|
|
Miniaturized game turns soccer inside out
Local players are using futsal league to improve skills
By Christopher L. Gasper, Globe Staff | December 26, 2004
MIDDLETON, MA -- It seems peculiar, the sprawling game of soccer
condensed to the confines of a basketball court, its players
reduced to bumpers in a giant pinball machine. The game's odd
appearance is matched only by its unusual name, which evokes
thoughts of a healing salve: futsal.
Short for futbol sala -- loosely translated as indoor soccer --
futsal is played in soccer-crazed countries all over the world. It
is hailed as a teaching tool that develops players' technical and
tactical abilities by forcing them to maneuver and make decisions
in confined space.
The funny game with the funny name is sanctioned by soccer's
global governing body, the Federation Internationale de Futbol
Association. It is played professionally by men in Europe and
South America, and has its own World Cup. Now, it has found a home
in Middleton.
Last year Bruce Diver of Boxford, along with three partners,
founded Essex County Futsal, a recreational league that plays at
North Shore Technical High School in Middleton, and the Black
Widows Futsal Club, a girls' club team. The 49-year-old Diver, who
has three daughters who have grown up playing soccer, said he saw
futsal's potential to improve the level of play on local soccer
fields and wanted to introduce the five-on-five game to players in
the area.
"At the high school level all they play is kick the ball from one
end of the field to the other," said Diver. "I said, 'Here is a
game that has all the things you need to bring outdoors.' I call
it playing micro-soccer and you have to have foot skills to do it.
[The players] have to use their foot skills and it tends to drive
them to do a better job."
Unlike traditional indoor or "wall" soccer, which is played during
the winter by many local youth soccer organizations, futsal is a
true miniaturized version of the outdoor game with a few minor
modifications. Kick-ins replace throw-ins when the ball leaves the
field of play, the goalkeepers are forced to reintroduce the ball
into play within four seconds of making a save, and slide-tackling
is prohibited. To accommodate the smaller playing surface, the net
is reduced to 6 feet high and 10 feet wide and a special
low-bounce ball is used to discourage high kicks or collisions
caused by a player's attempt to play the ball with his or her
head.
Last year, 176 players signed up for the futsal league's inaugural
session; Essex County Futsal offers two separate seven-week
periods of play. When the league, which has three divisions --
under-12 boys', under-12 girls', and a mixed gender circuit for
under-14 and under-16 teams, where the boys' and girls' teams play
each other -- kicked off its first session last Sunday, more than
200 players had signed up to play on the 24 teams. Diver said he
already has teams that have signed up for the second session
because they were boxed out of the first.
"If we had more facilities we wouldn't have a problem filling
them," said Diver, who is the president of Touch Line Soccer, the
company created to manage the futsal league, where entry is $490
per team. "But a lot of high schools are booked up with basketball
and a lot of other things they have to do in the winter."
In addition to the league, Diver also has expanded the Black
Widows club, which is the only futsal-specific club program in
Massachusetts. The original team, which finished third in the U-14
division of the United States Futsal Federation National
Championship tournament in Anaheim, Calif., in July, has been
joined by U-16 and U-12 squads.
Touch Line vice president Lenny Cavallaro of Ipswich, who is
partners in the league along with Diver, Scott McKeen, and Edwin
Cowart, said players are taking notice of what futsal can do for
their games.
"Many of the finest players in the world have played this game and
it seems to have helped them," he said.
Ashley McKenelley of Middleton is one of the members of the
original Black Widows team along with Diver's youngest daughter,
Ashley; Alyssa Accomando of Beverly; Stephanie Guido of Middleton;
Kelly Getchell and Casey King of Danvers; and Jackie Specht and
Christine Donovan of North Andover. McKenelley said once players
get accustomed to the faster pace and slightly different rules,
futsal is a great training tool.
"This is probably the best thing to do to increase your skills,"
said McKenelley, 13.
Despite not having a player older than 15, the Black Widows boast
varsity players from Danvers High, Beverly High, North Andover
High, and Masconomet Regional. Diver said players like his
15-year-old daughter, Ashley, who played on the Masconomet varsity
team this fall, have told him that the frenetic pace of futsal has
made them better soccer players.
"My daughter said, 'When I go outside, I feel like I have so much
more time to think what to do,"' said Diver.
The Black Widows, who practice once a week for two hours, are so
adept at playing the finesse-filled micro-game that they have
beaten boys' teams. Diver said the game's emphasis on technical
and tactical ability levels the playing field.
"This can help you for outdoors, but outdoors can't help you for
this," explained McKenelley.
Some of the players, who began playing simply to improve their
foot skills for soccer, have come to enjoy playing the
five-on-five, miniaturized version of the sport more than the real
thing.
"I like it better than soccer," said Getchell. "In soccer you have
to depend on your defense or your forwards. In futsal there are no
positions; everyone can do everything."
Diver said that his long-term goal is to found a women's
professional futsal league in the United States, so that the girls
on his teams today will have a place to play in the future, but
for now he is content with helping to raise the skill level of
area players using the funny game with the funny name.
"The ones who pick [futsal] up, within a year of being with me
will be better players, and it's self-evident," said Diver. "I
feel good about that. I feel like I'm doing them a service."
|
12/26/2004: Game Turns
Soccer Inside Out
