Courtesy: Daily Courier


Indoor soccer provides kicks


By Jamie Rankin

Monday, April 9, 2007

When most people think of soccer, they picture an outdoor game between two 11-player teams on a long, rectangular field. Kory Kiefer has a good bit of experience with that kind of soccer, but the Southmoreland sophomore is also making a name for himself in an entirely different version of the sport.
Kiefer is a member of a futsal team that has advanced to compete in the United States Futsal Federation National Futsal Championship Tournament.

Futsal is a form of indoor soccer played on a surface about the size of a basketball court, with four players and a goalkeeper on each team. Games consist of two 20-minute halves.

Kiefer also earned all-region honors in the Under-16 Boys division, thanks to his performance at the regional futsal tournament in Philadelphia. The all-region team was chosen based on votes by opposing coaches and players.

"I was surprised at first, and I was really happy about it," Kiefer said. "I didn't see what I did to get selected, but I guess the other teams and coaches did."

Kiefer has been a futsal player for a few years now, having gotten into it after first playing the classic form of the sport.

Kiefer said he has been playing classic soccer since the age of 4, and he is a member of Southmoreland's varsity boys soccer team. Futsal, he said, is a very different game. For one thing, the positions are much different due to the small number of players and the smaller space.

"There are sets," Kiefer said. "You can play a diamond, a square, one up and three back."

Kiefer's futsal team spun out of his competition with the Penns Forest Under-16 Boys classic soccer team, based in Pittsburgh.

"I've been playing (futsal) since I was 12," he said. "My traveling team started going to indoor tournaments and playing."

This year, 10 members of the Penns Forest team were selected to play in the state futsal tournament in Monroeville in January. Those players, including Kiefer, formed "The Pittsburgh 6" and gained Pittsburgh Riverhounds player David Flavius as coach. The team captured the PA West State Futsal Championship and headed to Philadelphia in February to compete in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic Regional tournament, where Kiefer earned his all-region honor.

At regionals, Kiefer's team went undefeated to win the championship and qualify for its first trip to nationals. The national tournament will be held in July in Anaheim, Calif., and Kiefer is looking forward to it.

"It's going to be an experience," he said.




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