Courtesy: Herald News


An overdue education in futsal

by Greg Sullivan

Oct 29, 2010

FALL RIVER — Bill Sampaio. a Tiverton resident and a native of Brazil, is persistent. For almost two years, he encouraged me get educated about futsal. It has finally happened.

Prior to attending Professor Sampaio’s class, all I knew of futsal was that it was a game I heard of but cared zero about. As far as I was concerned, it was on the same plane as gockey, some mystery game we would occasionally get results for from the Fall River Boys and Girls Club.

But when Bill first mentioned futsal to me, I brilliantly deduced it at least had something to do with soccer since he was the Bishop Connolly High School head coach at the time. As it turns out, Bill from Brazil, as he is well known, is a heavy hitter in this world of futsal. He carries the title of director of New England Futsal.

A word guy, I did get a kick out of Bill breaking down the word futsal. Fut stands for futbal, the internationally recognized name for soccer. The sal stands not for saltine but for salon, French for room. (Warning: Don’t confuse salon with saloon; it caused the Three Stooges major headaches.)

Back to the lesson. Putting the two three-letter combinations gives you futsal – soccer in a room. Or indoor soccer. But be careful there. There is a version of soccer officially called “indoor soccer” and it involves playing, essentially, in an ice-less rink with the boards in play.

So while futsal is soccer played indoors, it should not be confused with “indoor soccer.”

Futsal is played on a basketball court with the sidelines and end lines respected as they are in field soccer. The ball is a bit less bouncy than the standrad soccer ball. Games are 5-on-5, including goalkeepers.

“Children love to play futsal,” Sampaio says, “because there is no down time. All players are moving and touching the ball all the time. Everyone attacks and everyone defends.”

To my mild surprise, futsal is not new and it’s not a fad. Sampaio says it dates back to 1930, in Uruguay, and virtually all the great soccer players in the world have played the sport.

“Many people who watched the finals of the World Soccer Cup this past July in South Africa were impressed by the ‘beautiful game’ played by Spain, which clinched the World Soccer Cup for the first time, with style,” says Sampaio, a native of Sao Paulo, Brazil, who played soccer and futsal at both the Juventus Academy and at the professional team Sports Club Corinthians. “The national team of Spain played futsal during the whole soccer tournament. Almost all the players from the national teams of Spain, Portugal, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, to name a few, have something in common: They all played futsal in their forming years.”

That means the great Pele, who recently befriended Somerset artist Brian Fox, probably played a lot of futsal. (Watch for Fox’s very cool Pele painting.)

In the United States, futsal has a national, regional and local organizations.

And there’s ample opportunity for boys and girls to compete in Greater Fall River.

New England Futsal runs both a league and an academy in the city. The Fall River Futsal League (U10, U12, U14 and high school U16 and U19 ) games will be played at Durfee High School and Bishop Connolly High School. League games are played Saturday afternoons and are open to all recreational and competitive teams. The games start Nov. 27. The cost is $650 per team for a six-week season.

The New England Futsal Academy (U8, U10, U12) is for player development and the one-hour sessions are part 1 instruction and part 2 scrimmaging. The cost for the seven-week academy program is $55.

New England Futsal also offers programs at Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I. and there is a Catholic Youth Futsal League for the Diocese of Fall River.

These programs involve more than 1,000 players, Sampaio said.

All the important futsal information is available at www.newenglandfutsal.com or by calling Sampaio at 774-526-3209 or Tim Kaliff at 774-644-5500. Collectively, Sampaio and Kaliff are known as samkal.


Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com