Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 18, 2025

An Inertial Measurement Unit Based Method to Estimate Hip and Knee Joint Kinematics in Team Sport Athletes on the Field
Published on: May 26, 2020
Is Travel Associated With Match Performance in Elite North American Professional Soccer? An Exploratory Study
Garrison Draper1,2, Paul Chesterton1, Matthew David Wright1
1School of Health and Life Sciences, Teesside University, Middlesbrough, United Kingdom.
Purpose:
Travel fatigue impacts cognitive and physiologic systems, but its association with elite soccer match performance is unclear. In this retrospective observational study, we aimed to explore the association between travel and match outcomes in elite North American soccer.
Methods:
Travel data and match outcomes (team points or goals scored and conceded) and physical performance outcomes from 26 elite professional soccer teams and their players were analyzed (148 matches [team-based data] and 1252 player matches from 297 players; age 22.7 [4.5] y). Player- and match-level correlations between performance measures and both acute and cumulated travel metrics were analyzed.
Results:
Cumulative travel metrics were positively associated with team (travel distance [r = .20; 95% CI, .03-.25], travel time [r = .20; .06-.37], and time away [r = .20; .06-.37]) and individual player (travel distance, [r = .14; .08-.19], travel time [r = .17-.23], and time away [r = .13; .07-.18]) high-intensity running. Cumulative time away was negatively associated with team points (r = -.14; -.28 to -.001) and positively associated with goals conceded (r = .14; .01-.27); no clear association between acute travel metrics and match outcomes or physical performance was observed.
Conclusions:
As travel cumulated, away teams and their players ran more but for less reward (team points), although the magnitude of these associations was small. These data are exploratory and do not imply a causal relationship; however, further research should consider cumulation of travel.
Related Concept Videos
Social Facilitation
Standard Deviation
Motion of a Projectile
Horizontal motion, governed by the initial kick, maintains a constant velocity throughout the flight of the soccer ball.
Wilcoxon Signed-Ranks Test for Matched Pairs
Coefficient of Correlation
If you suspect a linear relationship between x and y, then r can measure how strong the linear relationship is.
What the VALUE of r tells us:
The value of r is always between –1 and +1: –1 ≤ r ≤ 1.
The size of the correlation r indicates the...
Sign Test for Matched Pairs
To conduct the sign test, we first calculate the differences in...

