Comparison of Match Load and Wellness between Friendly and World Cup Matches in Elite Female Soccer Players

(1) Objetive: Compare the internal load (ILO), external load (ELO) and wellness (WS) between official preparation friendly matches (FM) and France 2019 women world cup (WWC) matches in female soccer players. (2) Methods: Ten field players of the Chilean national football team (age 27 +/- 3.4 years, height 162.8 +/- 4.32 cm, weight 60.5 +/- 4.6 kg, fat percentage 24.7 +/- 1.62% and muscle percentage 49.2 +/- 1.63%) participated in the study. Participants were compared across three FM before the world cup and three matches of the group stages in the WWC in June 2019. Both, ELO and ILO were recorded using GPS (Catapult Sports(R), 10 Hz) and rating of perceived exertion (RPE), respectively. In addition, wellness was analyzed via personal questionnaire at 24 and 48 h after match. The intra subject difference was analyzed with a Student's t-test for related samples. (3) Results: Moderate differences were observed between WWC and FM for total and relative total distance covered [TD and TDr, respectively] (p = 0.025, ES = -0.74 and p = 0.017, ES = -0.6). In addition, a non-significant (p = 0.088; ES = -0.43) larger high-intensity distance (HSR) was also found for WWC. Likewise, greater RPE was observed in WWC (p = 0.001; ES = -1.50) when compared to FM. Finally, significantly better wellness scores were shown for FM at stress ST24h, fatigue FT48h, and muscle pain MS48h (p = 0.038; ES = 0.72, p = 0.066; ES = 0.71; and p = 0.63; ES = 0.77) when compared to WWC matches. (4) Conclusion: It was concluded that ELO and ILO were greater at WWC soccer matches, whereas WS scores were better for FM. Moreover, ILO measures (i.e., TD, HSR and TDr) were greater in WWC, which could be at least in part, be the reason behind the differences in the values reported in the wellness questionnaires at 24 and 48 h after the match.