Soccer and its intense workouts cause lactate accumulation and extensive metabolic changes. This study, therefore, aimed to compare the percentage of maximum heart rate (%HRmax), blood lactate, growth hormone (GH), and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) responses across different formats of small-sided games (SSG) in young soccer players. Twenty-four soccer players (mean age: 17.1± 1.12 years, weight 67.28± 1.65kg and body mass index 20.8± 1.18kg/m2) were randomly divided into three equal groups, including control, 2 vs. 2 (8 periods of 2min separated by 1min of passive recovery, with a pitch of 20m× 25m) and 4 vs. 4 (4 periods of 4min separated by 2min of passive recovery, with a pitch of 28m× 35m). Blood samples were taken immediately before and after small-sided games. The results showed that the heart rate increased significantly in young soccer players at different minutes of SSG (p= 0.05). The comparison of these two SSG did not show any significant differences on lactate and somatotropic hormone concentrations (p> 0.05), although each alone significantly increased lactate, GH and IGF-1 levels compared to control group (p< 0.05). Hence, it can be concluded that due to the sufficient intensity of these two modes of SSG, the cellular relationship between the GH/IGF-1 axis and lactate helps improve the physiological capacity of young soccer players. However, further studies were needed to consider more accurate effects of these variables (lactate, GH and IGF-1) with two SSG modalities (2 vs. 2 and 4 vs. 4).
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