Mestrado Internacional em Análise da Performance DesportivaThis study aimed to describe soccer players' different locomotor patterns according to match status and scoreline, considering various time windows that precede and follow the goal momentum (2', 4' and 6’-time windows). Twenty-five male elite outfield soccer players from the same team competing in the Portuguese third division volunteered to participate in the study. The players' external load (i.e., total distance covered, accelerations, decelerations, playerload, walking, jogging, running, high-speed running and sprinting) was analyzed using global positioning measurement units (GPS). A Bayesian ANOVA was used to quantify the predictive influence of match status and scoreline on the external load variables. The prior model probabilities were equal (0.5), and all data were analyzed with JASP for MacOS (Version 0.11.1). Main results allowed to identify different locomotor patterns for distance covered. For example, in the 2´-time window there were higher values of distance covered previously to a goal for the winning team. In the same line, the running distance changed according to the situational variables. In particular, in the 4´-time window, there were greater values of running distance covered both previous and following a goal for the winning team. Also, the high-speed running performance was higher previous than following a goal. Besides, the decelerations varied accordingly to the different game contexts. In the 6´-time window there were higher values of accelerations previously to a goal for the losing team. Overall, no interactions were found between the match status and scoreline with sprinting performance (i.e. Bayes factor < 1, suggesting no evidence). Thus, these results may raise the concern about the manipulation of the task constraints (i.e. situational variables) during practice by coaching staff for better preparation of the players for a crucial moment such as a goal
