Efficacy of Successful and Unsuccessful Soccer Teams Taking Part in Finals of Champions League

Key words: soccer, winners and losers, effectiveness, analysis of difference The need to optimize the training process induces trainers and theoreti-cians of team games to search for factors decisive for the all-round devel-opment of a player. A strict identification of victory and defeat factors in soccer is quite difficult, because this game is always a bit of lottery. Therefore this study has been conducted to find factors of an effective soccer game. In order to do this, technical and tactical actions were compared in 7 games of winners and losers – the finalists of the Soccer Champions League in 1997-2003. Game data were marked on observation spread-sheets; Szwarc's method of game description and registration was applied. It was proved that just shots on goal in the course of the games and an effective goalkeeper game are the factors which make a difference between the teams which win and those who fail to succeed. Estimation of quality and effectiveness of technical and tactical actions of players from winning teams and those which were defeated reveals such game elements that are decisive for victory. Successful teams appears to be better only in particular game elements, but in those which prove their technical and tactical maturity and the highest competencies in individual actions