We report below an article by Philip Hersh from The Times, with the final part (in bold) dedicated to a short refer to the futsal final between Brazil and Argentina. In the article are reported also the "embarassing" words expressed by the Pan American Games Sport Organization president Mario Vazquez Rana, who already confirmed that futsal won't be present in the next edition of the games, to take place in Guadalajara, Mexico, in the year 2011. According to Vazquez Rana, futsal was included in the Rio de Janeiro edition just as a courtesy to the brazilian people, crazy for all football related sports. That would sound quite ridicolous considering the "worldwide development" (??!!) of some sports included in the next Pan Am Games Edition (see the complete list: click here) as well in the Olympic Games, we wonder which courtesies are they in need to obtain to stay there, edition after edition...

Anyway, no surprises about that, as we have just learned that SPORT is a matter of courtesies rather than sport principles... who should therefore care about futsal in the Pan Am Games?




Courtesy: LA Times


Rainy weather continues to set the tone at Pan Am Games

By Philip Hersh, Special to The Times

July 29, 2007

RIO DE JANEIRO — Another gloomy, miserable day in Rio. Wind-swept, steady rain. Temperatures in the high 50s.

But canoeists still paddled Saturday at the Pan American Games. Synchronized divers jumped from the three-meter springboard, undoubtedly happy to get into water warmer than the rain and air.

And synchronized swimmers sashayed through the water. The gobs of gel they use to keep their hair in place were also useful as virtual umbrellas. The United States won the synchro team competition Saturday, thereby qualifying for the 2008 Olympics in that event as well as duet, which it had won Friday.

The sun has shone only intermittently — about one day in three — since the Games began July 13. One day at the waterlogged baseball/softball stadium, a gust of wind lifted a canvas overhang and dumped gallons of collected water on unsuspecting fans and media. A water polo match had continued in a full-blown rainstorm.

Tennis was moved indoors Saturday. The medal-round softball games were canceled. Rather than try to play Sunday — when more rain is forecast — on a field with extremely poor drainage, the medals were decided by prior results in the tournament, so the United States (3-0, allowing just two hits in those games) won the gold.

The Pan Am Games organizers clearly dissed the ball-and-bat sports, knowing they have been dumped from the Olympic program after 2008. Their chances of getting back by 2016, when Rio hopes to have the Olympics, are not great.

"One sour note has been the facilities for baseball and softball," Brazilian sports minister Osvaldo Silva Jr. said Saturday. "Not enough attention was paid to baseball. We are not happy."

According to statistics on the BBC's website, an average July in Rio includes six hours of sun per day, 1.6 inches of rain and temperatures between 62 and 75 degrees. The weather has mocked those averages this July. It was so chilly by Saturday afternoon my colleague Elliott Almond of the San Jose Mercury News was calling the city, "Frio de Janeiro."

What better way to lift soggy spirits than by watching Brazil play archrival Argentina for the gold medal in soccer? You would be sure to get the illusion of sunshine from an arena full of fans in bright yellow Brazil jerseys.

And no one would get wet, since this was futsal, or indoor soccer. Outdoors, where Brazil's women won gold, its men failed to get past group play.

The 3,052 packed into one of the indoor venues at Riocentro, a convention center, got what they wanted, a 4-1 triumph.

Yet the atmosphere was surprisingly subdued except at halftime, when the fans danced and sang to the pounding beat of venerable rock classics, and at other times when they were prompted by music. Spontaneous uproar came only when Brazil scored or Falcao, who had two of its goals, put on a dizzying exhibition of footwork with the ball or, with three minutes to play, when it was safe to start singing, "We are the champions."

"It's a win not only for our team but the futsal sport," Falcao said.

Sort of.

The sport apparently has made its debut and swan song at these Pan Am Games.

Three hours after Brazil's victory, Mario Vazquez Rana, president of the Pan American Games Sports Organization, confirmed that futsal would not be played at the 2011 Pan Ams in Guadalajara, Mexico, saying it was included here as a "courtesy" to the football-mad Brazilians. Vazquez Rana passed the buck on futsal's future to the international soccer federation (FIFA).

I have a suggestion: they should dump men's outdoor soccer from the Olympics and Pan Ams in favor of futsal. The Olympic soccer tournament, for under-23 teams, is essentially meaningless compared to the men's World Cup. Futsal would be cheaper (it can be played in almost any indoor space and involves fewer athletes) and, in many ways, more entertaining.

So, as the rain poured down outside, futsal had its brief moment in the sun.

And then it rained on its indoor parade.


Philip Hersh covers Olympic sports for The Times and Chicago Tribune.



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