Welcome to the Progressão podcast.
Today’s episode starts our discussion on football as a complex phenomenon. This time, we focus especially on the different levels, or scales, of the game.
Football is often analysed by breaking it into parts: phases of play, technical actions, tactical structures, or physical demands. While these perspectives can be useful, they can also fragment our understanding of the game.
In this episode, we take a different view. We look at football as a complex adaptive system, where many elements continuously correspond with one another, and where behaviour emerges across different, interconnected levels.
We discuss the game level, the team level, the sub-group level, and the player level, using the idea of scales to explore how the same game can be understood differently depending on where we place our focus. Like looking at a forest from afar, from within, or up close, each perspective reveals something different — yet it is always the same forest.
We also question some traditional ways of structuring the game, such as strict phase-based models and clear separations between attacking and defending. Instead, we explore how intentions, dynamics, and capacities overlap and evolve throughout a match.
This episode sets an important foundation for understanding football not as a collection of isolated actions, but as a living, dynamic phenomenon that unfolds across multiple, interconnected levels.
Thank you for listening.
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