Courtesy: Our Sports Central


Young U.S. Team Learns Futsal From The Best

MILWAUKEE, WI (June 7, 2007) -- Futsal is the version of indoor soccer favored by the rest of the world, but to say the sport is "favored" in Brazil doesn't do the country justice. In a large but often dense nation with few available outdoor fields but an unmatched thirst for soccer, the 4-v-4 game can be found everywhere. Club teams play as many as 120 games a season and the national team won the first three world championships (1989, 1992, 1996) before finishing second and third, respectively, in 2000 and 2004.
U.S. national team coach Keith Tozer took a squad into that South American futsal stronghold late last month, the first of two trips designed to find a unit to compete in the Pan American Games in July. Needless to say, the Americans were less accomplished. "The TV guy there asked me after the first game (against Brazil), how long had our guys been playing futsal," he said. "My question to him was, ?What date is it?'"

Only two of the 16 players on the team had any international experience in futsal. Joe Hammes, the only Wave player to go on this trip, could count only some college pickup games in St. Louis on his resume.

Still, the U.S. team managed a 2-3 record during the 10-day trip, including a pair of losses to the Brazilian national team. The first of those two games was the debut of a 10,000-seat futsal stadium in Jaragua do Sul, creating the ultimate home-field advantage for Brazil. The U.S. hung tough, losing only 4-0.

"I don't like moral losses, but I thought we played quite well (in the first game)," Tozer said.

Hammes, representing his country for the first time, remembered the atmosphere in the arena as something special.

"What was a really cool experience was the first game we played Brazil," he said. "We walked in, following the U.S. flag, and they had a Champions league-type song playing, 9,000 fans just going nuts," he said. "Then hearing the national anthem, that was kind of a cool experience. It was different than hearing it before a Wave game."

Despite having played little futsal, Hammes said so many elements of the game are incorporated into Coach Tozer's Wave strategy, it wasn't entirely foreign.

"I thought Joe did very well," Tozer said. "How we play here has something to do with some tactics and patterns with futsal, and I thought he held his own."

In addition to the games, the U.S. team was able to observe training tactics of some of the world's best club teams, including Malwee. Wave rookie standout Marcio Leite played for Malwee, which also is home to perhaps the world's best futsal player, Falcao.

A hero with the national team, Falcao was the villain for Malwee in a club game on the road against a hated rival, Joinville. After a spirited, physical game in which Falcao both starred and was cursed, a Joinville fan slipped through security and slugged Falcao in the eye, leaving him with a shiner. "We were right in the middle of it, fights breaking out all over the place, we didn't know what was going on," said Hammes, who joined his teammates in skipping the arena in a hurry.

Hammes will accompany the U.S. on the next training trip, which leaves Sunday for Spain. The U.S. will face the Spanish national team - two-time defending world champions - in a pair of games in a week. The team going to the cities of Cordoba and Jaen will be more veteran, with Wave representatives Nick Vorberg, Brett Phillips and Troy Dusosky joined by Lee Tschantret and Denison Cabral from the Baltimore Blast and John Ball from the Chicago Storm. MISL MVP Jamar Beasley also was in Brazil and is going to Spain.

"Every game we go into we want to win, but we need to identify some new players," Tozer said.




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