The Magic of Pumas Futsal Club

"It’s all about the way we develop and relate as human beings when we’re not cheering for goals. More than the soccer training, these kids need lots of love, and that’s why it’s so important that our families enjoy being here and that we watch out for each other. After all, they say that the first thing a kid thanks as a professional soccer player is their family." – Fernando Batista (Club Parque, Argentina)

In many ways, Pumas Futsal Club is similar to any other recreational club in any other neighborhood in Australia: It’s a place to make new friends, get some exercise, socialize and, of course, play soccer.

The club’s brown-brick hall on Jukes Road sits in the middle of the residential, working class suburb of Fawkner. Fliers and inspirational messages hang on the hall walls. The entrance foyer provides access to the various parts of the building. To the right, double doors lead to the gym/playing court and along the left wall is a flight of stairs. The upstairs viewing area fits several rows of excited parents and spectators. The sound of laughing echoes from a corner; there are four fathers sharing jokes during a training match. They look down towards the playing court every now and then to check how their son or daughter is playing. A small crowd of parents and children trickles in through the door. Some go upstairs before practice while others step inside the playing court to sit down, greet their friends and watch the training game as well.

There is no fancy equipment. The gym is composed of one reduced-size, floorboard basketball court topped by a pointed roof protected from the elements merely by tiles and straw, something reminiscent of a farm barn. The majority of the kids that play here come from the surrounding area and sometimes the staff is even made up of parent volunteers. So, what is it about this place that will shape this particular neighborhood’s youth into some of the most coveted players around Victoria

 HISTORY

Pumas Futsal Club opened in June 2008 as a Futsal center, years after Johnny Warren put Futsal on the map in a country with a one-sport passion. The young man who is credited for bringing Pumas Futsal Club’s talent into the spotlight is Riccardo Marchioli. A student at the time, Marchioli opened the club due to a high demand for Futsal in the North-Western suburbs of Melbourne as well as a keen passion for developing young football players.

“You can see talent in kids at the age of seven or eight but one can always learn and acquire skills. The ideal situation is for a player to have his main base of technical skills by the time he’s 13 or 14 so that you can start working on tactics and the mental side of the game and that is the way we try to teach kids here. That doesn’t mean that every kid from Pumas is going to make it to the state or national team, but we always have faith that they will,” says Marchioli, who is the technical director at the club.

This faith has already begun to take the club far. In late 2008, as Pumas Futsal Club’s profile began to grow, the AS Roma Academy came out looking to form a link to ensure first look at Pumas’ most promising players. In fact, the club shows so much faith in its ability to produce great young players that it even has a Hall of Fame page on its official website with the names of players who have trained at Pumas and have gone on to play at a high level.

It’s highly unusual that a small suburban club produce so many players. Pumas hope that the club will be the crib of great world stars and that in the future there will be a Pumas Futsal Club player in every part of the world.

THE MAGIC OF THE GAME

Much of Brazil and Argentina’s soccer fame can be credited to the popularity of futsal for over 50 years. Also known as BABY fútbol for its practice primarily in youth leagues, it is played on a small, tiled or cement court, five on five, with reduced-size goals.

Fernando Gago, starting midfielder for Real Madrid and Argentina knows the benefits well. “You have to know how to resolve a play in reduced spaces, simple plays, one touch. Also, you have to adapt to the pace, because you’re going up and back all the time.”

Stemming from this format is Pumas Futsal Club’s focus on technique and fundamentals starting at a young age. Children join up as early as five and stay until they graduate from the youth division at the age of sixteen. The training starts as a recreational experience while they gain comfort with the ball, and only becomes competitive as they get older.

“Professional Football today requires a lot of pace and aggression but you always have to work on technique and composure, because the players can be taught pace and aggression straight away when they’re older,” says Marchioli.

But the Pumas staff believes that succeeding in such a competitive sport goes beyond honing skills, and cannot stem from a sense of obligation or routine. It is derived from a joy for the game itself, and this requires a complete environment that will nourish this passion.

Marchioli has learned this from his own family’s experience, and now relishes the opportunity to share it with the kids. “Every parent hopes that their son is going to play soccer professionally. So we have to work with the parents and the kids. They should take soccer with all the responsibility it implies, but without losing the creativity, that distinctive street play, the joy. They will have time when they’re older to worry about the other things if they are lucky enough to play soccer professionally.”

While the focus on creating a comfortable environment may seem secondary to talent, it has made its mark on the club’s players. Here the players dominate in terms of technique. You can see that the kids train with pleasure and that is reflected in the style of play.

THE MAGIC OF THE FUTURE

The five and six year old practice is about to start, and a seemingly endless line of children rush in through the front doors. Some of them are so small they can still be carried by their parents. A young boy runs up to one of the parents to show him a picture of himself with Kevin Muscat, the captain of the Melbourne Victory and former captain of Australia who also grew up in Melbourne. The boy is so proud he tears the photo away when the man is finished to find someone else to show. A female volunteer stands in front of the gym door to greet the parents and make sure a wandering child is being watched by someone. A father carrying his uniformed child points to a flier on the wall reminding older players of the upcoming Victorian team trials. He says to his son “You’ll be playing in that team when you’re older.”

OLDER NEWS

 PUMAS INVOLVED IN MEMORABLE NIGHT

Saturday the 27th of December, 2008 will be remembered by many Melbourne Victory supporters as one of the greatest nights in the club's short history. Melbourne went 2-0 down after just three minutes but managed to claw their way back and beat biggest rivals Sydney 3-2 to spark wild celebrations in the stands.

 What a night for Pumas Futsal Club to be involved in! Under 9 player Jack Vivian walked out onto a noisy and intimidating Telstra Dome pitch alongside Victory captain Kevin Muscat in front of 25,300 supporters. The young Pumas player who is also a regular at Melbourne Victory's away matches was one of three winners in a competition connected to Melbourne Victory's junior clinics.

 The Melbourne - Sydney derby is by far the biggest in Australian football and is a huge occasion for a boy like Jack to be involved in, an experience he will never forget. The atmosphere and passion of the derby was highlighted as Jack walked out to see the entire Melbourne Victory home end engulfed in orange flare smoke with a large banner directed at the traveling Sydney supporters which said "Welcome to Hell" (as seen below).

 A Pumas playing shirt with a short message was presented to Kevin Muscat during the warm up and the club is very proud to be involved in such a huge occasion. Jack was the first Pumas player to walk out into the intense Melbourne-Sydney derby in a Victory shirt and we hope many more will follow in the future.

 GO Melbourne Victory and Go PUMAS!

Give Futsal a chance - Les Murray Blog

September 30, 2008          

It will come as no surprise to the most mildly informed football punter that Ronaldinho is a former futsal player. Nor that so is Ronaldo. And, unless I am mistaken, so were Kaká, Robinho and Pato.

It cannot be a coincidence that men of such consummate technical ability are graduates of the indoor, five-a-side configuration of football, as are literally thousands of other Brazilian stars of the outdoor game.

My late friend, Johnny Warren, babbled on about this stuff for decades without being heard. And four years past his death he’s still not being heard, or not enough. The indoor game continues to be sidelined, like some insignificant cousin, its critical importance ignored to football’s utter detriment.

Futsal, or indoor soccer as some still call it, is a burgeoning activity in the suburbs, a great source of fun, especially at junior level, and an even greater vehicle for technical development.

It is, in effect, a long established and deep rooted mirror of what was only recently mandated nationwide to improve the level of skill among our growing young: small sided games or SSGs.

Futsal is played on small courts, five versus five, compelling players, due to lack of space, to have optimum command of the ball. Unlike on a large field, with large goals, there is no margin for error. You place a pass millimetres wide of its mark and it is bound to be intercepted by an opponent. You crack a shot at goal that wavers just slightly from its puny target between keeper and post and you will miss.

In futsal there is no option other than to have the ball completely at your command. With the ball at your feet your only options are to make a telling pass of total accuracy, take a shot that is placed rather than just driven in hope, or dribble, wiggle your bum, and make more space and time.

You can do none of these things without utter ball skills. In futsal you simply cannot win just by being stronger, bigger and by getting stuck in. Hence the conviction, Johnny Warren’s conviction, that futsal is a seriously good medium for correcting what Australian footballers distinctly lack on world comparisons: technique.

In recent times I have taken much time out to attend futsal matches. They were glorious eye openers.

In the first instance I noted that, unlike games of the outdoor variety, they are sources of utter congenial fun for all. Players run free in a quest to express themselves, jutting about, stopping and starting, running into spaces, passing and flicking, sometimes dribbling, always in a compulsion to create.

It is a wondrous spectacle so different to the mindless biff and bang that goes on the outdoor grounds where players, especially children, are asked to chase and run, and boot the bejesus out of the ball in quest of victories, with parents bellowing down their ears in the stupid belief that they become better players for hearing them.

At futsal games, in stark comparison to what happens on the suburban grass fields, there is no bellowing. Parents sit quietly, cheering only when a goal is scored or letting out an occasional ‘aahh’ when someone plays a back heel, a nutmeg or does a swivel to make space and beat a defender.

Yet the wonderful package that is futsal is being vastly undervalued in our football culture. It is time for that to change.