TSG group stage review - Introduction

What has also stood out is the capacity of the teams to execute clear game strategies in very disciplined ways, with effective communication and elevated levels of game awareness and intelligence.

Players are clearly able to recognise the situations they are in and are making decisions based on what they see, therefore its evident they are applying principles of playing to the scenarios they face.

They are problem-solving and this is a significant skill that is required to play at the highest level. 

FIFA’s Technical Study Group have observed every match so far and have been analysing and identifying the technical, tactical, physical, and mental trends in these games. 

The data provided by our Football Analysis and Insights team is married together with the observations of our technical experts and here we bring you some of the emerging themes from the group stages of this important tournament.

First, here are the initial impressions of Anja Mittag, a former senior (2007) and U-20 (2004) world cup winner with Germany. Mittag is a former centre-forward and has a special interest in attacking play and forward movement.

We also get the head coach perspective from Mónica Vergara, who managed at all national team levels with Mexico, having worked with the U-15, U-17, U-20 women’s national teams and most recently, their senior women’s national team. Vergara is particularly interested in team cohesion and structure, both in and out of possession.

Pascal Zuberbühler has been observing the goalkeepers and their connections with their teams, both in and out of possession.

He has recognised the growth in the confidence and personalities of the goalkeepers in this group stages of this tournament compared to the last U-20 Women’s World Cup in 2018. There are trends emerging in relation to the variety in successful distribution from the goalkeeper, and in their positioning in 1v1 and 2v1 defensive situations. 

The way teams are setting up for set plays involves more players in the area around the goalkeeper, with interesting observations regarding how they collect high balls. This particular trend will be monitored as the tournament progresses and will be explored in great detail in our Post-Tournament Technical Report.

Our group stage review comprises of the following topics which have been selected by our TSG:

• Line breaks
• Step-ins
• Receiving between lines
• Attempts at goal
• Defensive events in the recovery and low block phases
• Goalkeeping distribution styles
• Goalkeeping - throws
• Goalkeeping positioning in 1v1/2v1

These topics, and others, will be developed further as the tournament progresses and will be discussed in greater detail, with specific reference to their context in different game phases, in our Post-Tournament Report.