Article written by football prediction
How is Futsal better than walled soccer?
“Wall skills”, which account for a very high percentage of touches in a game are of questionable value, as they can not be transferred into outdoor soccer.
In walled soccer you deal with an opponent having to take into account phantom players (i.e. walls). You can not drive an opponent to the sidelines to break up an attack, you can not let a long ball go out of bounds without worrying about the consequences, defenders and goalkeepers can not concentrate on the proper shot blocking angles.
In Futsal there is no sidewall to save you if your team-mate has not taken the right position to support you, you can not use the wall to save errant passes.
Walled soccer supporters base their arguments almost entirely on two points: The use of sidewalls to improve give-and-go passing and the increased speed and continuous play. There are a lot of give-and-go situations in Futsal too, which simulate closer the actual conditions in a game. Sidewalls are stationary, real players are not. The player with the ball has to have the skills to pass to a running team-mate who also has to learn how, where and when to move to support you.
But, the biggest disadvantage is that it does not help create soccer intelligence. For example, if a player is near the touchline, instead of working out what to do, whether to pass to a team-mate, to dribble or to shield the ball he has an easy option: the wall!
But this is not real soccer.
In Futsal you need to make decisions so fast that when you move into the outdoor soccer you feel very comfortable in finding new angles and passing the ball.
This is real soccer!
As for speed, many people do not realize that there are walls in most Futsal centres a few feet away from the touchlines. Errant balls rebound quickly back to a player who has to put the ball into play within 4 seconds. So, you can have the best of both worlds, the speed and continuity of walled soccer together with the superb skills of Futsal.
In Futsal, control and technique offer you countless quality touches which directly translate to the outdoor game. You learn to work with your team-mates who must must be there to support you, you learn the feinting skills to beat an opponent instead of relying on a wall, you learn how to shoot accurately and at the right time because errant shots result in the opponents getting the ball.
Futsal is clearly a superior, faster and safer way of developing real soccer skills.
How is Futsal safer?
Playing walled soccer presents a real danger to players, especially children. Players have to pin their body against the boards to get past a defender or to stop an opponent from advancing. The speed of play is such that players may run into the boards at top speed.
You get none of these with Futsal. Futsal is a sport whose rules provide the conditions for fair play and do not permit any excessive physical contact. Sliding tackles, shoulder charges and other rough aspects of soccer are not allowed in Futsal. Violence which has plagued soccer for decades is virtually non existent in Futsal. This is one of the main reasons why the game is loved by so many people and mothers in particular, who don’t have to worry about injuries and fights.
The U.S. Soccer Federation has adopted Futsal to replace the sidewalls style game because of “the phenomenal rate of injuries experienced in the dasher board game”.