Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

OPTIMAL PREPARATION FOR THE WORLD CUP IN SOCCER

1998; Elsevier BV; Volume: 17; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s0278-5919(05)70112-5

1556-228X

Jens Bangsbo,

Sport Psychology and Performance

For the World Cup in soccer, the performance level of the players not only have to be optimal at the start of the tournament for the qualification to the final rounds but also throughout the entire tournament lasting up to 6 weeks. Thus, careful planning is required both for the preparation and for the tournament period. A key question is when to bring the players together in the preparation for the World Cup. There is no unanimous answer to that question because there are many factors, of which the psychological aspects may be the most important, that should influence the decision. Traditionally the players are brought together 5 to 6 weeks before the World Cup. The winning of the Danish team in the 1992 European Championship with an unusual preparation, however, may lead coaches to consider how to optimize the preparation for the World Cup. Because of the exclusion of Yugoslavia, the Danish team was only selected 10 days before the start of the European Championship. At that time, about half of the players playing in teams outside of Denmark had holidays for 3 to 5 weeks since the season was ended for most of the European tournaments. The other half of the players were taking part in the Danish league, which was still ongoing at the time of selection. The players having played abroad trained together, whereas the remaining players continued their training in their clubs to finish the Danish league. Therefore, the team was together for only 6 days before the start of the tournament. The preparation was definitely not optimal because the players having played abroad did not have a sufficient fitness level at the start of the tournament. Nevertheless, the situation was advantageous in that the players did not become mentally exhausted, which usually happens for some players during a long-lasting tournament after a long preparation period. There are many routes to success, and each coach should decide on the strategy for his team, taking into account many factors, such as the need for tactical development, optimizing the fitness level of the players, tradition, and psychology. Independent of the planning, there are some general aspects to consider for the preparation and tournament period. The fitness training within these periods are given below, and scientific data are presented to support the conclusions. The preparation period is divided into a maintenance and a rebuilding period, with the latter having a duration of 5 weeks. A special emphasis is put on how to reduce the training load without lowering the performance level of the players. The suggested aerobic and anaerobic training regimens should mainly be performed with the ball in drills because it has several advantages. First, it ensures that the muscles used during the game are trained. Second, the players develop technical and tactical skills under conditions similar to those encountered during a match. Third, this form of training usually provides greater motivation for the players compared with training without the ball. For a detailed description of the various types of fitness training and specific drills see Fitness Training in Football— A Scientific Approach.1