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\begin{document}

\title{ANALYSIS OF GOAL SCORING PATTERNS IN SPANISH WOMEN NATIONAL LEAGUE}



\author[1]{Elba Díaz-Serradilla}%
\author[1]{Alberto Valiente}%
\author[1]{José Antonio Rodríguez-Marroyo}%
\author[1]{José Gerardo Villa Vicente}%
\author[1]{Alejandro Rodríguez-Fernández}%
\affil[1]{Affiliation not available}%


\vspace{-1em}



  
  \date{June 14, 2024}


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\selectlanguage{english}
\begin{abstract}
The aim of the study was to analyze the goals scored pattern in elite
female soccer players. All goals (330) scored in the first half of the
Spanish female national league (Iberdrola League) were analyzed using
the Nacsport Scout Plus 6.0 New Assistant for Coach Sport SL software.
The frequency, place and starting situation, position goal action, type
and style of play, type of set play and action prior to goal score with
a combination of space of the goal and scoring zones were analyzed. The
periods with the greatest amount of goals were the last one of each half
(18.2\% and 26.1\% respectively), and the teams that scored the first
goal won 71\% of matches. Open play, positional and first touch are the
predominant actions prior to achieving a goal in elite female soccer
players. \selectlanguage{english}It is also important to pay attention to the high number of
steals in the center zone of the own side while designing defensive
strategies. The relationship between the space of the goal and scoring
zones shown that the majority of the close shoots enter throw the low
part of the goal. These findings could be used for coaches to propose
defensive strategies in female soccer players.%
\end{abstract}%



\sloppy


\textbf{Introduction}

Since 1990, when women's football became Olympic sports it has grown
incredibly fast all around the world, especially in the last few years.
FIFA estimates that 13.4 million women play football, of which 76\% do
so in a structured way (Krustrup et~al., 2005). This growth has allowed
to provide women's football a professional structure and to propose
tools and mobilize resources for its development (Maneiro et~al., 2020)
increasing the number of studies that analyze women's football.

As an intermittent and acyclic sport, it depends on different
intercorrelated skills: technique, fitness, psychological factors, and
tactics (Armatas, 2006). Previous studies had shown that elite woman
football players covered \selectlanguage{english}10.3 km and \selectlanguage{english}1.3 km at \selectlanguage{english}high-intensity running
\selectlanguage{english}performed 125 times with a 2.3 s of average duration (Krustrup et~al.,
2005). These demands are lower according to level of players showing
that elite players covered \textasciitilde{}100
m\selectlanguage{ngerman}·min\textsuperscript{-1} (Vescovi \& Favero, 2014) in front of
\textasciitilde{}80 m·min\textsuperscript{-1} in sub-elite female
players (Strauss et~al., 2019). In addition, match demands are
significantly different between gender since women covered less total
distance and distance at high intensity than men (Bradley et~al., 2014).
However, performance is not only conditioned by physical aspects since
scoring goals is the ultimate determinant of successful soccer team
performance (Kubayi, 2020). If the physical demands are different
between male and women players (Bradley et~al., 2014), and if male
soccer players are faster (\textasciitilde{}10\%) than women's
(Ingebrigtsen et~al., 2014; Vescovi, 2012) it is to be expected that
there will be differences in the way of scoring goals.

In male football players, most of the goals were scored: in positional
attacks (75.9\%) (González-Ródenas et~al., 2019), in the second half
(63\%) (Kubayi, 2020), beginning from the attacking half (56.6\%), with
less than four passes (61.8\%) (Armatas \& Mitrotasios, 2013) and
preceded by a straight sprinting (61\%) \selectlanguage{english}whereas most powerful actions
of the scoring player (81\%) were conducted without the ball (Faude
et~al., 2012a). However, to our knowledge there are no studies that
analyze goal scoring in women soccer player, \selectlanguage{english}and there is a need to
analyze how and when goals are scored because it is important for
coaches to be cognizant of greater effectiveness actions during the
offensive phase, recognizing deficiencies within the current game
models, as well as making a defensive approach based on the strengths of
the teams in the competition. On the other hand, coaching staff could
modify training tasks, generating shooting situations from less common
areas and training shooting variability looking for less frequent goal
spaces.

This has led to an increase in the interest of game analysis science,
both qualitatively and quantitatively (Maneiro et~al., 2020) and to
study these events, it is necessary to have an objective observation
method, such as notational analysis (\selectlanguage{polish}Š\selectlanguage{english}kegro DMilanovi\selectlanguage{polish}ć, \selectlanguage{english}2012). This
consist on the record and later observation of the relevant images,
carrying out a quality analysis (Vales, 2012) to explain performance
aspects relevant to the game. Therefore, the purpose of the present
study was to analyze the goals scored pattern in elite female soccer
players.

\textbf{Method}

Design

An observational and descriptive design was implemented to analyze the
goals scored pattern in elite women soccer players during the first half
of the 2019--2020 season. A total of 330 goals were analyzed of the
Spanish Women National League (Iberdrola League). All the teams that
participated in the league and the goals were included in the analysis.

Procedures

\selectlanguage{english}Videotapes of all goals were analyzed using the Nacsport Scout Plus 6.0
New Assistant for Coach Sport Sl software. \selectlanguage{english}For determining the
situations directly preceding the goals, the observer visualizes the
actions the number of times it is necessary by visual video analysis to
categorize the activities. The performance variables analyzed in this
study were, \selectlanguage{english}the frequency of goal scoring from open play during a
15-min interval (1--15, 16--30, 31--half time, 45--60, 61--75, 76--full
time), the place (home or away), starting situation (starters or
non-starters), position (forward, midfielder, defender or own goal) goal
action (first, two touch or individual action), type of play (open or
set play), style of play (positional or counterattack), type of set play
(corner kick, free kick, penalty kick or throw in) and action prior to
goal score (frontal long pass, lateral long pass, frontal short pass,
lateral short pass, rebound or steal). To analyzed scoring zones, the
pitch was divided in 8 zones (Figure1). The definition of the criteria
for codification the performance variables are shown in table 1.

***Table 1 next here***

\selectlanguage{english}Statistical analysis

Descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages were used to
analyze and present the data. A chi-square test and normality
distribution test were applied to examine any significant differences
between categories. A level of p \textless{} 0.05 was used to indicate
significance. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for
Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25. Experiments reported in the
manuscript were performed in accordance with the ethical standards of
the Helsinki Declaration.

\textbf{Results}

The results showed that 330 goals were scored with an average of 2.9
goals per match. Presented in Table 2 are summarized statistics of
different performance offensive variables.

***Table 2 next here***

Attending to the initiation zone of attack 48.4\% of the goals began in
the center zone and we observed difference between the right (31.3\%)
and left (20.3\%) zone of the field to the initiation goal action
(\selectlanguage{greek}χ\selectlanguage{english}\textsuperscript{2} =39.2; p\textless{}0.001). Figure 1 represents the
goal scoring zones, which are mainly scored from the center zone and
near the goal (\selectlanguage{greek}χ\selectlanguage{english}\textsuperscript{2} =332.6; p\textless{}0.001).

***Figure 1 next here***

Figure 2 illustrates the goal time distribution, it shows that most part
of the goals were scored during the second half (56.06\%), mainly in the
last 15 min period (\selectlanguage{greek}χ\selectlanguage{english}\textsuperscript{2} =25.8; p\textless{}0.001). The
first goal is critically important to match outcome, teams that scored
the first goal won 71\%, had drawn 20\% and lost 9\% of the matches
(\selectlanguage{greek}χ\selectlanguage{english}\textsuperscript{2} =70.6; p\textless{}0.000).

***Figure 2 next here***

Concerning kicking surfaces 86.3\% of the goals were scored with the
foot, 11.8\% with the head and 1.8\% with other parts of the body
(\selectlanguage{greek}χ\selectlanguage{english}\textsuperscript{2}= 670.4; p\textless{}0.001). Regarding the space of
the goal, the low part accounted 60.9\% of the goals
(\selectlanguage{greek}χ\selectlanguage{english}\textsuperscript{2}=132.6; p\textless{}0.001), the other zones
presents a normal distribution.

Most of the positional attacks began in the center of the own side
(22.8\%) and the right zone of the opponent side (26.2\%), the
counterattacks starts in the center of the opponent side (47.1\%) and
there are almost no plays starting from the left zone
(\selectlanguage{greek}χ\selectlanguage{english}\textsuperscript{2}=36.3; p\textless{}0.001).

\emph{Relationship between variables}

Analyzing the relationship between the different actions prior to goal
scoring and the different goal action we found significative differences
(\selectlanguage{greek}χ\selectlanguage{english}\textsuperscript{2}= 71.1; p\textless{}0.001). The lateral short and
long passes ended with a first touch kick (67.3\%). Frontal passes and
rebounds are finished by a two touches action (47.7\% and 22.7\%
respectively) or an individual action (41.8\% and 19.4\% respectively)
and almost all the steals end in an individual action (87.5\%).

Attending the relation between the space of the goal and the goal zones
results shown significative differences (\selectlanguage{greek}χ\selectlanguage{english}\textsuperscript{2}= 84.7;
p\textless{}0.01). From the center area (Zone 5, 2 and 6) most of the
kicks are to the low zones (69.2\%, 60.6\% and 36.7\% respectively).
There is a cross shooting tendency on lateral areas (Zones 4 and 7) and
the pattern in the outside area (Zone 8) is to kick to the upper space
of the goal (40\%) and the right down (28\%) (Table 3).

***Table 3 next here***

\textbf{Discussion}

The purpose of this study was to analyzed the goal scoring patterns in
elite female soccer players during the first half of the season 2019/20,
this is especially relevant because to our knowledge there are no
studies that examine these aspects. Goal and its characteristics are
vital for soccer, due to the few goals that are registered during the
matches and because its technical-tactical complexity. The findings show
that 2.9 goals per match are achieved in elite female soccer players,
the periods with the greatest amount of goals are the last one of each
half (18.2\% and 26.1\% respectively), that teams that scored the first
goal won 71\% of matches, and almost all the plays started in the center
(48.4\%) or right (31.3\%) part of the field.

According to Sampedro y Prieto (2012), if you play at home you have an
advantage because the 60.21\% of the matches are won by the local team.
Our results show that 60\% of the total goals are scored by the local
team, so it is logical to argue that they won more matches due to the
few goals per match that occurred in soccer. In \selectlanguage{english}2018 FIFA World Cup,
males \selectlanguage{english}scored an average of 2.6 goals per match during the tournament
(Kubayi, 2020) with a oscillation of 17.5\% in number of goals per match
in the last six tournament (Kubayi, 2020; Kubayi \& Toriola, 2019). In
the absence of studies analysing the number of goals in female soccer
during a regular season we had compared with male soccer, where an
average of 2.6 (Tenga et~al., 2010) or 2.5 (Faude et~al., 2012b) goals
per match was scored in \selectlanguage{english}Norwegian male professional league or \selectlanguage{english}first
German male national league respectively. Our results show a similar
average of goals per match (2.9) as in elite male leagues.

Analyzing the influence of the first goal in the final result we found
that the 71.0\% of the matches are won by the team who scores first,
this has also been highlighted by (Mitrotasios \& Armatas, 2012) and
(Njororai, 2005a) who found a 75.9\% and 73.5\% of victories
respectively. In Spanish elite male soccer matches the team who \selectlanguage{english}scores
the first goal win the 74.4\% of the matches, while this percentage is
reduced (62.1\%) if the team that scores the first goal is the visitor
(Sampedro \& Prieto, 2012). Previous studies have shown the advantage of
playing at home for performance in team sports (Lago-Pe\selectlanguage{ngerman}ñas et~al., 2013;
Lago-peñas \& Lago-ballesteros, 2011), however \selectlanguage{english}this home advantage
effect may be transient given that it tended to disappear as the first
half of the matches progressed (Lago-Pe\selectlanguage{ngerman}ñas et~al., 2017) reinforcing the
importance of scoring the first goal. Factors such as the public,
travel, playing environment, refereeing, tactical aspects of play,
aspects of territoriality and psychological effects (Pollard, 2006b,
2006a), have been argued as possible causes of the advantage of playing
at home in match outcome. \selectlanguage{english}Teams decreased their possession when they
were 1 goal up  \selectlanguage{english}(Lago-Ballesteros \& Lago-Pe\selectlanguage{ngerman}ñas, 2010; Lago-Peñas \&
Dellal, 2010; Lago-Peñas \& Gómez-López, 2014) suggesting they preferred
to play counter-attacking or direct play. These results stand out the
importance of the first goal in the match outcome.

Most goals are scored after open play (70\%) and 30\% after set plays.
This coincides with the results of (Wright et~al., 2017) and (J. J.
Taylor et~al., 2005) who showed that about 30-40\% of all goals have
been scored on set plays. Our findings provide further evidence of the
importance of effectiveness in the execution of set plays because they
have an important role in the final outcome of the game. Attending the
style of play, 63\% of the open play goals occurred after a positional
attack and 37\% after a counterattack, this is like the 60\% observed by
(Armatas \& Mitrotasios, 2013). Some authors have suggested that
counterattacks are more effective than positional play (Armatas, 2006).
(Kubayi \& Toriola, 2019) has registered the type of set plays during
the 2018 FIFA World Cup, they found that the 31.8\% of the goals are
originated by a corner kick, 30.3\% by free kicks and 34.9\% from
penalties. The present study observed similar results: 26\% corner kick,
29\% free kick and 34\% penalties. This release the importance of
training penalties and analyzing kicks patterns from the opponents for
the team success in a season.

The majority of soccer goals are achieved in the second half, although
without significant differences from the first half. Specifically if we
divide the total game time into periods of 15 min, the 25.2\% of the
goals in the male World Cups between 1998 and 2014 (Kubayi \& Toriola,
2019; Njororai, 2005b) and 26.6\% in female World Cups of 1995 and 1999
(Armatas et~al., 2007) are scored in the last 15 minutes period of the
second half. This trend is in accordance with our results, where the
26.1\% of goals in elite female soccer players are scored at this time.
This pattern has been modified in the last world cup, since the 15 min
period of the first half and not of the second half, was the one that
presented the highest (29\%) number of goals (Kubayi, 2020). It could be
explained by an increase in fatigue (in the second half players covered
a shorter total distance and distance at high intensity) (Di Salvo
et~al., 2007, 2009; Strauss et~al., 2019) which can cause a lost of
players' technical effectiveness and therefore increasing the mistakes
during the last periods of each half, especially in the second one.

Regarding the initiation zone of attack many of the plays starts in the
center zone as well as in male soccer (Armatas \& Mitrotasios, 2013) but
women uses less the left side, and this could be argued as there are
much fewer left-handed players than in male soccer (Mentiplay et~al.,
2019). According to (De Andrade et~al., 2015), more than a half of the
actions prior to goal scoring in elite male soccer players come from
lateral zones (52.7\%) and the rest of actions are mainly frontal passes
(30.6\%), the results of our study show a 52\% of goals after a lateral
assistance and 31\% from frontal actions, so this evidence that there
aren´t differences between women and male. We also found that a 15\% of
the goals come after a rebound, this could mean that women players
aren´t enough overwhelming with the clearance.

In relation to goal action 23\% occurred in an individual action,
results in accordance with (Armatas, 2006), although in other studies
who compared women and male soccer matches describes that women made
fewer individual actions than men (P. Taylor et~al., 2010). This could
be associated with a disagreement in the definition of the action.
Analyzing the goal scoring zones the results supports previous findings,
more of the goals are scored from center zones, especially the penalty
area (37.3\%) (Armatas \& Mitrotasios, 2013; Wright et~al., 2017) but it
was expected that women have less effectiveness kicking from the frontal
area than men as a consequence of the lower muscle strength in women (P.
Taylor et~al., 2010). In our study the results differ, both have the
same percentage of goals from outside zones which is supported by other
investigations such us (Gomez, M. , Alvaro, J. , Barriopedro, 2009).
With relation to the space of the goal we found a 60.9\% in the low
zone, the current value is similar to that observed by (De Andrade
et~al., 2015)

Gonzalez-Rodenas et~al. (2017) describes the relation between a
successful counterattack and its initiation zone, they found that most
of them started in the opposite central side of the field. The present
study also shows this relation, a 47.1\% of the counterattacks starts in
the adversary's central zone. This could be explained because there is
less distance to the goal and less adversaries to overcome, highlighting
the importance of planning defensive pressure to steal the ball in the
middle zones to be more effective (Sanjurjo et~al., 2015).

Regarding the relation between the actions prior to goal scoring and the
goal action we have described that lateral actions ended with a first
touch kick. Attending the preponderance of right foot players and the
prior use of the right side of the field, previously described, the
first touch kick towards the left side of the goal is the most natural
shoot (Nagasawa et~al., 2011). \selectlanguage{english}Straight sprinting (61\%) is the most
dominant action when scoring goals, and 81\% of these actions \selectlanguage{english}were
conducted without the ball (i.e. one-touch actions)  \selectlanguage{english}and in 62\% there
was \selectlanguage{english}at least one powerful action of the scoring player (Faude et~al.,
2012a). Our results show that 62\% of the goal are scored by one-touch
actions in female elite soccer players. Even though male soccer players
are more explosive and perform more \selectlanguage{english}powerful action (Bradley et~al.,
2014; Cardoso de Ara\selectlanguage{ngerman}újo et~al., 2018) the goals in one-touch actions
were similar.

Analyzing kicks from center zones we observed that most of them went to
the low part of the goal, maybe because it is a more security kick
(Palao, M. López-Botella, 2017) and a possible lack of technical
variability (Hjelm, 2011). The cross-shooting tendency on lateral areas
could be explained as there are more empty spaces in the opposite side
of the goal since the goalkeeper is usually defending the nearest
goalpost (Welsh, 2014). Most of the frontal shoots are to the upper
space of the goal and the right downside, this might be due to the
physical and technical difficulties of women goalkeepers for reaching
these zones (Alcock, 2010).

\selectlanguage{english}With regards to the limitations of the study the analysis of only the
first part of the competition (half season) is the main limitation.
However, the last competitive season (2019-2020) characterized by
COVID-19 and a period of confinement has disabled the analysis of the
end of the season. In addition, previous studies that \selectlanguage{english}analyze \selectlanguage{english}the most
frequent action in goal situations in professional football analyze one
half (Faude et~al., 2012a). On the other hand, the use of visual video
inspection to assess different actions when scoring a goal \selectlanguage{english}might be
prone to subjective bias. \selectlanguage{english}Furthermore, it should be considered that the
present data were obtained during a female professional league, although
the analyzed league is a professional league, a transfer of the results
to other leagues or levels of play should be done with care.

From this study we can point three key factors that can be trained to
improve performance in women soccer: A) The predominance of goals in the
last minutes of each half, shown the critical importance of maintaining
the optimal physical fitness until the end of the match. B) The
importance of defensive transition and defensive vigilance because of
the high number of steals in the middle zone of the own side, allowing a
quick offensive transition near the goal. C) Goalkeepers must keep
special attention to low zones because most of the goals are scored in
that spaces. It also must be trained the shooting variability with the
forwards so that it is more difficult for the goalkeeper to predict the
shoot direction. These findings could be used for coaches to propose
defensive strategies during the competition and training methods to
improve match offensive performance.

\textbf{Conclusion}

 \selectlanguage{english}The results of the present study \selectlanguage{english}suggest that open play, positional
and first touch are the predominant actions prior to achieving a goal in
elite women soccer players. \selectlanguage{english}It is also important to pay attention to
the high number of steals in the center zone of the own side. There is a
high increase of goals in the last 15 minutes periods, but it should be
noticed that teams who score the first goal only lose a 10\% of the
matches. Interestingly relationship between the space of the goal and
scoring zones shown that most of the goals enter throw the low part.
Even though the results show in other studies that women soccer players
do not shoot from far zones we found almost the same number of goals
from the outside area than in male soccer.

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