First Impression: A relative newcomer to futsal discusses its benefits, as well as the advantages he sees for his sons over the walled game

By Tim Morley

   I took up soccer late. I was 36 before I started playing, watching, and studying the game. Were it not for my two sons I may have never been introduced to the beautiful game. When they began to play competitively, I was introduced to indoor soccer and futsal.

   For the last two years, I’ve watched my older son play futsal in the winter and my younger son play indoor with his regular team and futsal with his older brother’s team. While I have my own opinion, which I’ll explain, my younger son made his decision quickly, it’s futsal for him.

Tim Morley and sons Andrew, left, and Nate at Livestrong Park in Kansas City.

   This year, his second session of indoor was optional. He’s playing indoor, but futsal games will take precedence. He loves playing, despite him being almost three years younger than many of the players he is going up against.

   Indoor is a fast-paced game. I get why people like it and I like it, too. It’s also a dangerous game.

   My younger son is on a U13 team. At that age, boys begin to develop at different rates. You can have some very significant size differences in boys that age.

Since many of the kids are much larger than my younger son, I always worry a little when he takes the field for an indoor game. He’s been taken into the wall a few times,  which makes me quite nervous when I see the hit coming.

   I don’t worry about that with futsal. If the referees are worth their salt – follow the rules and spirit of the game – they don’t allow the shouldering off the ball game you see in outdoor and indoor. That results in players needing to learn to play defense with their feet. They must learn to slow an attacker down without being able to simply blow him off the ball. That carries over well to the outdoor game, where a defender can learn how to slow an attack and leave time for teammates to get back into a play.

   Futsal is also a superior game for developing foot skills. Indoor is fast-paced, requiring players to player faster than they do in the outdoor game. But it’s also a game where young players learn to rely on the walls too much instead of working on developing a faster pace of play and quicker movement of the ball to teammates.

   In futsal, players must learn to think, move and pass as quickly as they can while maintaining control. The court size simply doesn’t allow players to dribble for long stretches without drawing a nearby defender. Players learn to develop quick, soft touches and to do it in tight quarters. Those players with excellent footwork shine during a futsal game. And once again, these are skills that transfer outdoors and make for better players.

   Safety is another reason I prefer futsal. As I mentioned earlier, my younger son plays with his brother’s futsal team, many of whom are up to three years older. While my wife isn’t as relaxed as I am about the situation, I don’t worry about him getting hurt. I realize he could get hurt – I’ve seen a young man break his shin playing futsal – but by removing the walls players encounter in indoor soccer, you significantly reduce the potential of injury. My younger son has a teammate who could be out for up to year from a concussion he suffered while being driven into a wall.

   You only need to take a look at some of the top players to ever play soccer to see the effects of futsal on their game: Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, and Ronaldinho to name a few. All played futsal as young boys, and all are either world players of the year or candidates for the award.

   You can see the quick footwork and creativity they developed playing the game. Indoor seems to be ingrained in the minds of quite a few of the youth coaches I talk with. I hope that changes over time as it will only improve the quality of play of US players on the international level.

Editor’s note: In addition to being the father of two competitive players, the author is an avid player who participates in pick-up soccer, lunch-hour games, indoor soccer (where he hurt the cartilage in a knee and his son’s scrimmages, including futsal. He’s a computer programmer who works in Kansas City.

Care to share your impressions of futsal with our readers? E-mail your story to the editor, dknopf@kc.rr.com. Include a photo of yourself, and if you're a coach, your team.