Spatiotemporal coordination behaviors in futsal (indoor football) are guided by informational game constraints

This report investigated the behavioral dynamics of teams in futsal game practice when the goalkeeper of the attacking team is substituted for an extra outfield player. To this end, the lateral and longitudinal displacements of the ball and both teams, as well as their kinematics expressed in angles and radial distances from the goal center, were obtained and subjected to relative phase analysis. The results demonstrated (a) stronger phase relations with the ball for the defending team than the attacking team for both coordinate systems, (b) phase relations between each team and ball, and, to a lesser extent, between teams themselves, produced greater stabilities in the lateral (side-to-side) direction than the longitudinal (forward-backward) direction, and (c) phase attractions were most pronounced for the defending team and ball when using angles as a measure of association, indicating ball position and goal location as key informational constraints for futsal game behavior. These findings advance understanding of self-organizing sports game dynamics with implications for sports practice.

► We investigated space-time movement patterns of futsal teams in game practice.
► Relative phase analysis displacements of the ball and both teams were performed.
► The stronger phase relations were observed with the ball for the defending team.
► The highest in-phase attractions were observed using angles to the centre of the goal.
► Position of ball and goal location are key informational constraints for futsal games.