Courtesy: Daily Trojan Online


A different take on a classic game

Futsal, a form of soccer developed in Brazil, has gained a place at USC.

by Dennis Lin

It's Brazilian in its roots," Dustin Tetzl said. "It's a game about skill, speed and tactics."

Now you might think you know where this is going.

Soccer, after all, draws many of its origins from Brazil, the world's premier powerhouse in the sport. And one definitely needs skill, speed and tactics to succeed in soccer.

But this isn't soccer.

It's futsal.

The name of the game is derived from the Portuguese "futebol de salão" and the Spanish "fútbol sala" or "fútbol de salon." Taken literally, futsal can be translated as "indoor soccer."

But futsal isn't just another name for indoor soccer, either.

In the 1930s, Juan Carlos Ceriani of Montevideo, Uruguay, developed a five-a-side game for youth competitions in local YMCAs. Around the same time, a similar version began to take shape on the streets of São Paulo, Brazil. The first rules were published in Brazil in 1936.

FIFA, the sport's governing body, describes futsal as played by two teams of five players, one of whom is the goalkeeper. The ball is smaller and has less bounce than a normal soccer ball.

Matches take place on basketball-sized courts on a variety of indoor and outdoor surfaces. The game does not use walls or boards, relying instead on lines to define the court boundaries.

Since its official establishment more than 70 years ago, the sport has experienced a steady growth in popularity around the world. While Brazil continues to be the futsal hub of the world, the game is spreading to all corners of the globe.

It's already found its way to the sunny campus of USC.

The USC futsal club was founded in the fall of 2006 by students Harrison Cavallero and Daniel Tkach, who is a member of the Daily Trojan editorial board. The team fields more than 20 players and currently competes in the King Indoor Futsal League, located at the Hollywood Sports Complex in Bellflower, Calif.

Even if the club is relatively new, its members are anything but new to the game of soccer. The team draws players from a wide range of countries, including Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Korea and Japan.

"All the players on our team grew up as soccer players," Tetzel, a sophomore majoring in biology and neuroscience, said before a scrimmage against the USC soccer club. "When I came back from my leave of absence [from soccer], my friends had already started the futsal club, so I joined. We saw a lot of good soccer players who weren't on the [USC] soccer club."

Tetzl has been with the team since the beginning of last semester. He will take over as president of the club in the fall.

"It takes more specific skill than outdoor soccer," Tetzl said of the nature of futsal. "You need really good ball control. Your technique needs to be better. I think the biggest thing is foot skills."

A quick YouTube search for futsal finds that Tetzl is right. Masters of the sport seem to be playing with invisible strings attached to their feet, yo-yoing the ball past would-be defenders.

At the highest levels of the game, players must make decisions in half the time it takes to make them in outdoor soccer. Instead of getting by on brute strength and speed, a good futsal player knows how to use a combination of technique and creativity.

"My favorite thing about futsal is that it's about finesse," Tetzl said. "There are things you can do in futsal that you can't do in outdoor soccer."

But that's not to say that one is better than the other. Lessons learned on the futsal court can be put to good use on the soccer field.

Tim Burns, author of "Holistic Futsal," described the parallel between futsal and outdoor soccer: "In [futsal], control and technique offer you countless quality touches which directly translate to the outdoor game. You learn to work with your teammates who must be there to support you, you learn the feinting skills to beat an opponent instead of relying on a wall and you learn how to shoot accurately and at the right time because errant shots result in the opponents getting the ball.

"Futsal is clearly a superior, faster and safer way of developing real soccer skills," he wrote.

His claim is not without proof. International soccer stars such as Johan Cruyff, Diego Maradona and Rivaldo honed much of their skills playing futsal before moving on to organized soccer.

The knowledge of such futsal backgrounds has contributed to the prominence of the sport throughout Europe and South America.

Tetzl and the USC futsal club members hope to someday see futsal and soccer enjoying the same kind of popularity in the United States. They welcome players of all skill levels to come play with the team at any time of the year.

"I see [futsal] picking up and slowly replacing indoor soccer," Tetzl said. "If America wants to improve at soccer, it needs to improve its indoor soccer."

And USC isn't a bad place to start.






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