The United States will play a World Cup qualifying match on Monday in Guatemala City. Wait. Didn’t the United States soccer team recently play a qualifier in Central America?

Yes, but this qualifier is for the 2012 FIFA Futsal World Cup in Thailand later this year. Futsal is short for the Spanish fútbol sala, or indoor football.

In the United States, indoor soccer reached the zenith of its popularity in the 1980s and early ’90s, when it was mostly played on ice hockey rinks covered with a thin carpet and jury-rigged goals carved into the glass and end boards. Not surprisingly, the United States put in strong showings in the first two Futsal World Cups, finishing third in 1989 and second in 1992.

Futsal may be the de rigueur training method in many South American and European countries, but the five-on-five game, played on a field roughly the size of a basketball court with a smaller, weighted ball (think restricted-flight softball) is only now gaining adherents in this country. The idea is to develop close-ball skills, playing on the floor and not in the air, so players gain a better understanding of movement off the ball.