## 2 Materials and Methods
### Measurement Procedure  
Before the commencement of match recordings, anthropometric measurements were taken on the field. Subsequently, a 15 min warm-up was conducted, followed by the assessment of VO\({}_{\rm 2 max}\) using the YYIR1. The measurement took place on a soccer field with synthetic turf, at least 48 h after the match. As mentioned earlier, official championship matches were recorded. Players wore GPS devices before warm-up, and the data from the recording were transferred to an Excel sheet after the match. The validity and reliability of the GPS system have been previously reported [22; 23] and utilized in soccer players [4; 24]. To minimize variability among the GPS devices, each player used the same transmitter in all matches. In the research analysis, only data meeting the following conditions were utilized:  
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in the number of decelerations (Dec2) (F = 4.586, \(p\) = 0.004, \(\eta^{2}\) = 0.314) between CD and SD (\(p\) = 0.027) and CM (\(p\) = 0.004). Overall, the external load indicators for the entire match are presented in Figures 1 and 2. Confidence intervals (CI) for all variables are shown in Table 2.  
From the results of the ANOVA for differences between positions in the first half, differences were observed in total distance (TD) (F = 8.646, \(p\) < 0.001, \(\eta^{2}\) = 0.458). Specifically, CD differed from SD (\(p\) < 0.001), CM (\(p\) < 0.001), and SM (\(p\) < 0.001). Differences were also observed in the rate (m/min) (F = 6.554, \(p\) < 0.001, \(\eta^{2}\) = 0.390), with CD differing from SD (\(p\) = 0.004), CM (\(p\) < 0.001), and SM (\(p\) = 0.003). Differences were observed in different speed zones: z1 (F = 4.590, \(p\) = 0.004, \(\eta^{2}\) = 0.309), z2 (F = 3.317, \(p\) = 0.019, \(\eta^{2}\) = 0.245), z3 (F = 4.243, \(p\) = 0.006, \(\eta^{2}\) = 0.293), z4 (F = 3.166, \(p\) = 0.023, \(\eta^{2}\) = 0.236). In z1, SM differed  
Figure 1: (**A**). Position differences per speed zone in the match. (**B**). Differences in running pace between positions. * Denotes a significant difference (\(p\) < 0.05). Speed zones: z1 0.10–7.19 km/h, z2 7.20–14.39 km/h, z3 14.40–19.79 km/h, z4 19.80–25.19 km/h, z5 > 25.20 km/h. CD: central defenders, SD: side defenders, CM: central midfielders, SM: side midfielders, F: forwards. from SD (\(p\) = 0.026) and CM (\(p\) = 0.026); in z2, CD differed from CM (\(p\) = 0.023); in z3, CD differed from SD (\(p\) = 0.01) and CM (\(p\) = 0.016); and in z4, CD differed from SM (\(p\) = 0.033). In Dec2, differences were observed among CD (F = 6.218, \(p\) < 0.001, \(\eta^{2}\) = 0.378) with SD (\(p\) = 0.014) and CM (\(p\) < 0.001). In Acc2, CD differed (F = 5.467, \(p\) = 0.001, \(\eta^{2}\) = 0.348) from SD (\(p\) = 0.002), CM (\(p\) = 0.007), and SM (\(p\) = 0.043). In the second half, no differences were observed between positions. All statistical indices are presented in Table 3.  
Figure 2: (**A**). Differences in accelerations and decelerations between positions. (**B**). Differences in number of sprints between positions. * Denotes a significant difference (\(p\) < 0.05). Acc2: 2.00–2.99, Acc3: >3.00 m/s\({}^{2}\), Dec2: \(-\)2.99—2.00 m/s\({}^{2}\), Dec3: \(<\)\(-\)3.00. CD: central defenders, SD: side defenders, CM: central midfielders, SM: side midfielders, F: forwards. Additionally, the number of Acc2 decreased for SD players (t = 1.639, \(p\) = 0.014, d = 0.546) and CM players (t = 3.520, \(p\) = 0.007, d = 1.113), and more intense accelerations of Acc3 decreased for SD players (t = 2.991, \(p\) = 0.017, d = 0.997) and SM players (t = 2.781, \(p\) = 0.021, d = 0.879). SD players reduced the number of Dec2 (t = 2.392, \(p\) = 0.044, d = 0.797). SM players reduced Dec3 (t = 2.646, \(p\) = 0.027, d = 0.837), while CM players reduced both Dec2 (t = 5.242, \(p\) < 0.001, d = 1.658) and very intense accelerations of Dec3 (t = 3.277, \(p\) = 0.010, d = 1.036). The differences between halves are presented in Figure 4.