# Impact of Acceleration and Acceleration-Initial Speed Profiles on Team Success in LaLiga
## 4 Discussion  
The study was designed to characterize the AS\({}_{0}\) profile and the number of accelerations \(>\)3 m\(\cdot\)s\({}^{-2}\) from LALIGA professional soccer players. The main findings of the study were that UT teams perform higher intensity accelerations \(>\)3 m\(\cdot\)s\({}^{-2}\) compared to the LT teams, especially in CD, CM, FB, OM, and W positions. Moreover, UT teams showed greater capacity to perform higher intensity accelerations compared with LMT in CM, FB, and W positions. In contrast, successful and unsuccessful teams had the same performance parameters in the A\({}_{\text{OInt}}\) and S\({}_{\text{OInt}}\) variables. However, in the A\({}_{\text{OInt}}\) variable, statistically significant differences were found in CD, CM, and W positions when comparing the teams in UT with the teams in LT. The relationship between acceleration capabilities and success in competition seems to be limited to certain teams that have achieved a greater performance (UT), especially in certain positions and with respect to LT. The main finding of this study supports the idea that team success in competition could be affected by physical performance.  
From our knowledge, this is the first study to analyze physical variables such as accelerations to relate physical performance to success in competition. The analysis of the current data has revealed results that contrast with other LaLiga studies, where no statistically significant differences in running demands were observed between successful and less successful teams [5]. However, previous research on English Premier League and Italian Serie A teams found that less successful teams covered more total distance, including total distances at speeds of 14-19 km\(\cdot\)h\({}^{-1}\)[7] and above 19.8-25.2 km\(\cdot\)h\({}^{-1}\), compared to successful teams [6]. Our findings indicated differences, with UT teams performing more high-intensity accelerations (>3 m\(\cdot\)s\({}^{-2}\)) than LT teams across positions such as CD, CM, FB, OM, and W. Additionally, AS\({}_{0}\) profiles showed higher values in CM, FB, and W positions.  
Previous research analyzed soccer physical performance factors combined with technical-tactical data (e.g., possession ball), and the results demonstrated that successful teams cover greater total distance and distance per zone velocity than less successful teams [7; 37; 38]. However, previous studies described differences in results between distance covered per speed zones with and without ball possession [6]. [PERSON] et al. (2022) [37] observed that in the First German League (Bundesliga), the most successful teams covered more running distance and performed more sprint actions (>6 m\(\cdot\)s\({}^{-1}\)) with ball possession. In the Italian Serie A, the highest-ranked teams covered greater distances above 14 and 19 km\(\cdot\)h\({}^{-1}\) with ball possession [7].  
Our findings concerning the capacity of UT teams to perform higher accelerations above 3 m\(\cdot\)s\({}^{-2}\) could be related to technical-tactical performance and contextual factors. Previous studies showed that a team's success correlated with offensive variables like goals scored [39], where the sprint is the most frequent action of the scoring or assisting player [40]. Moreover, offensive and defensive variables like creating a shot on target, ball possessions, running with the ball, physical efforts to avoid a counterattack, and defending a goal [39] have been associated with successful teams and high-intensity actions (e.g., accelerations and sprints) [41; 39].  
Currently, the maximum sprint capacities in the peak running speed variables in LALIGA have also been investigated, observing that the maximum speeds are not related to the team success in competition [8]. In the present study, similar results were obtained when analyzing the S\({}_{0\text{Int}}\) variable. There is no difference between the acceleration capacity at high-speed running in successful and unsuccessful teams, observed in the S\({}_{0\text{Int}}\) variable.