U.S. Soccer Voices Support for Futsal as a Key to Skill Development By Tim Sheldon 07/20/2012 A designated Futsal spokesman for U.S. Soccer reiterated the importance of Futsal as a skill-developer so often in a recent conversation that he confessed to sounding like a broken record. Neil Buethe, Senior Manager of Communications for U.S. Soccer, noted the emergence of 17-year-old Lucas Stauffer on the U.S. Futsal Team Federation, and said more emphasis would be placed on Futsal development with the objective of producing more players like Stauffer. Stauffer plays for Shattuck-St. Mary's Academy of Fairibault, MN, in U.S. Soccer's Development Academy League and recently played for the U.S. in the CONCACAF Futsal Tournament. He was the youngest player ever to see action on a U.S. Futsal Team. Stauffer actually was 16 when he joined the U.S. Futsal Team in October, 2011. "They did a good job with that," Buethe said, "and actually Futsal is an element within the academy that gets discussed as a good way for developing good players. That's one of the things we look at when talking about Futsal. Academy teams should incorporate it if they can. Maybe not every team is going to have access to a (futsal) court, but it's a great way to help kids get better. The 17-year-old making the team was definitely something we talked about. We think it's great."



The U.S. Soccer Development League consists of 78 teams in the 15/16 and 17/18 age groups organized into four conferences and 10 divisions throughout the U.S.



Each team has a roster of about 22 players, which means there are about 1,700 players in each age group. This adds up to approximately 3,400 players in the Development League. Academy teams are required to train at least three days per week and rest one day per week during the Academy season. Academy teams play about.30 games per year. U.S. National Futsal Coach Keith Tozer referred to Stauffer as a "prototype" of a younger generation of players who play Futsal regularly and develop superior ball-handling skills. Buethe said the concept of including Futsal is something that is suggested regularly to the teams. "It's not something that we say you have to do, but it's definitely something that's been suggested to the teams," he said. "That is a relationship that is ongoing all the time. They talk about things teams can do to improve development of their players. "And Futsal especially in places like Minnesota and Northeast where during the winter they're obviously not going to be able to go outside is a great way for them to continue to train at a high level. It's a little different from the outdoor game but a great opportunity to develop skill on the ball in tight spaces. It's definitely something discussed within the academy." -------------------- © Copyright Tim Sheldon and Futsal On-Line. All rights reserved.