Futsal – Developing Players or…choreographies?

Every July, I get a chance to see the new up and coming players in Orlando in a futsal event.  This year, it was the 2013/2014 age group.  This age group provides a snap shot of different club’s development philosophies.  There are always a few teams who have players who seem to be dancing with the ball; pull backs, stepovers, and what I call tells.  Signs that a prescribed set of movements with the ball is about to occur.  Now, to the amateur eye, these moves look the part.  Parents “ooh” and “aah” at the moves from the player but what is not seen is that these choreographed movements do not translate to the older ages.  Sure, they can fool a U8 and U9 player, but a U13 defender gobbles them up leading to transition moments, leaving the player doing the moves questioning why they didn’t work.   Interestingly, most of the clubs highlighting players with these moves do not have older teams in the competition. 

The organizer of the event, who has a son beginning in the game, came to me to ask what I thought.  My response was that I have never seen a cone, flag, or any other field marking make a tackle.  The improvisation of the dribble is all predicated on what the defenders are doing at that moment.  Maybe a first time pass was the solution to eliminate more defenders.  Maybe a subtle drop of the shoulder and reception on the far foot was the answer.  This was demonstrated by CR7 on ESPN’s Sport Science program a few years ago.  The producers of the show installed a video camera on CR7 to simulate what exactly he was looking at while dribbling.  Now, most young players see Ronaldo as a scoring machine, getting into the correct place to finish chances created.  However, when he was just starting with Manchester United, dribbling was his forte.  So much so, that he used to draw ire from fans.  What the video showed was revealing.  His eyes were on the DEFENDER.