Whilst the country is gearing up to support Roy Hodgson’s men in Brazil, a little bit of the samba spirit hit Newcastle last week, as Futsal took over the north-east.
The England Futsal team hosted a Four Nations tournament that included USA, Cyprus and Qatar at the Northumbria University.
Each nation played each other to determine the winner of the tournament.
England beat Cyprus 5-0 Cyprus then drew with the USA 1-1 and drew with Qatar 0-0 for Cyprus to finish third and England winners with the USA runners up.
What is Futsal? Futsal (Portuguese pronunciation: [futsal]) is a variant of association football that is played on a smaller field and mainly played indoors. It can be considered a version of five-a-side football. Its name comes from the Portuguese futebol de salão, which can be translated as “hall football”. It was developed in Brazil and Uruguay in the 1930s and 1940s.
There are five players on each team, one of whom is the goalkeeper. The maximum number of substitutes allowed is nine (FIFA change 2012), with unlimited substitutions during the match. Substitutes can come on even when the ball is in play but the player coming off must leave the pitch before the substitute can enter the playing field. If a team has fewer than three players in the team, the match is abandoned and counted as a loss for the team with the lack of players.