March 05, 2003

new kind of soccer?




I work next to "Hibiya Park City" where they have some sort of soccer tournament going on. I mean the players are really good and they're serious enough to play in freezing rain. But what I don't get is that it's a mini version of soccer. There are only 5 players per team and although it might be hard to see from the pics, the field is tiny. Anyone ever seen this? Adidas is sponsoring this and I have no idea why they're doing it right smack in the middle of a bunch of office buildings. In the evenings, they have training sessions for children too. I know Tokyo lacks big park spaces, but I don't know about this...

Posted by Mie at March 5, 2003 01:06 PM | TrackBack
Comments

what's the deal ? two posts a day ?  元気だね!!

Posted by: Gem Stevens at March 5, 2003 01:12 PM

張り切ってます! I think I'm getting addicted!

: )

m

Posted by: Mie at March 5, 2003 01:15 PM

I saw the Adidas signs while at the Imperial Hotel after new years. I thought it was kid of cool - indoor soccer on almost a half court.

DID YOU KNOW... Puma was formed when German brothers Rudi and Adi Dassler feuded and split up the family and company Adidas to form PUMA.

Posted by: Gem Stevens at March 5, 2003 01:37 PM

It looks like three months only event, sponsored by Tokyu and Adidas.

http://www.adidas-footballpark.com/contents04.htm

Futsal is getting popular in Japan!

Posted by: minami at March 5, 2003 03:22 PM

Oh, awesome! One of my online friends I met in Final Fantasy XI (Squaresoft's online RPG) said he loved Futsol and explained it was a type of mini-soccer. I had no idea what that was -- until now! Thanks for the pics. :D

Posted by: Matt Hilton at March 5, 2003 06:52 PM

Ahhh, Futsol. Is that what it is? Very cool that I could help Matt out too : )
Never even heard of it before. Still seems like something people with very little space to spare concocted. Is it an official sport? Thanks for the link Minami-san!

Posted by: Mie at March 5, 2003 09:25 PM

Looks like what we call on the East coast (of the US), indoor soccer. Its gaining popularity here in the winter and among players who are a little too old to run the full length of an outdoor field for 90 minutes (read - 40 yr olds). I guess after Japan's world cup, Adidas figures there is a new market afoot.

Posted by: Keith Jenkins at March 5, 2003 09:31 PM

In England we call this game "five-a-side football"... I think it came about from people playing around after school or whatever and realising that there was not enough players to make two teams or something~~

When we used to play it (you dont even have to be good at football to play it!) we kind of made the rules up as we went along and the scores usually end up in double figures for both sides~~

Its more fun than traditional football, mostly because I find that I can kick the ball down the whole pitch! heh heh heh heh

Hope that helps~

Posted by: dust at March 5, 2003 09:45 PM

it IS an official sport. in spain we call it 'fútbol de salón', indoor soccer i think it's what they call it in english.

the teams are made of five, and the goalkeeper cannot leave that white area around you see there. also, a goal cannot be scored from within it, unless you use the head. so all shoots have to be done from 3m away sort of.

the ball for indoor soccer is smaller and a bit heavier(size/weight wise) than the regular soccer ball.

ok, just to let you guys know :]

Posted by: paburo at March 6, 2003 12:35 AM

It`s called Futsal with an a.
It`s very popular in Japan due to the lack of space for full pitches.

There are tournaments regularly all over Japan, and internationally too. If you aver play in one, you may find that Japanese referees will call you for fouls just for being a big, hairy gaijin!

There is also a World Cup, which apparently Spain won in 2000, Brazil won all the previous years.
http://www.futsalonline.com/

Gary Garner

Posted by: Gary at March 6, 2003 03:39 PM

People also sometimes meet their partners playing...

http://www.asahi.com/english/feature/K2003010100143.html

Posted by: Gary at March 6, 2003 03:42 PM

Wow. I certainly learned a lot! From now on, when I got a question, I'll post it. I still confuse baseball and football teams and don't really notice when the Super Bowl (??) is around other than the cans of coke and potato chip mountains in American supermarkets. So I'm not surprised I'm a bit out of the loop regarding this new sport. But looks cool!

I used to play field hockey and have no problem getting aggressive to go for the ball...but that's cuz I'd have a stick. I tried soccer and I just couldn't get over my fear of being kicked when I tried to steal the ball...

Posted by: Mie at March 6, 2003 04:59 PM

haha. that's why soccer players use shinpads. very similar to the suneate stuff they use in naginatadou.

Posted by: paburo at March 7, 2003 08:28 AM

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Posted by: hotel at April 24, 2004 07:59 AM
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