ABSTRACT
The intermittent nature separates football from sports in which continuous exercise is performed at either a very high or moderate intensity during the entire event. It focuses on the physiology of intermittent activity in soccer, but many of the aspects brought up will be transferable to other football games. The amount and rate of energy provided from the aerobic and the anaerobic reactions, and further, which substrates are used during a soccer match. It is clear that physical performance in soccer is influenced by environmental conditions such as high temperatures and high altitude. Muscle glycogen appears to be the most important substrate, but glucose taken up from the blood and fat, particularly towards end of a match, are also used by the exercising muscles. The progressively increased Free Fatty Acid (FFA) concentration during a match is probably associated with a higher uptake and oxidation of FFA by the exercising muscles and also with a lowered uptake of glucose.
