Futsal

Luke Stauffer making an impression for the US futsal team.

My daughter has taken futsal training at the same facility as Luke for the past three or four years and I have on several occasions been able to watch him play during summer pick up games. The kid is smooth as silk and makes everything look so incredibly easy when I know it is ankle breaking hard. Big ups to a local kid doing well.

 

U.S. Futsal National Team Travels to Guatemala City for Training Camp

U.S. Futsal National Team head coach Keith Tozer has named a 16-player roster to travel for a training camp June 3-9 in Guatemala City, Guatemala.

Tozer’s squad will face four professional teams as it prepares for the 2012 CONCACAF Qualifying tournament, which will take place in Guatemala City from July 2-4.

 

Very cool that you've seen him play. I wish the link had some video. I've seen the rare player that has those silky smooth abilities and they really are a joy to watch in person. I didnt realize in Futsal they actually have the same positions as soccer. I thought it was more like basketball.

Only my youngest son has tried futsal once. Both my boys do a fair amount of street soccer though.

 

For personal reasons I am hoping that the CONCACAF qualifiers will be aired by someone even if it is a replay. If you have never watched futsal it is amzaingly high paced and incredibly fun to watch in my opinion. If it is on TV anywhere I will post it when I find out. The South American countries will be heavily favored but should be since they have professional leagues.

 

Since we are talking about Futsal, I would love as many of your opinions about this as possible. Our local community soccer club has issued this statement regarding futsal on its indoor soccer registration form.

Personally, I call BS and think our coaching director is only trying to limit competition. He is a full time employee of our club and highly credentialed coach so people think his word is gospel. The last line especially bothers me and it is in bold on the registration form. Why would you issue a blanket statement like that and discourage kids from doing futsal. So what if they take a winter session off for a session of futsal. It has got to help their ball control, footskills, thought process, etc and that in turn will help their soccer, especially if footskills is a weakness for them.

 

If I am reading this correctly it sounds like the Director is doing his job and pushing the club indoor program as a first option. That does not necessarily mean it is the best option but if he is a full-time employee of the club it would be his prerogative to push the club option first.

That above statement leads me to believe he is not telling kids not to play futsal at all but if he is calling indoor soccer real soccer and they are using boards I would call BS as well. As for my opinion of futsal, if I had it to do over again I would have gotten my kids involved in futsal at least as early as soccer and skipped indoor soccer altogether. Heather was dead on with this:

With an emphasis on footskills, quick thinking, finding angles, and playing in tight spaces I think futsal does nothing but develop useful soccer skills. The kids in Katie's age group who have blossomed as soccer players are primarily the ones I have seen on the futsal courts. Of course there is the chicken and egg question of would it have been those kids that would have blossomed with or without futsal but in this case I think futsal has had a significant, positive impact on my daughters soccer skills.

 

No our club does not offer futsal. If you shoot more with your toe in futsal, isnt that kind of bad for soccer though? Could it lead to a bad habit.

 

I just dont agree with with programs addressing anything else kids do outside of their program. I dont think it's part of their job. For me a director of coaching needs to worry about his own program, making his own program and coaches as good as possible. He shouldnt try to control what other things people do - that is a recipe for losing people. If a kid wants to try out futsal but doesnt have the time to do that and the club's indoor soccer then so what. At least they're doing something somewhat soccer related. Is it not better than taking a session of indoor off to do another sport? I also dont think it belongs on a registration form. I find it strange.

Barry since you would've skipped indoor altogether if you could do it over again, then that sounds like you dont agree with the bolded statement ". . . futsal does not benefit the player". Or was Katie's indoor soccer with boards?

Our club's indoor soccer is not with boards. However, I dont understand those who are so critical of indoor board soccer. I think it is fun, faster and non-stop. Good for exercise in the winter which is important when the price/availability of indoor field space limits you to one day/wk. I think it makes the kids think faster, think about angles more (granted not the same angles as real soccer), and learn to use their bodies better.

US soccer promotes street soccer as a valuable alternative for development of the soccer player and that often involves walls. Bouncing it off a wall to yourself isnt much different from a give-and-go in soccer. It has to be good practice.

I think this thing about indoor board soccer is drummed up by the people who own indoor facilities without boards. They thought everyone was going to flock to them. Around here, alot havent flocked to them because our High School athletics assoc. doesnt consider board soccer to be soccer. This allows high school teams to play together through the winter without breaking the athletic rules governing team off season play. Maybe that's not an issue in other states

 

I read what the guy in Mo's quote said as, you won't benefit if you quit soccer altogether, play futsal instead, and then step back into soccer later.

If Brazil use it to develop soccer skills, then we should be emulating that in this country.

It looks like fun. Wish we'd had that available when I was a kid. I liked playing street soccer, but the regular soccer league kinda bored me to be honest and I dropped it in favor of other sports. I didn't become a fan of the sport again until I was an adult and had been exposed to the Prem.

 

Heather you posting that video made me look for the place in Cleveland that provides good Futsal. It's a place I tried to get my kids to go to but they werent interested. Anyway, I have to wonder if what I found isnt the reason our director felt the need to issue that statement. When you release material about how futsal improves your soccer, some soccer coaches like our director might get annoyed and think the guy is trying to cash in on all the soccer programs around, get their players. Those girls look to big for U11
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-Y8r1vMHDg[/youtube]

 

Mo, Katie played indoor soccer with boards and futsal without boards. To be fair the biggest difference between the two was the coaching and not the boards but my preference is no boards. I think it teaches better ball control. Passing in futsal is all about playing angles anyway and I rarely saw the boards used constructively when she played indoor. I am not against indoor soccer with boards but given a choice between the two I would pick futsal every day of the week and she says it is more fun too. Then again that could have something to do with the quality of player playing each in our area.

Back to US Futsal, the US squad was named for the upcoming 2012 CONCACAF championship.

 

Looks like the futsal matches will be streamed on CONCACAF TV.

 

From http://www.ussoccer.com/


U.S. Futsal vs. Panama

Domo Polideportivo; Guatemala City, Guatemala

July 2, 2012 @ 8 p.m. ET

CONCACAF.com