Team cohesion and performance during a university soccer championship: two sides of the coin

Abstract

The cohesion-performance relationship in team sport is fairly well established, although information on this topic within the African soccer context is limited. The study aimed to compare successful and less successful soccer teams on team cohesion and various descriptive variables (age, previous championship experience and team stability), based on the final log position of a championship involving teams from 16 tertiary institutions. A cross-sectional design was used and 263 participants (mean age: 22.64±2.28 years) completed the Group Environmental Questionnaire of Carron et al. (1985) before the start of the 2012 University Sport South Africa (USSA) soccer championship. One-way analysis of variance revealed that the top four finishing teams had greater previous championship experience than the other 12 teams. Strong individual attraction to the group was advantageous to performance, whereas higher levels of group integration were associated with lower performance. Efforts to foster team cohesion should focus on both the task and social dimensions of group cohesion, but should consider the potential disadvantages of high group integration.

Keywords: Football; Team success; Cohesion-performance relationship; Tournament experience; Group Environmental Questionnaire (GEQ)