FIFA Futsal World Cup

We have reached the end of the FIFA Futsal World Cup. For us, from Ginga Futsal, it was a different Futsal WC. First, we could support the Brazilian national team and see Marquinhos Xavier lead Brazil to the world title.

On the other hand, we could cheer for the Futsal Whites for the first time competing in a Futsal WC and it was incredible. Although many people only use results to judge a team's quality, being part of the Futsal WC was a huge step for New Zealand. Led by Marvin Eakins (from Kauri Futsal Academy, in Auckland) the Futsal Whites were able to play against the top nations around the world and even though the result didn't come, could experience good moments, like scoring the first NZ goal in WC history. Another achievement was seeing one of the greatest performances from a GK, when Mike Antomanov had an unbelievable performance against Spain with more than 25 saves in the game. It was just the first step for the Futsal Whites, with many learnings and things to take home. However, it is certainly a significant milestone for Futsal in NZ, with so much more to come in the next few years. Keep going Futsal Whites!

Let's talk about the surprises we saw in the Futsal WC in Uzbekistan, and we couldn't start different than talking about Portugal, Spain, Ukraine and France, even if the reasons we talk about them are different. Spain and Portugal took players with good experience and didn't renovate their team much, believing the experience would be enough, but it paid the price. Portugal ended their campaign in the round of 16 defeated by Uzbekistan, and Spain in the quarterfinals, after a hard loss to Venezuela. France was a good surprise in this Futsal WC, especially playing in their first Futsal WC, but they were involved in the worst moment in WC history: when they purposefully decided to lose a game to Iran, avoiding playing Morocco in the round of 16 playoffs and playing against Thailand instead, who on paper is a weaker opponent. Ukraine showed everyone that an old-school and simple futsal can work well. A physically strong team, playing simple futsal, putting all the trust in the pivots and set pieces took the team to the semifinal, finishing 3rd place overall.

In the final, Brazil and Argentina had a great battle. In a game full of provocations, adrenaline, 1x1 plays and lots of GINGA, everything was to be decided in the final seconds. After Brazil was winning 2-0, with Ferrao (the best pivot in the world) and Rafa Santos scoring the goals, Argentina began to apply incredible pressure on the Brazilian defence. At that point, it was time for the man of the match to show up, with goalkeeper Wiliam building a wall in front of Brazil's goal and preventing Argentina from scoring. With 2 minutes remaining, Argentina scored a goal using the 5th man and had 2 minutes to try to tie the final, once again stopped by goalkeeper William. The final whistle was blown and Brazil became world champion for the sixth time in their history, being the nation with most titles across the world.

For me, it was a great WC, and I needed to express my happiness with what I saw. From time to time, some "old strategy" reappears like quadrante (zonal defensive shape), man-to-man showing centre, Y press, and centre rotate. But most importantly, this World Cup showed us that simple futsal always works, and the top 3 teams did exactly that. Isolating players, trust in the 1x1 game,  and as Marquinhos Xavier said, "futsal can be played by keeping it as simple as it needs to be, yet showcasing amazing flair (GINGA), creativity and skills".

Mario Ramos