Australia and Turkey: A comparison of the physical, motor and technical capacities of 13-14 age group male youth players from professional football teams in Australia and Turkey

The aim of this study was to compare and evaluate the physical and motoric characteristics as well as technical capacity of 13-14 year old male soccer players in Australia and Turkey. A total of (n=32) athletes, including (n=16) athletes from Auburn FC sports club in Sydney, Australia and (n=16) athletes from MKE Ankaragücü sports club in Ankara, Turkey, who are actively participating in football, voluntarily participated in the study. As the study design, anthropometric measurements, resting heart rate, flexibility, agility, Yo-Yo, long slalom, short pass, standing ball bounce, 10 meters, 30 meters test measurements of the athletes were taken and the measurements of the two teams were compared. The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS 26 package program. Shapiro-Wilk test was performed to determine the normality distribution of the data and as a result of the results, it was determined that the data showed normal distribution in the comparison between the positions, and in the pairwise comparisons between the teams, there was no normal distribution in the agility variable and normal distribution in other variables. One Way ANOVA test was used to determine the difference between the groups and Tukey HSD test, one of the Post-Hoc tests, was used to determine which groups were in favor of the difference. In paired comparisons, Independent Sample T-Test and Paired Sample T-Test were used in the data showing normal distribution, Mann Whitney U test was used in the agility variable that did not show normal distribution, and Wilcoxon test was used in the standing ball bounce offense variable. The significance level in the study was determined as (P<0.05). When the results were evaluated, there was a statistically significant difference in body weight and BMI of the athletes according to the defensive players between the groups, and a statistically significant difference was found in the resting pulse parameter of team A (MKE Ankaragücü) (p<0.05). According to the midfield players between the groups, a statistically significant difference was found in the B team (Aurburn F.C) in the standing ball bounce parameter, while a statistically significant difference was found in the A team (MKE Ankaragücü) in 10 and 30 meters measurements (p<0.05). When the offensive players between the groups were compared, statistically significant differences were found in physical measurements of height and body weight (p<0,05). When all position athletes between the groups were compared, team A (MKE Ankaragücü) showed a statistically significant positive difference in 10 and 30 meters measurements, while team B (Aurburn F.C) showed a statistically significant difference in BMI (p<0,05). No statistically significant difference was found in other parameters (p>0,05).