Origins of the Modern Game.
“Futsal”
If we speak of the nurturing nature of Mother Soccer who first springs to mind other than the wonderous delights of Brasil?
Famed for the canary yellow jerseys of the “Selecao” and known for their flamboyance and conveyable ability to churn out elaborated and genius modern day footballers, its hard to find a nation in recent history that has had more “One Offs” in regards to individual ability.
…But how? Why? When?
I’ll earmark a few names to get the juices flowing…Ronaldo (Fenomeno), Ronaldinho, Juniniho, Roberto Carlos, Romario, Cafu, Neymar Jnr, Kaka…needless to say that all of the aforementioned have once or twice made us jump from the Chaise Lounge and perform cartwheels in the living room? No?
This compelled me to address the issue of why us mere mortals were not born with this god given right of agility and mental sharpness to perform these acrobatic and mesmerizing glimpses of what appear to be footballing miracles.
…i then stumbled across a game…FUTSAL.
Known for its fast pace, small courts, necessity for quick thinking and close knitted skill we begin to start seeing a comprehensive argument for why this much loved and celebrated game could have a BIG effect on World Football. There is a hierarchy of outstanding nations being Brazil, Argentina, Spain and Portugal and sure enough we begin to see the emergence in our minds of the greatest players to grace the green, geometry laden field.
Maradona and Ronaldinho both displayed undeniable quality at the game of Futsal and were key conduits for flowing the skill and mesmerizing ball control into Europe. The European game of “pass and move” and “bludgeoning back post headers” from corners soon begun to unravel a new kind of genius…the mazy dribbling genius of Maradona and co.
No better highlighted than arguably the greatest goal ever scored at a World Cup Finals in Mexico 1986…
“Mexico 1986”
Fast forward into the modern era and we all watched on in 2005 as Ronaldinho appeared to control time, stop the clocks and precisely toe-punt the ball into the Chelsea net during an “all at stake” Champions League knockout game…it appeared alien, however these moves and calculations are common and regularly used in the beautiful game of…FUTSAL.
“Stop the Clocks”
Taking a look at my own knowledge of Futsal I can only recollect starting my football career playing on Blustery, Balding, Muddy Pitches. Controlling the ball became the first test, then came the panic of what to do next and before you knew it you found yourself retreating back into good old Route One.
Slowly you begin to see where the problem lies here with England at major tournaments.
Yes, England has produced a hatful of mesmerizing football players over the years but our teams cohesion and ability to show complete comfort on the ball in key areas and at stressful moments in major tournaments is limited and wanting…
Brazil on the other hand…well, its just another game of FUTSAL.
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