Soccer

About Soccer

Soccer is the most popular sport in the world, with over 120 million amateur players worldwide. It is a game involving sudden sprints and bursts of energy rather than continuous moderate-intensity running. In a typical match, soccer players at elite level can cover up to 10-11 kilometres at fairly modest speed, sprint for about 800-1200 metres, accelerate 40-60 different times, and change direction every five seconds or so.

During a game lasting 90 minutes the alternating fast and slow running can easily deplete a players leg-muscle fuel stores (glycogen). Studies show that professional players spend over two-thirds of a typical match at 85 per cent of maximal heart rate and that players sometimes deplete 90% of their muscle glycogen during a match, more than enough to cause fatigue and dramatically reduce running speeds.

Training Diet

Maintaining adequate carbohydrate reserves and avoiding dehydration are the most important nutritional challenges for soccer players, especially because play is continuous, limiting the possibilities for fuelling and replenishing body fluids.

Fluid Needs

Drinks should be made available prior to, during and immediately after training and matches. To minimize the risk of heat injury particularly on hot days, soccer players should try to establish a good drinking plan. Water is the most practical drink however a sports drink may provide an advantage in terms of encouraging greater fluid intake as well as directly enhancing performance by supplying carbohydrate (glucose, sucrose).

Before: 300-500 ml, 15 minutes before starting.
During: 150-250 ml every 15-20 minutes
After: To replace sweat losses. The amount required is individual, for every kilogram lost, you need to drink 1.5 litres of fluid.

What Should I Eat Pre-Event?

Choose foods and drinks that you enjoy and meet the criteria below:

Easy to digest
High in carbohydrate
Low in fat
Include plenty of fluids
Foods and drinks you enjoy

An example of an eating plan 1-4 hours before the game could be something like this;

3-4 hours before: Pasta with a red sauce, 400mls fruit juice
2 hours before: 200 g low fat fruit yoghurt & snack pack of sultanas (40g)
1 hour before: 500 ml sports drink

What Should I Eat/Drink During Competition?

Opportunities to drink during matches can be limited therefore you should aim to optimise your fluid intake during formal and informal breaks in play e.g. stoppage and injury time. A sports drink supplies some carbohydrate (glucose, sucrose) and some sodium (salt) which helps the body to absorb and retain more of the fluid. Carbohydrate gel supplements such as 1 x 50g CarboShotz ® and a medium banana can be eaten at half time.

What About Recovery?

Players need to restock their fuel stores (glycogen) in their muscles and replace lost fluid by eating and drinking carbohydrate-rich foods and beverages. Aim to replace 1.5 times fluid losses. Drinks containing carbohydrate (eg. sports drinks) will assist with replacing energy stores. Fluids containing caffeine (such as coffee or cola drinks) and alcohol are not suitable for recovery since they lead to increased urine losses.

Specific examples include:

2 x 500ml bottles of sports drink
250 ml Sustagen, tetra pack and a banana
Bread roll with banana and honey
200 gram carton of low fat fruit yoghurt and 1 x multi pack of breakfast cereal