Elite-Level Cooperation and Opposition Dynamics During Defensive Transitions: Using Computer Vision Data to Estimate the Pass and Dribbling Progression Conceded ABSTRACT This study examined the influence of emergent cooperation and opposition dynamics on ball progression permitted to opponents, during open-play defensive transitions in association football. Ninety-four matches from the top three ranked teams in the Portuguese First League season 2022/23 were included in our sample. Thirty-six variables related to the match-play landscape were analysed using Linear Mixed Models, to examine the predictors of ball progression through either passing, dribbling, or by a combination of both. Results indicated an inverse relationship between the first defender’s average distance to the ball and passing advances, suggesting that a greater distance deters opponents from progressing through passing. The variation in the first and second defenders’ distances to the ball showed mixed effects, with increased distances generally hindering progression, irrespective of its type. Voronoi cell analysis revealed that larger areas for the third defender were linked to greater spatial progresses, likely reflecting opponents’ success rather than defensive failures. Unexpectedly, team spatial dominance around the first defender was associated with less defensive success, possibly due to a lack of compactness and an episode’s selection bias. Increases in the angles between defenders and their own goal were positively correlated with all types of progression, emphasizing the importance of maintaining alignments to impede advances throughout the pitch. Overall, these findings reveal how certain defensive patterns, related to players’ relative distances, individual and collective areas of dominance and player-environment angles, could be adopted to better obstruct opponents’ ball progression, during open-play defensive transitions in football.

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Video Analysis,Sports Statistics and Analyses