ABSTRACT

Characterizing soccer skill performance has previously incorporated a variety of methodologies assessing cognitive, perceptual and motor skills (Ali, 2011). As fatigue increases throughout the course of a game, significant reductions in match performance occurs, including distances covered and high-intensity intervals (Mohr et al., 2003). Similarly in adolescent soccer players, the number of sprints decline towards the end of a game (Buchheit et al., 2010). Therefore, as many goals are scored towards the end of a game and result from short-passing (Rampinini et al., 2008), a player's ability to execute the short-pass in a game-like environment is imperative to team performance. Previous research has shown adolescent soccer players have a reduced short-passing ability following the second half of a match compared to the first as a result of match-related fatigue and highintensity running (Rampininiet al., 2008). With many representative soccer teams contesting tournaments that consist of many games over a number of consecutive days, managing match-related fatigue is critical to tournament performance.