Defensive Play Model and Man-to-Man Marking Principles of the Italian National Team.

Countless play models?both offensive and defensive?were on display at the 2012 FIFA Futsal World Cup in Thailand, the premier event for this sport, which brings together the top futsal professionals, methodologies, strategies, and trainings. Among these, the Italian defensive style of play serves as the basis for the study conducted in this article which, after recording and editing five valid games for this competition, could be characterised as man-to-man marking, with non-challenging constant accompaniment principles, aggression on the player with the ball, defensive connections and, at times, a lack of switches, in addition to guards. 6.