to further adjust the RCR structure and consider the following game elements being included, in addition to the above, in the integrated CP efficiency rating criteria: blocked shots; yellow and red cards; fouls of the players; fouls on the players etc.

References

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Corresponding author: palex-77@mail.ru

Abstract
Competitive performance in different sport disciplines is subject to comprehensive analyses in modern sport science with the competitive performance rates being widely used to adjust and improve the education and training process based on the team/ individual performance ratings. Despite the fact that the modern information/ computer technology based competitive performance rating analyses are highly automated, futsal sport is still in need of an efficient system to rate the team/ individual competitive performance. Objective of the study was to obtain and analyze the competitive performance rates in the context of the individual player’s contribution rates in the 2016 UEFA Futsal EURO as a major international competition. The author offered a set of objective criteria to rate the futsal players’ performance efficiency and designed an athletic performance rating system based on the individual player’s contributions and efficiency rates.