Soccer Fitness - The Common Characteristic in the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final Four Teams

The world cup quarter final games of late have been very exciting and dramatic to the least. Soccer fitness has definitely been very noticeable from my perspective as a major reason the four remaining teams are in the semifinal games. It will also be an important part of the finals.

The ability to perform repeated sprints with minimal recovery was key in Germany's victory over Argentina. This was very evident as the game progressed in to the second half. Any time Germany attacked and lost the ball they were quick to return and defend. Unfortunately Argentina appeared to fade as the game went on. They lost the ability to attack and defend with the same intensity.

This quality for soccer fitness is invaluable. A soccer player that is able to sprint and recover quickly regardless of the position he or she plays makes a difference towards the end of the game.

The soccer fitness level of the Netherlands grew as the game against Brazil carried on. It was as though the Brazilian players were being worn down as the Netherlands were relentless on their attack. Sprint and recover, sprint and recover and sprint and recover appeared to be the motive of the Netherland attackers up front. Unfortunately for Brazil they were unable to slow the game down or turn up a notch or two as many would have expected.

In the two other quarter final games it appeared to me that Spain, Paraguay, Uruguay and Ghana were fairly level with their fitness levels.

This makes it quite obvious that soccer is a game of power and speed and should be trained that way regardless of the age or gender of the soccer player. There are several ways to get into this type of condition:

1) Soccer players may perform interval training by changing the intensity, movement and recovery for soccer fitness drills. An example would be forward sprints for 10 seconds with twenty seconds recovery for a certain number of repetitions.
2) Repeated sprints of distance of 10M-40M
3) In season 3v3, 2v3, 4v4 or 3v4 at high intensities for time or goals then a short active recovery in the form of light individual dribbling then repeat again.

By doing these three things the ability to attack and defend with out being tired improves soccer fitness over the season and creates the stamina necessary to last an entire soccer game

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