The quality of the defender's decision-making impacts the attacker's technical performance in soccer 1 vs. 1 situation

Decision-making (DM) is paramount to the development of sports performance. A possibility of using DM in a soccer training context is to stablish and manipulate the quality of opposition. The aim of this study was to investigate whether differences in the defender's DM quality affect the attacker's technical performance during 1 vs. 1 situation. The sample comprised 92 Brazilian soccer players from the Under-13 and Under-15 categories. They were assessed with the TacticUP ® test and were organized according to the results in offensive decision-making (ODM) and defensive decision-making (DDM). The small-sided and conditioned games were manipulated into four qualities of opponents: I) high-quality ODM vs. high-quality DDM, II) high-quality ODM vs. low-quality DDM, III) low-quality ODM vs. high-quality DDM, and IV) low-quality ODM vs. low-quality DDM. The results indicated that players with a high-quality ODM perform better technically in shots and dribbles when facing players with a low-quality DDM. Additionally, the high-quality ODM players had more ball contacts and ball possession time when facing high-quality DDM players, indicating more difficulty overcoming those opponents. It is concluded that defensive players with higher DM indexes successfully keep attackers far from their goalposts. In comparison, defensive players with lower DM indexes are more easily overcome and have more shots toward their goalposts.