The effect of a congested schedule and match fatigue on performance

With the new season on its way, I feel it is warrant to have a closer on how games affect consecutive performance on a) training, but also on b) the next match or training as the players will be fatigued from a match.

Generally, the training week is scheduled around games with the purpose to be fully recovered from games and training for the following match. Most of the teams have a “regular” football calendar, which gives two games within 8 days – for example Sunday and (the following) Sunday, which I will refer to as a regular schedule (RS). However, many teams also play three games within 8 days (and therefore have a congested schedule (CS)), due to National Cup, Champions League and Europa League games. In addition some players will need to perform for their national side – or just play college soccer, it might be same – (I hope the reader might forgive me for the slight sarcasm, however, there are many congested schedules in college soccer). As a consequence the greater demand will elevates the stress opposed on players (14).