Here in Thailand, the culture around sports is a little bit different than that in the U.S. Volleyball is really popular, and sports unknown in the U.S., like dtagraw, are too. I’ve also noticed a sport that looks vaguely familiar, but upon closer inspection I realized I knew nothing about: futsal.
Looking back, the first time I encountered futsal I misinterpreted it to be soccer, or football. In the afternoons, on my way home from school, I ride past the secondary school and I would see groups of students playing. I would wave to them as they paused to shout, “Hello!” After attending this last year’s Sports Day for my school, I realized that futsal was not the same as soccer, as they were two separate events and the girls had a futsal team.
Futsal was invented in Uruguay in the 1930s after they won the Olympic gold medals in the two previous games in soccer. Its name come from what translates as “hall soccer,” and was invented to tap into the popularity of soccer and make it more accessible to those who did not have space for a field.
Futsal is played by two teams of five people, including a goalkeeper. It gets its court and net size from handball. The game is played on a hard surface and boundaries are lines drawn on the ground, not walls like other forms of indoor soccer. The ball is heavier and doesn’t bounce as much as a regular soccer ball. Each half is 20 minutes with extra time for penalties and throw-ins.
The sport is wildly popular in South and Latin America, but has also made in-roads in other soccer loving countries, such as Thailand. Currently, the national Thai futsal team is ranked 17th. Thailand even hosted the last Futsal World Cup in 2012 in Bangkok, where the Thai team had their best showing on the world stage competition level, making it to Round 16.
There is a national league for futsal here in Thailand, but it doesn’t seem very big or well updated.
Here is a video from the 2012 World Cup of Thailand playing Costa Rica: