Football (soccer)

In sport, the term stress is most often understood as distress, a negative reaction. But also, a positive stress, eustress, exists. It prepares the body for explosive activity; it causes alertness and physiological arousal, maintaining focus, motivation, enthusiasm, and conserve high physical energy. In other words, it prepares the athlete's organism for optimum performance. Soccer players inescapably live under stress during the sportive career, and many real-life (aspects of) soccer situations operate in the ongoing performance. So, this study's main objective was to elaborate the List of Stressors in Professional Indoor and Field Soccer, a self-report instrument designed to measure the impact of 77 soccer situations upon the sport performance. The participants of the study were 138 indoor and field soccer players from the Brazilian Premier League. Each situation was evaluated on a 7-point scale, ranging from the most negative (-3) to the most positive (+3). Firstly, data were analysed according to the players' perception of the items: distress or eustress and its intensity. After that, situations perceived as plus -1 and +1 were compared by time in which they were experienced and distributed among five categories: Expectations about the performance, Personal Factors, Competition Aspects, Training Demands, and Relationship with Significant People. Narratives of athletes' experiences were also used to discuss the results. An Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling using Bi-factorial (BI-ESEM) was employed to assess the factor structure. Initially, 49 situations were perceived as distress and 28 as eustress. Using the criteria established a priori, the distribution among the categories remaining 32 situations. Differences in perception between less and more experienced players were found in 11 situations. The results revealed that Brazilian professional soccer players in this study experience various stressful situations. These events are important representations of environmental demands and could predict the performance as they are perceived as eustress or distress. Some of these stressful situations are in-sport and others outside the sports system or environment. Coach pressure to win and conflicts with teammates are examples of stressors in-sport, family problems and disputes with press or fans are examples of stressors external to the team, also called peripheral opponents and showed the relative social influence of significant others in soccer performance. We can conclude that the knowledge of the direction of a given stress situation has important practical implications in preparing athletes and helping them face the performance stressors that are part of soccer daily life.

Fatigue is a predisposing risk factor for injury commonly investigated in elite football populations. Little evidence advocates the most beneficial recovery strategies including contemporary cooling applications. The aim of the study was to examine immediate effects of the Game Ready® on physiological and biomechanical measures in a population of elite male academy footballers, following a fatiguing training session mid-competitive
season. Twenty, elite male footballers took part (180.2 ± 8.7cm, 75.0 ± 11.4kg, 18 ± 0.5years). Following a normal fatiguing training session, players were randomly assigned to receive either cryotherapy (Game Ready®) (20-minutes at medium compression (5–55 mm Hg)) or passive recovery (PAS). Data was collected at matchday+
1, immediately post-training and immediately post-intervention. Performance measures included countermovement jump (CMJ), isometric adductor strength (IAS), hamstring flexibility (HF), and skin surface temperature (Tsk). Significant main effects for group for CMJ data following exposure to cooling were displayed (p = < 0.05). Individual group analysis displayed a significant reduction in CMJ performance in the group
exposed to cryotherapy (p = < 0.05) immediately post, but not for PAS. No main effects were identified for cryotherapy or PAS group for IAS or HF (p = > 0.05). Tsk reduced significantly (p = < 0.05) in the cryotherapy group, meeting therapeutic Tsk range. Reductions in performance immediately following exposure to pneumatic cryo-compressive devices may negate the justification of this recovery strategy if neuromuscular mechanisms
are required in immediate short term. Application of such recovery strategies however are dependent on the type of recovery demand and should be adapted individually to suit the needs of the athlete to optimise
readiness to train/play.

· RESUMEN · El presente informe emerge como resultado de una experiencia de investigación histórico-arqueológica lle-vada a cabo por el colectivo de trabajo de la Cooperativa Arqueoterra, en el marco de una gestión cultural co-munitaria de patrimonialización y memoria coordinada por el Departamento de Cultura y el Museo Granate del Club Atlético Lanús. En el siguiente escrito se detallan las actividades, los resultados y las reflexiones producto de múltiples jornadas arqueológicas realizadas en la campaña de patrimonialización comunitaria de los vestigios del primer estadio del Club Atlético Lanús que funcionó entre 1915 y 1932, en el actual mu-nicipio de Lanús en la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina. La labor con les vecines e integrantes del Club se orientó a problematizar la producción de conocimiento arqueológico, tensionando su rol como disciplina en la afirmación de una relación con el pasado a partir de redes y grupos comunitarios. The present report emerges from an archaeological and historical experience carried out by the Arqueoterra Cooperative's research team, in the context of a community management of heritage and memory coordinated by the Department of Culture and the Granate Museum of the Club Atlético Lanús. The following document details the activities, results and reflections resulting from the archaeological work accomplished in the community patrimonialization campaign of the vestiges of the first stadium of the Club Atlético Lanús that operated between 1915 and 1932, in the current municipality of Lanús in the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Working with neighbours as well as with members of the Club as part of a local community network oriented the production of archaeological knowledge by questioning the role and place of the discipline and the established relationship with the past.