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Wednesday, December 21, 2011

NATIONAL FUTSAL TEAM COACH Tozer TO VISIT JAN. 7-8

US Men's National Futsal Team Head Coach Keith Tozer will visit Boston in January to lead clinics for one of the country's largest and fastest-growing futsal communities. A FIFA Futsal Instructor, Tozer has been head coach of the United States National Team since 1996, leading the side to three FIFA Futsal World Cups and two CONCACAF Futsal Championship gold medals.

The public is invited to observe an interactive training session led by Coach Tozer on Saturday, Jan. 7 from 7-9 pm at Pine Manor College in Brookline. He will lead the Massachusetts U14 and U16 state teams through a training session, explaining activities to the crowd and answering questions along the way. Admission is free to all players, coaches and parents currently registered for Massachusetts Futsal Association leagues, academies and teams. Individuals and teams from outside the MFA community are invited for a small fee of $2/person. Outside organizations may bring an unlimited number of people for $100/club, payable in advance.

Youth players age 9-12 are invited to a special participatory clinic with Coach Tozer on Sunday, Jan. 8 at Park School in Brookline. A boys clinic will be held from 10:30-11:30 and a girls clinic from 11:30-12:30. Space is limited to the first 20 registrants. Immediate online payment of $40 is required.

A classroom session will be held on Sunday, Jan. 8 from 1:30-3 pm at Park School in Brookline. This is geared toward coaches and others who are interested in learning directly from Coach Tozer in an intimate, classroom environment. Space is limited to the first 40 coaches. Immediate online payment of $20 is required.

For more information and to register, website: www.futsalma.com/Tozer

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Regional futsal tournaments set the stage for February's one-site US Youth and Adult Futsal national tournament at the Overland Park Convention Center


Regional champs from our Boston-area league.
What's better than another excuse to play futsal? US Youth Futsal Regionals begin soon.  The Only Regional Futsal Tournaments Sanctioned By US Soccer. 

In addition to sharpening your team's skills and gaining futsal experience, you'll be competing against teams that aspire to play at a higher level at the US Youth and Adult Futsal national tournament in Overland Park, Kan. Feb. 17-20. There are five regional sites and you'll find a link below for further information and registration for each of them:
  • Southeast Regional (Naples) Second week of January 2012
  • Great Lakes Regional (Cleveland) Jan. 7-8 2012
  • Northeast Regional (Boston) Jan. 13-16 2012 
  • Midwest Regional (St. Louis) Jan. 14-15 2012
  • Atlantic Regional (Sewell, N.J.) Feb. 3-5 2012 http://www.usfutsalregionals.com/  
  •   (The general contact for information about either the regional tournaments or the USYF National Tournament is John Sciore. He can reached at 314-604-4801 or j.sciore@usyouthfutsal.com)
  • And here's a link to John Hassis's promotional video for this year's regional tournament:
  •  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQFG5VSDAaY&feature=player_embedded
Champions of our Naples, Fla. league.

-- David Knopf, Newsletter Editor, dknopf@kc.rr.com

    Saturday, December 17, 2011

    Twin Cities Futsal, a new league with Minnesota's first futsal-specific facility, hosts open house


    Marshall Morehead, a former high school All-America, Division I college player and professional with the Minnesota Thunder, became familiar with futsal while living in Portland. On Dec. 10, he hosted an open house that marked the opening of his state's first futsal-specific facility.

    (Editor's note: Our thanks to Brian Quarstad and IMSoccer News for allowing us to reprint this blog post in our newsletter. Marshall Morehead's new league and futsal-specific facility are big steps forward for Marshall, Minnesota and the sport.
    Inside Minnesota Soccer's motto is "Uniting Soccer Fans in Minnesota and Beyond". Brian, we hope this helps. You can read more at www.insidemnsoccer.com, including news about the Minnesota Stars, the North American Soccer League (NASL) defending champions. You can also read about Brian Quarstad, a longtime fan, coach and soccer blogger in the U.S. and overseas and his blog's mission. Just click on "About Me" and "About IMS".)

    By Brian Quarstad
    IMSoccer News


    We see it more and more these days. A soccer talent moves beyond his peak playing years but stays involved with the game in some fashion or another. It’s happening at the national level with coaches, color commentators and soccer business owners. It’s also happening at the local level and Marshall Morehead is living proof.

    Minnesotans may remember Morehead as the high school player from Stillwater in the mid ’90s who could score his share of goals but could also set his teammates up with great vision and good passing. He was the state’s first Mr. Soccer playing for Stillwater High School were he was an All-American. In fact Morehead continued to hold the state record for most  points in a season (62), which he set in 1996, until it was broken last year.

    Morehead played collegiately at University of Wisconsin-Madison for one year, and then spent three years at Marquette. After graduation, he played professionally for the Minnesota Thunder for three years.

    These days Morehead works in the financial services industry but he has stayed involved with soccer. He lived in Portland, Oregon for a period of time and it was there he was introduced to futsal, which he had never played as a youth.

    Futsal, which is played throughout the world and is primarily an indoor game, is played on a court-like surface about the size of a basketball court. The ball is slightly smaller and heavier, keeping it on the ground and making it more of a technical game. This lends itself to great winter training for youth players. Morehead says he grew up playing soccer in the winter at the old Corner Kick facility in Maplewood as well as Bielenberg in Woodbury when if first opened. But because Minnesota never had a specific futsal facility, he had never experienced the game.

    “Playing for the Thunder was more or less a justification for all the hard work I had put in through the years to say, I got paid to play the game that I love,” said Morehead. “But at the end of my Thunder career I had burnt myself down to the last part of my wick. I didn’t want to play outside and I didn’t want to get hurt. I also didn’t want to deal with people who take the game way too seriously. When you play futsal it’s so much more technical. So for someone who is maybe athletic but doesn’t have the skill, futsal is not that enjoyable.”

    Futsal is played with five players, one of whom is a goalkeeper. Unlimited substitutions area allowed. “I love the fast pace and the constant sub on the fly,” said Morehead. “In 45 minutes you get a great work out.”

    It was playing futsal in Portland that the former Minnesota Thunder player fell in love with playing soccer again. It was also in Portland when Morehead came up with his idea: Minnesota’s first futsal-specific facility. Morehead eventually made it back to Minnesota and this weekend he will realize his dream by opening Twin Cities Futsal at 900 Sixth Avenue SE, Suite 190, in North East Minneapolis.

    Morehead says from the beginning he always wanted to find a place in Minneapolis for his facility and he’s very pleased with his new space. The facility is in an industrial area of North East Minneapolis, but the building where Twin Cities Futsal is located has been renovated and houses offices for many organizations including MinnPost.com. The building is located just off of 35-W.

    Twin Cities Futsal has a new parking lot with a beautiful wood facade and huge windows with a southern exposure that floods the courts with sunlight during the daylight hours. The space that hosts Twin Cities Futsal is an old steel warehouse. Walking through the building feels cavernous and yet, somehow, has a very warm feel to it. Gracing the high ceiling are two faded yellow and monstrous 10-ton electric hoists that still are operational if need be. Morehead has installed a new entry way, bathrooms and new heating and cooling system. The facility has a modern urban loft type of feel.

    “It’s a unique and very cool space that will hopefully really sell itself once people come out and see it,” says Morehead.

    In the facility Morehead has installed Snap Sport futsal flooring which is the official flooring for U.S. Futsal. “It’s a plastic composite material that snaps together,” said Morehead. “It won’t be sitting directly on concrete. We’ve got two layers of foam and two layers of plywood to make it level and to give it a little bit more give. Then the flooring sits on top of that so it gives it a little bit of cushion.”

    An official futsal field is anywhere from 16 to 27 yards wide by 27 to 46 yards long. Morehead will have 2 fields that are back to back. The fields will take up 10,000 square feet but the building itself is 15,000 square feet so there’s plenty of room for spectators. Twin Cities Futsal fields will be 17 x 27 yards in size.

    The games at Twin Cities Futsal will be 45 minutes or two 22.5 minute halves with a running clock and a couple of minutes break at halftime.

    Morehead says he has a relationship with Minneapolis United so they will be using the facility one night a week to train. The rest of the time, including weekends, Morehead’s plans are to set up leagues that will included youth and adults teams.

    On Dec. 10, Twin Cities Futsal hosted an open house with food, beverages and a shirt giveaway. Youth players played demonstration futsal games for those who'd seen it before.
    Twin Cities Futsal had youth soccer participants playing futsal on the courts during the open house, which Morehead hopes will give the public an idea of the game as well as the facility. Minnesota Stars players and their coach, Manny Lagos, attended the open house and displayed the team's NASL trophy.



    You can learn more about Marshall Morehead's league and facility at www.twincitiesfutsal.com for by calling 612.840.6298.

    Two USYF founders, now coaches with Major League Soccer's Kansas City franchise, among Generation adidas coaches in Holland

    Peter Vermes, head coach of MLS' Sporting KC.
    Former U.S. National Futsal Team players Peter Vermes and Jon Parry, both founders of U.S. Youth Futsal, were part of a Generation adidas coaching staff that recently toured the Netherlands.
    Working with Vermes and Parry were Zoran Savic and John Pascarella, members of Vermes' coaching staff at the Major League Soccer club Sporting Kansas City.
    Parry is head coach of the professional club's successful Sporting Juniors academy, and a former professional indoor player. Parry's Juniors teams all play futsal in the winter.
    The choice of Vermes and Parry was a nice achievement for futsal in the U.S., and not just because of their roles in developing USYF into a national organization. Both coaches also spent time playing for the U.S. National Futsal Team in international competition.
    Jon Parry, right, head coach of Sporting Juniors.
    And Vermes, a former Kansas City Wizards player and member of the 2000 MLS Cup championship team, was also a member of the outdoor U.S. National Team.
    In the Netherlands, the coaching staff observed training techniques and coached Generation adidas players, including some young Major League Soccer stars, in games against reserve teams from Ajax, FC Volendam and Almere City FC.
    (From left) Coaches Parry, Vermes, Zoran Savic and John Pascarella.
    Including FC Volendam in the tour was significant because it was at that club in 1990 that Vermes became the first U.S. player to play in Holland. 
    The GA team defeated Volendam 3-2, after losing matches with Ajax and Almere City. 
    -- David Knopf, Newsletter Editor, dknopf@kc.rr.com

    While at the US Youth and Adult Futsal National Tournament, visit Livestrong Sporting Park, the futuristic home of Sporting Kansas City

    Sporting Kansas City of Major League Soccer opened its state-of-the-art Livestrong Park to national acclaim and record crowds in 2011. In addition to serving as the home field for the MLS Eastern Conference finalists, it hosted national team games, friendlies with Chivas of Mexico and Newcastle of England's Premier League, and in March will be the site of the CONCACAF region U-23 semifinal and final Olympic qualifying games. The stadium is a work of architectural art and digital vision and is in close proximity to the Overland Park Convention Center and tournament hotels. Check the stadium photos below and you'll find the direction link to the stadium at the bottom of the page. And while you're in Kansas City, make sure to see the Power and Light District, the Sprint Center and the eye-catching new performing arts center. Those attractions are in downtown Kansas City, also a short drive from Overland Park.
    It's a simple drive from Overland Park to Livestrong Park. Use these directions: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&gbv=2&q=livestrong%20park%20cauldron&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=106290l107432l2l107776l8l8l0l6l6l1l213l391l0.1.1l2l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=1440&bih=762&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=il

    Learn more about the Overland Park Convention Center, surrounding Overland Park, Kan., and the sites of tourist-friendly Kansas City




    The Overland Park Convention Center is located in the heart of the entertainment and shopping district of Kansas City's largest and most progressive suburb.

    United States Youth and Adult Futsal will host its first single-site tournament in the convention center's 60,000-square foot exhibit space, where six official-size Sportcourt futsal fields will be assembled. This year, all games will be played in a single location.






    Here are a few facts about the convention center's impressive amenities:
    • 60,000-sq. ft. Exhibit Space
    • 25,000-sq. ft. Ballroom
    • 15,000-sq. ft. Meeting Space
    • 85,000-sq. ft. Contiguous Exhibit Space
    • Connected to 412-Room Hotel with 25,000-sq. ft. of Additional Meeting Space
    • 1,000 Hotel Rooms within Walking Distance
    • In-House Food and Beverage, Including Kosher Prep Area
    • Cyber Café
    • Spacious Pre-Function and Registration Area
    • A/V Connections
    • High-Speed Internet Access
    • WiFi Access in Public Areas
    • FREE parking, 400 Covered Spaces and 1,400 Total Spaces
    • Eight Bay Loading Docks and Elephant Doors.
      You can learn more about the convention center at http://www.opconventioncenter.com/default.asp

      Like additional information about the Overland Park and Kansas City area? Here's a link to entertainment, dining, shopping and other attractions:

      You'll also need to decide where to stay while in Overland Park. You'll have several inviting options offered by the USYF National Tournament.
      The tournament is a stay-to-play event, which means participants are required to book rooms at special rates at one of these affiliated, nearby locations:
      1. Courtyard Kansas City Overland Park/Convention Center
      11001 Woodson Avenue
      Overland Park, KS 66211 USA
      Phone: 800.321.2211 Reference US Youth Futsal Room Block
      913.317.8500
      Cutoff date Jan 26, 2012

      2. Holiday Inn & Suites-Convention Center
      10920 Nall Avenue
      Overland Park, KS 66221
      Phone:
      Please mention reference code: SFT 




      3. Hilton Garden Inn
      5800 College Boulevard
      Overland Park, KS 66221
      Call
      – Hilton Garden Inn - 913-345-2661
      Use Group Code
      FUT
      Website
      is www.overlandpark.hgi.com
       


      Once you have made your reservation you will need to e-mail Lisa McCaughey at: lisamac@usyouthfutsal.com with the hotel name and number of rooms your team has reserved. We hope you enjoy your time in the Kansas City area!

      -- David Knopf, Newsletter Editor, dknopf@kc.rr.com

    Welcome to Overland Park, Kan., host of the single-site US Youth and US Adult Futsal National Tournament

    With the holidays fast approaching and occupying our attention, focus on the first-ever single-site United States Youth and Adult Futsal National Championship won't begin in earnest until Jan. 2, 2012.
    And the New Year will mark just one month until the deadline (Jan. 31) for the tournament, Feb. 17-20, at the Overland Park Convention Center in Overland Park, a suburb of Kansas City.
    The tournament will also be a first for a four-day tournament -- Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday -- to allow all games to be played at a single location and finals to be held on Monday. 
    And for the sixth year, the national tournament is the only U.S. Soccer-affiliated event of its kind in the United States. That's fitting for an organization that has two former U.S. National Futsal Team players as its founders, both of whom are now coaching Major League Soccer's Sporting Kansas City team and successful Juniors program.
    There's no other organization of its kind with the futsal and soccer expertise, organization, communication and customer service of US Youth and Adult Futsal.
    In previous years, the event has been staged at several locations, increasing travel for participants and diluting the feel of a true tournament campus. That won't be the case this year, with organizers assembling six regulation-size Sportcourt fields at the convention center.
    Registration is under way for boys and girls Premier and Super Group divisions (Premier begins at U8, Super Group at U10), as well as adult divisions. Registration and additional information about the tournament is available at USFutsalNationals.com
    Coaches, managers, parents and players can visualize the excitement and skill of teams at the USYF national tournament in a promotional video produced by John Hassis, the organization's videographer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxUZjJLBUjE&feature=player_embedded  
    We look forward to seeing you in Overland Park!
    -- David Knopf, Newsletter Editor (dknopf@kc.rr.com)



    Friday, December 16, 2011

    No Talk, All Play: Some futsal action you'll enjoy

    Barcelona futsal

    Did you know that the world's best outdoor club side also has a futsal team? Here's proof that Barcelona, home of Lionel Messi & Co., plays futsal and, as you'd expect plays it very well. This is Barcelona taking on Inter Movistar in the 2011 Campeón de la XXII Supercopa de España.


    Falcao adds chest to his repertoire

    The final from Gran Prix Futsal 2011 pairs the host team, Brazil, and Russia in a tight game featuring two textbook back-door goals, one by each team, and the winner by the ever-creative Falcao, who redirects a cross with his chest. Why not? We know what he can do with his feet.


    Back-heel from distance, impossible angle

    If you follow the sport closely, you've seen some remarkable goals scored in futsal, often by players in the top divisions. Here's one from a lower division in Italy, where futsal is so popular fans subscribe to a dedicated magazine. Here's a back-heel goal that'll have you asking, "How'd he do that?"


    Proving Keith Tozer right

    US National Futsal Team Coach Keith Tozer has often used Guatemala as an example of how a national side can benefit from its players competing at futsal year-round. The US used to beat Guatemala regularly, but then the little nation in Central America developed a professional futsal league. 

    Here's a video of Guatemala defeating Holland 4-1 at Gran Prix Futsal 2011 and then a second clip of Iran embarrassing the US 8-0 at the same tournament. Iran's become a powerhouse in its region (Iran beat Guatemala 4-2 at the same tournament), but Tozer still has to rely on indoor soccer players and others who rarely play our sport. He and others are trying to change that.


    1. Guatemala 4, Holland 1




    2. Iran 8, US 0

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFAtR1QiPgU

    -- Have a good futsal video you'd like to share? Let us know. dknopf@kc.rr.com

    Carlos Cruz and Paco Castillo, owners of the US Youth Futsal league in Fort Wayne, Ind., predict bright future for their sport in a Journal Gazette feature story


         The Journal Gazette, the newspaper in Fort Wayne, Ind., provided permission to United States Youth Futsal to reprint a story by reporter Ben Smith and photos by Gazette Journal photographer Swikar Patel. Smith interviews Carlos Cruz, who describes how the league -- and the players on Fort Wayne Futsal teams -- have grown since Indiana's only futsal league started.
         “I think the people that have played it and the parents who have seen their kids play it and what they’ve gotten out of when they’ve gone outside … they’re like ‘Oh, my gosh, this is phenomenal. This is great,’ ” Cruz told the newspaper.
         Thanks again to The Journal Gazette. Here's their complete story.

    Reid Sproat, right, shoots against Caleb Spencer, front, during a Fort Wayne Futsal match at Imagine Schools, the league's new venue. (Photos by Swikar Patel | Journal Gazette)
    By Ben Smith | The Journal Gazette

    FORT WAYNE – Carlos Cruz knows what it looks like, at first blush. Think the Sunset Limited, the Cannonball Express, the same track, the same time.
    “Yes, in the beginning, when the kids are trying to play it, it does look like a train wreck,” Cruz admits.
    But then? “But then when they figure out their skills and their spacing off the ball, it’s really beautiful,” he adds.
    And it’s at that point you begin to understand why Cruz fell in love with futsal and continues to be a passionate advocate for the game to this day.
    Born in Uruguay in the 1930s and brought to full flower in Brazil – where such notables as Pele and Lionel Messi sharpened their skills playing it – futsal is essentially soccer-on-the-half-shell: a 5-on-5 game played indoors on either a flat hardwood floor or a polyurethane sport court, using a smaller, heavier ball and principles that in some ways mimic basketball.
    Paco Castillo, left, and Carlos Cruz are directors of the Fort Wayne Futsal, a member of the U.S. Youth Futsal.
    Cruz first saw it as a kid growing up around Chicago, where a bunch of old pro soccer players from South America used to play the game. Pretty soon he was playing it, too, discovering it to be both distinct from soccer and yet absolutely perfect for developing the sort of ball-control skills essential to success on the bigger, outdoor pitches.
    Now he’s the director of the Fort Wayne Futsal, an affiliate of United States Youth Futsal and the only futsal league in Indiana. Cruz and his business partner, Homestead coach Paco Castillo, started it last year by putting turf down on the Red Rink at McMillen Indoor Ice Arena; now it boasts 24 teams playing on two courts at Imagine Schools on Thursdays and Saturdays, with certified futsal referees and ages ranging from U-10 to adults.
    It’s not soccer, exactly, which is why kids who’ve grown up playing soccer struggle at first with futsal.
    “What happens is these kids are trying to play it like they play outside,” says Cruz, who coaches Bishop Dwenger and Citadel Football Club and six years ago started Cruzbol International, for which he incorporates principles of futsal in camps and clinics.
    “But it’s a very unique game. The game is very quick; the ball has got to be moving. There are no walls, and it’s a very unforgiving game. If the ball goes out, it goes out.”
    And when it doesn’t, it puts a premium, much like basketball, on constant movement and control of the ball at a much swifter pace – two skills that translate very well to the outside game.
    “It forces and demands a player to control the ball and possess the ball, and also continuous movement, because if you stand around, you don’t get the ball,” Cruz says. “The added concentration it requires to control a small ball … when you take this game outside, your speed of play is enhanced, your ability to control the ball is enhanced, and it’s a phenomenal game in terms of development of technical speed.
    “I think the people that have played it and the parents who have seen their kids play it and what they’ve gotten out of when they’ve gone outside … they’re like ‘Oh, my gosh, this is phenomenal. This is great.’ ”
    It doesn’t hurt, of course, that so many soccer luminaries grew up playing it and that it’s the only form of indoor soccer officially endorsed by FIFA. It also doesn’t hurt that the kids learning to play in Fort Wayne have lots of company: Futsal boasts some 12 million players in 100 countries.
    Until recently, though, very few of those 12 million played it in the U.S.
    “It’s amazing how rapidly this phenomenon is growing,” Cruz says. “People, when they hear the history of the whole thing, they say, ‘Man, it started in 1930s?’ And here in the U.S. we’re just starting to learn what it is. In Brazil, on the other hand, until kids are 12, it’s almost all futsal.”
    And here in Fort Wayne?
    “I think it has huge potential,” Cruz says. “It’s just a matter of us getting people educated on how beneficial it is to their development.”