It has been confirmed – Thailand will be hosting the FIFA Futsal World Cup 2012 next autumn! Which means we will be able to catch world-class futsal action within 2 hours of flight from Singapore at the Land of Smile!
In fact, this is not the first time FIFA Futsal World Cup is held in Asia. HongKong hosted the event back in 1992 and Chinese Taipei in 2004. HongKong only managed a point and was eliminated from the first round while Chinese Taipei tasted defeats for all their matches. And to be fair for HongKong and Chinese Taipei, there’s nothing to be ashamed of considering the fact that countries like Brazil, Spain, Argentina, Portugal and United States are all well-established futsal power houses! Brazil is the current world champion having won the FIFA Futsal World Cup 4 times, Spain followed next by winning twice.
When we talk about futsal, one whom we can’t miss out has to be brazilian, Falcão! This skillful player number-12 – his jersey number, currently plying his trade with Santos futsal team, scored 200 goals from his 150 appearances for the Brazil national futsal team! I tried looking through his record and realised he was here in Singapore in 1999 participating in the Tigers 5-aside futsal tournament. I was there watching the matches at Singapore Indoor Stadium but I guess I really couldn’t recall if I did catch him in action. What a pity though! Anyway, for those who want to know how great and skillful he is, you will be able to satisfy your eyes and jaws enlarging exercise by watching his videos on youtube!
Having said so much about the game, sad to say, Singapore does not have a futsal national team. For those who know, please correct me if I’m wrong, even then our futsal national team was formed just weeks before the Tigers 5-aside tournament in 1999. That was the last time I ever saw a Singapore futsal team too. Honestly, I ain’t got any idea why there isn’t a proper futsal team for Singapore but maybe before Singapore set up one, let’s fix our futbol development system first. Ironically, futsal could be one of the solutions to fix the technique aspect.
Futsal is increasing its popularity here in Singapore as we see more and more futsal pitches are developed. With the newly established of Futsal Association of Singapore, futsal is surely the fastest growing sport and the most anticipating sport development in our small country. So its time to start pooling talented ones together from The Cage!
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