Courtesy: Courier Journal

In three years, indoor soccer league has grown from 6 to 31 teams

by Charlie White

A winter soccer league played on indoor basketball courts has grown dramatically since it was introduced in Louisville three years ago.

Louisville Futsal, which started in 2008 with six youth teams, now features 31 squads and more than 250 players who play games in two local union hall gymnasiums.

Futsal uses a weighted ball, fewer players on each side, some different rules and a much smaller playing area than other versions of soccer.

It remains a learning experience for some Louisville players such as Austin Montgomery, a Trinity sophomore who just finished his first season of club soccer as a member of the United 95 Premier team.
Austin said futsal “takes some getting used to,” especially when it comes to controlling the ball.

“The field is so small you can't do as many long balls,” Austin said. “I've gained some footwork, but it's still tough.”
During the season-ending tournament Feb. 26 at the United Auto Workers' Union Hall on Fern Valley Road, Austin's team lost 6-2 to a Louisville Soccer Alliance team in a physical game that involved roughly a dozen yellow or red cards and what he described as near-constant “trash talk.”

But Austin said he wasn't discouraged by the lopsided loss because most games this season were high scoring. His team won one game 20-3.
“The basic idea seems to be score as many goals as possible,” he said, adding that he plans to play futsal again next winter.
League founder and director Rob Iliff, a 1994 Trinity alumnus who played soccer at Bellarmine University, said many futsal players initially identify with the physical aspect of the game because they are new to this version of the sport and haven't yet developed ball-handling skills.

Iliff, a 34-year-old Worthington Glen resident, said futsal mimics street soccer and complements the outdoor game, helping players develop passing and shooting skills through an increased number of touches, as well as quick response times.
“It has its own level of creativity,” Iliff said.
Players wear standard indoor soccer shoes, which seem to provide good traction on the rubberized, non-glossy gym floor.

The name futsal stems from the Portuguese phrase for indoor soccer, “futebol de salão.”

Futsal features five players on each team instead of the 11 in outdoor soccer, and has no off-sides rule or use of walls like other indoor soccer.

Tim Haertel, who coached a Louisville Soccer Alliance squad for the first time this year, described the game as very fast.
“You get a lot of touches, so it makes you think before you act,” said Haertel, 50, of Strathmoor Village.
Louisville Futsal, which also played games this year at the UAW Union Hall gym on Chamberlain Lane, is an affiliate of the national Super-F League, which formed in the Kansas City area in 2004. FIFA, the international governing body of soccer, sets the rules for futsal.

This year, the local futsal league had several age divisions for boys and girls ages 10 to 16. Players live in Louisville, Spencer County, Hardin County, and Floyd County (Ind.), and some are immigrants from Latin America, Africa and Europe.
Next winter, Iliff said he hopes to add a division for 9-year-olds to help players develop skills at an earlier age.


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