Association between anxiety and the performance of a soccer team

Abstract

Background: Soccer is a highly complex modality, in which the player needs to develop different physical, motor, and psychological abilities. Objectives: This study aims to analyze the association between anxiety and sports performance in a professional soccer team. Methods: The sample consisted of 18 professional soccer players, with a mean age of 24.61±3.94 years, body mass of 78.01±7.06kg, and height of 178.0±6.61cm. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory was used to assess trait anxiety, and the Scout method was used to assess sports performance. Correct and wrong actions, ball possession, goals scored and conceded in each match were analyzed. Results: The results did not show significant differences between anxiety and the analyzed variables. Despite this, significant results indicate that correct actions during games are directly related to ball possession (R=.692; p=.009). Furthermore, there was a correlation between the amount of possession of the ball and the correct passes of the analyzed team (R=.804; P=.001). Conclusions: It is concluded that the study group analyzed did not show an association between trait anxiety profile and field performance.