Physical Responses of International Female Footballers with Cerebral Palsy: An Analysis by Periods and Intervals at World Cup Matches

Background This study aimed to analyze the progression of physical responses between the first and second halves, the first and last 15 min, and across 5 min intervals of the matches played by international female football players with cerebral palsy (CP) during a Worldwide competition and considering their sport class (FT1, FT2, and FT3). Methods Thirty-five international-level female footballers with CP participated in this study. The matches physical responses were recorded using global positioning devices (WIMU PRO devices). Results Players with severe impairments (i.e., FT1) decreased their performance in almost all analyzed variables ( p  < 0.02, ES = 0.71 to 2.03), footballers with mild impairments (i.e., FT2) decreased their performance in total and walking distances ( p  < 0.05, ES = 0.63 and 0.62, respectively), and players with minimal limitations (i.e., FT3) only decreased values in jogging distance ( p  = 0.03, ES = 3.08) in the second half compared to the first. However, FT1 footballers did not decrease their performance in the last 15 min of the match compared to the first 15 min in any variable; whereas FT2 players presented a lower performance in total, explosive, medium speed running distances and maximum speed ( p  < 0.05, ES = 0.35 to 0.57), and FT3 players also decreased their performance in total, explosive and jogging distances ( p  < 0.05, ES = 0.79 to 1.17). However, FT1 footballers showed higher performance in the first and last 5 min of the matches, while FT2 and FT3 obtained results more similar to mainstream footballers. Conlusions: The results of this study may be relevant both for training planning, coaching and classification processes, as it is observed that it is necessary to consider that the evolution of physical responses during matches is constrained to the functional class and the match periods.