THE BENEFITS OF FUTSAL
The Spanish U14 Cup Final was
played in front of 500 fans and
streamed live. Barcelona beat Catgas
to retain their crown as the Spanish
champions.
New Zealander Matt Fejos has been
involved in the game of futsal for
nearly ten years as a player, coach,
referee and development officer. He
now lives in Manchester where he
coaches futsal and is undertaking
his FA and UEFA qualifications. He
regularly blogs about his experiences and the people he meets through
futsal at www.mattfutsalfejos.com.
Recently, he spent 10 days in Spain
and watched the men’s Spanish Cup,
as well as the U14s in training and
matches. Here he uses this experience and new perspective on the
game to discuss the benefits of playing futsal in an exclusive for Grass
Roots Football.
The benefits of futsal are often misconstrued, and although it is not a
guaranteed pathway to success or a
GRASSROOTS FOOTBALL
total solution to the development of
players, the effect of futsal is simply
too big to ignore. The correlation
of the very best football players and
their exposure to futsal is clear: Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar all credit futsal
as being important in their development.
But maybe this thinking can cloud
our thinking and limit the true potential of futsal.
I first came across the word ‘futsal’
in 2007 in Wellington, New Zealand
and the bug got me so bad that just
three years later I was working as a
full time futsal development officer
for the regional football confederation.
Here’s why I love the game and what
I see as the benefits:
More touches = more practise. More
skill developed and more time getting comfortable with the ball at the
feet. Often these are in 1v1 or tight
situations, so holding the ball up, and
taking players on are experienced far
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more than in regular football.
More intense. This is why I fell in
love with the game when I first
played. With not only the reduced
space, but kick-ins and outs, you are
met with pressure every time you
receive the ball. Dealing with this
is a big challenge so you are always
engaged.
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