Whilst there are a range of studies examining the differences in match demands between levels of competition, there is an absence of the analysis these differences between teams within the same level of competition. The study used notational analysis to identify performance indicators that differentiated between sub-elite futsal teams from Brazil, Spain and Australia during regular season matches. Based on world rankings, Spanish and Brazilian futsal was deemed to be superior to Australian futsal. The Australian players spent a significantly greater time engaged in high intensity activity than the Spanish players (sprinting: 0.36% v. 0.06%, p<0.05); running: 5.89% v. 3.33%). The Brazilian team displayed the greatest possession of the ball (40.0 ± 10.4%) when compared to the Spanish (23.5 ± 2.73%) and Australian teams (30.9 ± 2.54%) (p<0.01). Additionally, the Brazilian and Spanish teams made a greater number of successful passes per minute of match-play than the Australian team (10.7 ± 1.06 v. 8.68 ± 0.81 v. 5.31 ± 0.60, respectively, p<0.01). These results generally suggest that lower high intensity activity output and superior ball possession and passing accuracy appear to be critical determinants in discriminating between successful and unsuccessful match performance. Accordingly, training to improve technical and decision making skills, specifically related to maintaining ball possession and improving passing accuracy, will likely assist lower performing teams.
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