USA national team practice sessions in preparation for the England tournament

US national team is getting ready in Milwaukee for the Futsal tournament in England which will be in a week

Tactical sessions are my favorite sessions when it comes to adult FUTSAL teams

It's always great being at a session that Keith Tozer ( Men's national team head coach ).  His practice sessions are full of new and fun set plays and of course player movements with and without the ball

Ginga

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Futsal is a team sport that one player in the team can make a huge difference in the outcome of the game.

 According to the Brazilian players in order to be that one player you must know Ginga.  Something that Falcao is a master in.

There is a mysterious Brazilian essence  to the game which is called Ginga, its hard to define it.  Its in the way the body moves, its like a dance.  By knowing Ginga you will be able to dribble fast and make quick moves with the ball. 

It all happens from the early ages of a player.  Touching different parts of the ball with different parts of your feett will give the player an advantage.  It’s very important that you use both feet.  You do not need necessarily a big field to practice.  Just a small area that you can move with the ball. 

Brazilian coaches believe in Ginga and usually one fourth of the practice sessions are always spent on teaching new technics and working on the other technics that were taught on previous sessions.  Whereas in Spain the coaches had very little practice sessions on technic, it was more about set plays and formations in the game.


 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqXm5Fqfbc4

Play to win or to have fun

As a coach this has been very difficult for me. I coach two youth teams U14 and U16 Boys.  They play in a league and recently they played in the Northeast Regional Futsal tournament.

We all try to teach the kids that we all play for fun, but is it really for fun?  When there is a trophy for the best team and when we have playoffs and semi finals and final games then how can we tell the kids to just play for fun?

At the regional tournament we played against teams from NH, NY and MA.  The games were very heated and very exciting. We lost the final game and till today ( after 30 days ) the players of the team are still upset!  Is this fun???

What is the job of the coach to teach the player go there and have fun or go there to win or….

Northeast Regional Futsal Championships

2013 Northeast Regional Futsal Championships

The 2013 Northeast Regional Championships will take place January 19-21 at MGA Sports in Norwood, Mass. ( 675 Canton st)

116 teams from five states have signed up.  I consider this a great success for MA Futsal Association.  The amount of teams that are registered is more than the amount of teams registered last year in the National tournament.

I strongly recommend you to come down and watch great level of Futsal playing.  The FIFA Futsal Referee instructor, the FIFA Futsal referee and the former FIFA Futsal referee will be officiating the games along with forty referees from the states of MA, NH, NJ.

This will be the largest Northeast Regional Futsal event.  Teams are from MA, NY, NJ, NH and RI from U9 all the way to Adults.

MGA has five Futsal courts and all the games are happening under one roof.  Hope to see you there.

You can learn more about the tournament at http://www.futsalma.com/

Futsal in Massachusetts

If you live in the state of Massachusetts and want to play Futsal, I recommend checking out
www.futsalma.com

The league has about 250 teams.  There are great Futsal players with some of the best Futsal coaches in the US.  The league uses about forty of the best Futsal referees.  The level of competition is great.  Every Saturday and Sunday during winter time there are at least 100 games per day.

Visit the website and you will be able to look at the schedule.  If you have the time go and watch a game. After watching a game you would want to jump in and play yourself.  The sport is one of the best sports that I have ever played/watched.

Try it!     

Futsal Refereeing

Refereeing this game is very harder than what it looks like.  The majority of  Scocer referees think that refereeing Futsal is very easy.

Since the game is played on a smaller court ( compared to Soccer ) the game becomes a lot faster.  There will be a lot of contacts between player and referees must make decisions way faster that they do it in Sooccer.  As a matter of fact I strongly believe that refereeing Fusal will make you a better Soccer referee.

The game is officiated with two referees on the pitch ( Referee 1 & Referee 2)  and two referees out side the pitch ( Assistant referee & Time keeper).  The referees must 'Bracket' play and in needs a lot of running and eye contact between Referee 1 and Referee 2.

Every restart must happen in four second ( exceptions in PK and Kick off) therefore the referee must always be on his/her feet and ready.

I strongly suggest that soccer referees, officiate Futsal in winter time ( when the outdoor season is on a break).  It will make them better referees.

What do you think about the final game of the Futsal World Cup 2012

I watched the whole game between Brazil and Spain and frankly it was not an exciting game.  Its a known fact that the teams who are in the final game usually are under so much stress that they don't play the way they used to play.  Players and coaches are under a lot of pressure and that will not allow them to make the correct decisions. The fear of losing the final game takes over and it will change the whole game.

I personally thought Brazil was completely out of it at the first half.  They way the team was defending was very different. Brazil usually starts the press from the other half of the pitch and takes all the passing options from the other team. 

I was shocked when I didn't see Falcao play at the first half and had a really hard time figuring out what Brazil wanted to do.