Futsal grading games

Futsal grading games took place on the weekend, and I began to wonder if nominating a team was such a good idea. All of our lads, bar one of them, are recovering from various injuries (two badly sprained ankles, a possible broken toe, a hamstring injury and a twisted knee). According to his dad, our sixth player hasn't kicked a ball since this time last year – not that you could tell when he blasted a beautiful long ball from half way down the pitch into the back of the opponent's net early in the game. It wasn't enough mind you, the injuries certainly seemed to take their toll in the second half; and the lads ultimately went down 7 – 2. Not a shining start to the competition, but given the quality of the opposition and the match fitness of our players, perhaps not a surprising one.

Knowing their various ills, I had nominated the team for the social division, thinking this would be the best level for them to compete at, at least until they are all recovered. The opponents for the grading game, however seemed a far cry from a social team. Ultimately this supports my theory that our boys are not yet recovered enough to compete at a higher level, however much they may want to.

Time now to take the injured toe, and the boy attached to it, to the doctor's...

What's she rabbiting on about?

I have just vicariously lived through the excitement of the National Schools Futsal Titles, where several local youth players, including Mr Y, competed. Even though that competition is over and the prodigal son returned, only slightly damaged, to the nest, the football excitement doesn't look like stopping any time soon. Around this joint Mr O (O for oldest) is looking forward to the Twilight Cup; and all three lads are gearing up to play their first futsal game of the summer roster.

So even though our local club has handed the clubrooms back to the Cricket Club, football is not really over. There's plenty of action awaiting those who don't want to stop playing. The aforementioned Twilight Cup and futsal games will take us all the way through to December – a break for Christmas, and then before you know it there's all the exhilaration of the Summer Cup which ends smack-bang before the 2011 football season starts.

Even those football fans who are having a well-earned break from playing have plenty to keep them occupied. There's the A-League, the W-League, the National Youth League, the Socceroos, the Matildas and the Fusalroos and that's just in Australia! In Europe the major competitions are under-way: English Premier League, Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A and the Champions League just to name a few of the more prominent ones.

For organisers of the sport there's analysis, planning and preparation; off-season is the ideal time for the new committee to look back to see what worked and what went wrong during the 2010 season. They'll be making decisions and trying to make sure that they are well prepared for the season ahead.

Anyway, back to the point, my personal mission with this blog is to provide football related, and possibly even interesting, content during the off-season – aimed at, but not exclusive to, WSC members. I also plan to share some of my experiences with the various web tools that I have been trialling throughout the 2010 season. Beyond the World Game itself, I'm hoping to include some sources of useful information for those volunteers who may find themselves in unfamiliar territory and in need of a road map.

If it all sounds like a rather confusing excuse to inflict my self-indulgent ramblings on an unsuspecting cyberspace, well there is that too..........

From the horse's mouth

The Vikings National Schools Futsal Tournament 2010:

The actual (but still unofficial) Tas South 15 y.o. Boys' results

Tas South 3 - Victoria 3
Tas South 2 - NSW City 6
Tas South 6 – North Queensland 2
Tas South 0 – South Queensland Vikings 10 (apparently a very strong team, they went on to win the overall age-group)
Tas South 7 – Central Queensland 0

As tentatively predicted in a previous post, the Southern Tasmanian team ended up third on their pool's ladder.

A very positive result for the team who seem to have had a great time, except, apparently, at dinner time when the catered food failed to live up to expectations. Much money was subsequently spent at a nearby bakery.

The tournament winners can be found on the Tasfutsal website

WSC boys finish on a high

The Vikings National Schools Tournament was wrapped up yesterday, but online result reporting is still a little sketchy.

While the official results for the 15 year old boys are only known by a handful of people – who aren't telling – I can tell you that the Tas South team (my personal favourite) finished their campaign in pool B on a high, defeating Central Queensland 7 – 0. All up that means the boys had two wins, a draw and two losses; so out of the 6 teams in the pool, they probably ended up in 3rd or 4th spot on the ladder. Not enough to see them progress to the semi-finals, as only the top two teams in each pool got through, but a respectable showing never-the-less.

At a glance it seems that of the Tasmanian teams, the Girls had the most success. The 12 year old Tas South Green team ended second on their ladder and made it through to the semi finals, where they were defeated 1 – 0 by the South Queensland Raiders – the eventual winners. There were three Tasmanian teams in the 13 year old pool; of the three, Tas South Green ended in second place on their ladder, won their semi final against the South Queensland Viking 4 – 3 and progressed to the final, but the result of that game (against a worryingly impressive NSW team) has yet to be published.

The Tasmanian 19 year old girls' team also looked to be progressing okay from the results posted for day 1 and day 2: with two wins and a draw they were sitting at second spot on the ladder with a game yet to be played. Depending on the results of round three the girls probably progressed to the quarter finals, if not further.

Most of the other Tassie teams ended the tournament sitting around the middle of their respective ladders, not bad for teams hastily thrown together over the last couple of months.

Murphy's still at it

At dawn on day three of the National Schools Futsal Titles, we Channel dwellers have awoken to a rather bracing 2.1 degrees and snow down to around the 300 metre level while our futsal representatives in Brisbane are wallowing in a rather toasty 18.4 degrees. Here down south we can expect a top temperature today of around 10 degrees, Brisbane is heading for a tropical and possibly stormy 28. Luckily we had popped our boys on a plane before this latest cold snap descended, so the climatic shock has probably been less extreme than it could have been.

On another note, there's still no sign of the official results for the 15 year old boys teams, however a small electronic device informed me last night that the 15 y.o. South Tassie team had secured a win in Tuesday's first fixture against North Queensland and lost their second to the South Queensland Vikings.

The lads have one last game at 10:10 this morning. I gather that even a win here will not garner them enough points overall to secure a berth in the finals – so no silverware will be making the return trip with them on Thursday. Never-the-less the team has done pretty well given that they were drawn in a rather tough group to begin with.

Murphy's Law

A loss and a draw

Over in Brisbane, the Vikings National Schools Futsal titles are into their second day of competition; for most of the age groups, the results for the first day's competition can be viewed on the Sportsvault results page Murphy's Law of course dictates that the 15 year old boys competition – where our WSC players are competing in pool B - is the one age-group whose results have yet to be posted. A brief text message at dinner time yesterday, however, informed me that of their two games they had drawn one and lost one.

This year's competition is trialling the live streaming of a select few matches, unfortunately we wont get the opportunity to see our lads in action as none of their games have been selected for the trial. Several Tasmanian teams, however did make the cut:

From 12:20 pm today (that's right now!) you can watch the 14 year old Girls Tasmania South Red team take on New Zealand. Then at 3:10 the Tasmanian Boys 10 year old team will be streamed playing against South Queensland Vikings 11 year old boys.

To watch the live streamed matches go to: http://www.futsaltv.org/livecast.php

National Schools Futsal Tournament - kick off?

Our futsal boys arrived in Brisbane somewhat later than scheduled yesterday after being delayed in Melbourne for several hours. It seems Virgin Blue, the airline they were travelling with, was experiencing some major difficulties due to the meltdown of their new electronic system. Sydney Morning Herald's “Traveller” page reported, in the wee hours of this morning, that flights across the country were delayed due to the carrier's "stricken computerised reservations and check-in systems."

Mr Y sent me a text at around 3pm yesterday to confirm his team's arrival at their accommodation, so perhaps they were lucky to be on the red eye flight. Perhaps the early morning departure - okay 7am isn't that early but we had to be at the airport by 5:30, which practically meant getting up before even going to bed to drive there from the Channel. Anyway the team's arrival at Tullamarine at 8:15am meant that, even though delayed for a few hours, they were on their way, winging it towards Brisbane, before the airports became too backed up.

The National Schools Futsal titles, which are to kick off in Brisbane today, are described in the Courier as “one of the largest futsal tournaments of its kind in the world, 140 teams and more than 1000 players” from all around Australian plus teams from New Zealand. The question is, with a significant number of them flying into Brisbane on Virgin Blue flights, will they all get there in time for kick off?

National Schools Futsal Tournament

Mister Y (Y for youngest) is busy psyching himself up for the upcoming National Schools Futsal Tournament that is taking place in Brisbane next week. He's not the only WSC player to have been selected to represent southern Tasmania in this annual futsal competition. Several other WSC youth players were also invited to take part, and all up three of them will be participating in the event.

So this seems like as good a time as any to provide a quick introduction to the game of Futsal. Firstly the name futsal originates from the Portuguese term Futbol de sala, which translates as indoor football. Recognised as a sport in its own right, Futsal is the official FIFA endorsed form of 5-a-side indoor soccer and was first developed in Uruguay in 1930. Nowadays it is played extensively throughout the world and is extremely popular in European and South American countries, where it is credited with producing world-class football players such as Pele and Ronaldinho.

The game is played with a slightly smaller and heavier “low bounce” ball than those used for soccer, which, according to the Vikings Futsal Association “makes it easier for young or inexperienced players to master their ball control skills and assists with development” (2010). Unlike other forms of indoor soccer, pitches are delineated – there is no bouncing the ball off walls and players are forced to try and keep the ball within the bounds of the pitch.

Teams consist of 5 players, one of whom is a goalkeeper, and the games generally consist of two 20 minute halves. Futsal is an intense, exciting game to play, and it is also ideal for spectators with a short attention span - “watching it is a bit like watching the soccer highlights on SBS. It’s great, there are goals galore, gutsy goalkeeping and probably other things beginning with a 'G' too” (“Futsal?” 2008).

Wish the boys luck, maybe they will come home with some silverware.

References: 

Futsal? (2008, 10 July). Woodbridge Soccer Club Newsletter, p.1.


Futsal4All (n.d.) What is Futsal? Retrieved September 2010 from: http://futsal4all.com/what-is-futsal/


Vikings Futsal Tasmania (2010) Futsal Tasmania: The 'REAL' Small Sided Game [Flyer]. Moonah, Tasmania: Author.