Hope many watched some of the games from Egypt on FSW. One of the of things stand out from the Argies is the use of the sole of the foot to keep the eyes up. I hope if your in youth club administration that you have futsal going in the winter versus indoor dasher boards. Cheaper and higher skill. Also seems like it should be the game for inner city space being at a premium. You only need a BB court. I recall seeing many outdoor cement courts scattered around Barcelona on my trip last year, goals on the side of BB area, etc How many of our youth nat players play futsal?
Aw come on Dan, you know that we're going to win the World Cup by 'outhustling' and using our 'athleticism' to subdue opponents.
AAGGHH! BTW our HS team lost two good scoring chances today because of horrible first touch. Another thing I think futsal would improve.
I'll admit there are not many of us. One thing I have been doing. I contribute a small amount to the US Soccer Foundation each year. Now that I'm on their list I get tons of solicitation junk. So I've been writing to them to support futsal. They would get more bang for thier buck park wise supporting futsal in cites. I URGE ALL OTHER CONTRIBUTORS TO DO THE SAME. Maybe they will get the message.
Yes. Dull as dishwater. Small-field soccer is fun to play and a great learning tool. Crummy TV sport, only slightly better than bowling. How much applicability does that have with the big-field game, I wonder? For what it's worth, I do see U.S. kids who use the sole of the foot extensively, although definitely not to the extent used by the Argentinian team in that futsal tournament. I'm with you. The boys have been practicing their 3 vs. 3 game, on a portion of a big indoor field, with no walls. They've been looking good. Yesterday, the big field was taken and they practiced instead on a micro field with walls. They were sloppy as hell, because they knew the walls would bail them out. Aaagh. Although those guys aren't futsal purists, so you might well see kids using regular soccer balls on the cement, too. Give em goals and they'll play on dirt, artificial turf (lots of that in Barcelona, too), cement, whatever. You got me. Personally, I've never seen anybody play futsal in the U.S.; it hasn't caught on around here (Chicago).
Futbito. I actually played on the rec team that won the city championship in Pamplona two years in a row, only to get crushed by the Vizcaya (Bilbao) champs both years. It is an absolutely wonderful learning game, teaching kids to play quick, one-touch soccer and putting a premium on a great first touch and vision. I didn't watch the Egypt games, and I know nothing about futsal, but the thing that bugs me most about indoor soccer is the lack of a touch line. Playing balls off the wall does little to enhance skills, IMO. But when you are on a concrete court; when the ball is smaller, harder and faster; and you have keep control of the ball to string passes together, futbito is among the best teaching tools around.
Futsal is absolutely the best way to hone your first touch in an indoor environment. Didn't I hear somewhere that Ronaldo didn't start playing outdoor seriously until he was 15 or so, largely because he concentrated on futsal? By the way, the Milwaukee Rampage have a nice futsal facility. I think it will have a hard time catching on here. First, there is so much built out infrastructure with walls. Second, the walled facilities really cater to the recreational and less skilled teams. Ball can almost always be in play no matter how bad your skills are. Switching them over to a futsal type environment may simply be bad for business.
Futsal's benefits are overblown. Europeans play it because they don't have a better alternative. Sure the game encourages close control and quick passing, but it also encourages static defense, wild bad angle shooting, overdribbling, diving in on defense, and does less for conditioning, reading the play, and use of space (since there is none) than the unfashionable dasher board soccer. The touch benefits of the game are offset by the smaller ball and its deadened feel. A youth player's touch may actually suffer when he plays. It is harder to control a normal ball on a fast surface than a futsal ball. I too thought this was a great game at first. I have since seen it create more bad than good habits in most kids who play it. The trend towards bigger rather than smaller indoor fields serves to improve tactical play more (which is the real deficit in this country's youth systems). Kids play plenty of small side crowded space games in the usual practice and seldom improve much further when forced to do so in futsal. Given a choice the kids (as well as adults including those from overseas) seem to prefer dome soccer which is why the futsal leagues are suffering.
Seems like some contradictions in there. Wild bad angle shooting in tight spaces? Thought I was watching some shooting through narrow spaces and angles. I didn't see too much diving in in the Egypt games either. A lot of shielding with defenders trying to steal was much more prevalent. When you have tight spaces your going to see more dribbling. That's a definite overreaction on your part. Creating dribbling skills is one of the games pluses. That sems like a strange statement. I introduce a lot of different balls during training. Generally I've found switching gives the player the ability to adjust to different types leading to better overall touch. Seems to work in Latin America. Again that's an arguable point along with your static defense. I don't know what games you were watching. There seemed to be a lot of zonal overshifting with the offense trying to find narrow openings. (I still recall some comments by US senior nats during Bora's tenure about him adjusting their positioning by just a couple of feet). Yeah dasher board has been around a lot longer too. Plus maybe futsal in a limited space is harder to play comes into it.