Futsal gaining popularity in Trussville

It’s mid-afternoon on a December Saturday as a handful of families filter into the Trussville Parks & Recreation Red Gym. Instead of walking in with high-top sneakers and dribbling basketballs, these young athletes are wearing low-top, flat-bottom soccer shoes and carrying soccer balls under their arms.

The game they’re preparing to play this afternoon is called “futsal,” a variation of soccer that’s played on gym floors. Originating in South America, futsal has grown in popularity over the last decade among soccer players and coaches looking for ways to keep their skills sharp during the winter months.

Futsal was invented in 1930 by Juan Carlos Ceriani in Montevideo, Uruguay, as a recreational sport for play in area YMCAs. Using soccer as his template, Ceriani also borrowed heavily from other sports, such as basketball and water polo, to create the new game. It eventually developed into competitive leagues and tournaments throughout South America and Europe, drawing thousands of fans. 

A futsal game is divided into two halves (20-minute halves for youth futsal in Trussville) and each team has five players on the court: four field players and a goalie. Unlike a version of indoor soccer popularized in America with walls keeping the ball in play, futsal uses boundary lines similar to basketball, forcing players to use a more controlled passing style rather than kicking and chasing the ball downfield. 

Trussville Parks & Recreation offers futsal leagues for adults and kids from December through February. 

Pedro Ruiz, a youth coach with Trussville United Soccer Club, said futsal is a great game for regular soccer players due to its fast play and the ability to get every player involved in the action. It also helps them keep up their skills in the off-season.

“We’re done with soccer in November and we take two months off,” Ruiz said. “This just keeps the players engaged, so when we get back to the soccer fields they haven’t just been sitting at home playing video games.” 

He added that the sport is great for skill development, especially among younger players still learning how to play soccer at a high level. 

“The kids love it. It’s very fast-paced, and within 20 seconds every kid has touched the ball, so that’s one of the things they love,” Ruiz said. “It’s also a shorter field, and so they get a lot of touches.”

Futsal balls are slightly smaller and heavier than soccer balls and don’t have the same bounce. These differences mean the ball stays on the ground for the majority of a futsal game rather than being kicked high into the air, as is common in soccer. 

“It helps players a lot with their touches,” Ruiz said. “In futsal, you see them passing the ball around more and it’s not bouncing around like on a soccer field.”

Trussville United director of coaching Scott Flowers said futsal forces players to focus on developing their foot skills, which American players typically lack compared to players from Europe and South America. 

He also said futsal through Trussville Parks & Recreation is a more relaxed atmosphere, so the players feel freer to experiment and try new things without a lot of pressure to win, which helps young players build their confidence.

“Individual skills, ball skills, beating players 1-v-1, confidence on the ball and it’s very fast-paced, so you have to make quick decisions,” Flowers said. “It’s all about footwork, being under control, balance and coordination.”

“It’s also a different environment,” he added. “It’s low-key, so the kids can just go out and have fun and express themselves using the ball.”

Learn more about futsal and other sports offered by Trussville Parks & Recreation at trussville.org/departments/parks-recreation.