Success has been plentiful, but opportunity still abounds for USYF, futsal in the U.S.

By David Knopf

Futsal World Editor

Over the past year, we've read about the achievements and growing sphere of influence of United States Youth Futsal, an organization that was well-represented at a coaches' clinic in Spain and recently welcomed Keith Tozer, the U.S. National Futsal Team coach, as the owner of a new USYF affiliate in Wisconsin.

Keith Tozer, U.S. National Futsal Coach and USYF league owner.

Tozer, a former national team player himself, has announced plans to begin a Milwaukee-area USYF league in 2013 and has already organized a series of futsal tournaments in conjunction with the Milwaukee Wave, the team he has long coached in the Major Indoor Soccer League.

Luke Stauffer

We've also learned how Luke Stauffer became the first USYF-bred futsal-specific player to earn a spot on the U.S. National Team. It's a breakthrough Tozer and USYF leaders hope eventually will develop into a pipeline for the national team, which has long relied on crossover MISL players. Quickly trained, those indoor players have been asked not only to adjust to a different game, but to compete against increasingly sophisticated, well-organized CONCACAF teams with futsal-specific players.

That task is becoming less and less realistic, but as a new generation of American futsal-developed players emerges there's hope the U.S. can field a competitive side.

Also encouraging are the innovative training methods that USYF affiliates such as Barefoot Futsal in Charlotte, N.C. are using in conjunction with their leagues to develop young futsal players who can think quickly, have the foot skills to maneuver away from pressure in tight spaces and can combine with their teammates.

Sporting KC academy players compete at futsal each winter.

In Kansas City, where USYF was born 15 years ago, the academy teams from Major League Soccer's Sporting KC franchise compete at futsal each winter. The director of the club's youth program was himself a National Team futsal player, as was the head coach of the MLS team.

Similarly, there are USYF league owners on both coasts and the Cleveland-Akron area who represented the U.S. in futsal internationally and are now translating their experiences into opportunities for young players.

It's an encouraging time, but there's still much work to do.

As USYF builds futsal at the grassroots level, there have been rumblings, rumors, suggestions and dreams about futsal becoming more than what it is now -- a youth sport for the offseason and an excellent training tool for players of the outdoor game.

Many of us envision futsal as a sanctioned sport for high schools and colleges, a reality already in place for a college conference in Western Canada. In fact, a player for one of the colleges in the conference recently wrote the newsletter to say that he's on scholarship to compete in futsal and soccer and that others, male and female, should apply, too.

While there's always resistance to change -- ask anyone who's tried to add a soccer program at a high school where there is none -- it's realistic to imagine high schools and colleges with established soccer teams to transition them into winter futsal programs.

The Olds College Broncos of  Canada play futsal in their conference.

Aside from travel, most of the infrastructure -- players, coaches, uniforms, gyms, buses and bus drivers -- already exists. Add futsal goals and balls and certify referees, and you're in business.

Of course, selling the idea to state athletic authorities, local school boards and athletic directors -- and coming up with funding --– are big hurdles, but hurdles that promoters of school soccer have already overcome.

With vision and persistence, it can happen for futsal and be a natural outgrowth of what forward-looking organizations such as USYF have already accomplished.

Difficult? Yes. Impossible? Certainly not.

The same can be said for a semi-professional or professional futsal league in the U.S. It's a popular conversation topic among the game's advocates and participants, and a topic that Tim Sheldon recently addressed in a www.futsalonline.com column.

Having the MISL convert to futsal  has been the topic of speculation.

In his column, Sheldon -- a longtime observer and supporter of the game -- suggested that MISL consider converting from its current model of walled indoor soccer to futsal. The obvious advantages would be that an existing infrastructure -- a league organization, franchises, franchise front offices and staff, name recognition, a fan following, players and coaches etc. -- are all in place.

The disadvantages, of course, are equal or greater. While indoor soccer with walls is an outmoded model in increasingly soccer-sophisticated America and Canada, there's no way to know how diehard bang-it-off-the-wall indoor fans would respond to the finesse and smaller scale of futsal.

The guess here is that many of those fans are rooted in indoor soccer's hockey heritage. It would take a major miracle for the league and club owners to risk whatever already-small financial equity their sport possesses on something newd.

Were Keith Tozer to successfully argue for a transition to professional futsal -- and we have no idea what his position would be on such a transformation -- it would be a leap forward for those of us who see all the advantages that exist in replacing indoor soccer with pro futsal.

It would give our game additional exposure, provide the better players in USYF leagues something to aim for and would develop players for Tozer's national team.

The reality, however, is that developing a pro or semi-pro futsal league (or leagues in different parts of the country) from scratch is more likely. Many have suggested the games could be played in large high school or small college gyms -- where costs would be lower -- on a regional basis where travel times and expenses would be less, too. 

Such a model might include a team from St. Louis, for example, playing teams in Kansas City, Chicago, Milwaukee, Wichita, Springfield and Tulsa. The natural set-up would be to have professional franchises in cities with strong USYF leagues ... places where a pipeline of futsal-specific players would already exist.

If it's hard to envision a future with professional futsal in the U.S. and Canada –- or, for that matter, high school and college futsal –- just consider what the prospects were for a pro outdoor league in North America in the early 1990s. Not very promising, right? 

Today, MLS is firmly entrenched and has a bright future. There's no reason why futsal, on a proportionately smaller scale, couldn't enjoy the same success.

Stay tuned.

If you'd like to comment, feel free to write Futsal World Editor David Knopf at davidknopf48@gmail.com.