Recent research has developed understanding of the technical and tactical determinants of
success in elite women’s soccer, however a lack of research exists on analysing how elite
female players visually explore their environment to support skilled soccer performance. This
study aimed to describe the visual exploratory activity (VEA) of elite female central midfield
players and understand the relationships between VEA, performance with the ball and
specific contextual factors. Thirty female central midfield players (M age = 26.7 years, SD =
3.8) from the eight teams who competed in the knock-out stages of UEFA Women’s EURO
2022 were analysed. Television broadcast and UEFA tactical footage were combined to
analyse players across the seven knock-out stage matches, totalling 1,038 individual ball
possessions. The mean scan frequency in the 10 seconds before receiving the ball was 0.35
(scans/s), which can be compared with elite youth (0.42 scans/s) and professional (0.44
scans/s) male soccer respectively (Aksum et al., 2021; Jordet et al., 2020). Results showed
pitch location when receiving the ball as the main predictor of scan frequency, with scan
frequency also related to action result (p < 0.003). Therefore, pitch location appears an
important variable when understanding VEA in elite women’s soccer.