{"id":26755,"date":"2026-04-22T11:20:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T15:20:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/?p=26755"},"modified":"2026-04-22T11:23:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T15:23:20","slug":"soccer-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/soccer-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Soccer Study: Team Dynamics Matter More Than Individual Talent"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Miyani
For Miyani Sonera ’27, a biology project about soccer was as much about learning the research process as it was about the result. \u201cGetting to design a study, analyze data and see it published, that was incredible,\u201d she said. \u201cIt showed me how much there is to explore when you ask the right questions.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
\n
\n

In soccer, chemistry might outweigh star power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new study from Kalamazoo College, published in Football Studies<\/a><\/em>, found that a soccer player\u2019s individual ability accounts for only about 11% of performance variation in small-sided games. Their combination with teammates? Roughly double that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the study, Associate Professor Santiago Salinas, soccer alumnus Shun Yonehara \u201924 and student-athlete Miyani Sonera \u201927 ran 78 small-sided matches\u2014three-on-three, men and women, rotating teammates through ever-changing combinations. Because each athlete played with many different teammates, the researchers were able to separate the influence of individual ability from the impact of specific teammate combinations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research drew inspiration from an unlikely source in quantitative genetics. \u201cIn biology<\/a>, we often separate the effects of genes and environment to understand why organisms differ,\u201d Salinas said. \u201cWe realized we could apply the same idea to soccer. Players are like genotypes, teammates are the environment, and performance is the resulting phenotype.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What they found surprised even the researchers. Individual player effects accounted for only about 11% to 12% of the variation in performance, while teammate combinations explained 20% to 23%. The rest, nearly two-thirds, remained unpredictable, likely influenced by opponent dynamics, moment-to-moment decisions, and the inherent randomness of low-scoring games. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you actually see the numbers, it\u2019s eye-opening,\u201d Yonehara said. \u201cI expected teamwork to matter, but I didn\u2019t expect individual impact to be that small.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Yonehara, the research question was personal. A biology major who played soccer throughout his life, he had long felt that games are won in moments that often miss the highlight reels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople talk about great teams like they\u2019re just a collection of great individuals,\u201d he said. \u201cBut from playing, you know that without cohesion, without players doing the unseen work, the whole thing falls apart.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study also compared match performance with traditional skill assessments including passing accuracy, dribbling speed, shooting precision and ball control. Those measures, commonly used in evaluations and tryouts, did not strongly predict how much a player helped their team in games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat was a big takeaway for me,\u201d Sonera said. \u201cBeing great in isolated drills doesn\u2019t necessarily translate to being effective in real gameplay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sonera, who has loved soccer since childhood, was drawn to the project because it merged science with a sport built on collaboration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSoccer demands understanding your teammates,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s part of what makes it beautiful. This research puts numbers behind that idea.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Shun
Shun Yonehara ’24 currently works as a research assistant for Momoko Yoshimoto, an associate professor at the Western Michigan University Homer Stryker, M.D., School of Medicine.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
\"Santiago
Associate Professor of Biology Santiago Salinas traditionally teaches classes such as vertebrate biology and human physiology. His research interests include his work in the K Fish Lab, where he and his student collaborators study the ways fish populations cope with changes in the environment.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

In the men\u2019s dataset, the researchers observed that teams made up of complementary roles such as a scorer, a facilitator and a defensive-minded player tended to outperform teams of similar player types. Although that pattern did not appear in the women\u2019s data, Salinas cautioned that the difference might reflect sample size rather than a fundamental distinction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together, the results challenge conventional approaches to scouting and performance analysis, which often rely on individual statistics or fixed lineups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur findings suggest that some players make everyone around them better,\u201d Salinas said. \u201cBut that kind of impact is hard to see unless players are tested in multiple contexts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sonera hopes coaches take that message seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to see coaches think beyond who looks best on their own,\u201d she said. \u201cBuilding balanced lineups and focusing on how players connect could make a huge difference.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yonehara echoed that idea, comparing team building to constructing a well-balanced system rather than collecting stars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like building chemistry in a video game or a trading card deck,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about rating, it\u2019s about fit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the study focused on soccer, the researchers believe the approach could apply broadly across team sports, particularly those that are fluid and fast paced, such as basketball or hockey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the research team, the findings support a long-held belief in team sports that what matters is not just who the players are, but how they work together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What makes a winning soccer team? It\u2019s not just talent. A new study finds that individual skill accounts for only a small share of performance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":147,"featured_media":26756,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[233,3,231],"tags":[36,52,161,250],"post_formats":[],"class_list":["post-26755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-staff","category-news","category-students","tag-athletics","tag-biology","tag-senior-integrated-project","tag-student-athlete"],"yoast_head":"\r\nSoccer Study: Team Dynamics Matter More Than Individual Talent - News and Events<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What makes a winning soccer team? It\u2019s not just talent. 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