FUTSAL TO THE FORE! BRAZILIAN BRILLIANCE SHEDS LIGHT ON THE SPORT

In the latest episode of The COSAFA Show, we delve into the world of Futsal, the little brother of association football that is fast growing around the world and about to get a massive boost in Southern Africa.
We speak to Junior Roberti, who along with current Brazil national team coach Marquinhos Xavier is leading a charge to provide training to aspiring Futsal tacticians around the world.
It will be the turn of the COSAFA region from next month, with a course that will run from June 16 to August 25, ahead of the inaugural COSAFA Futsal Championships later in the year.
Roberti explains the aim of the course, as well as just what makes Futsal so relevant to the 11-a-side game, especially in the training of young players.
“The fact that the space in Futsal is so tight, you have to make decisions in a very short period of time,” Roberti told The COSAFA Show. “You don’t have space and you don’t have time, so that means you need to develop your decision-making process to deal with that constraint.
“Naturally, because of that process you start developing the technical elements and skills to deal with that. The ‘problem’, which we say in a positive way, that kids have playing Futsal is the lack of space and time.
“It starts in their heads, because they have to perceive the situation and the environment. Then it goes to the leg because they need to solve that problem. It is a combination of the decision-making process in a Futsal game, that transfers to the skills they will develop. 
“They will then transfer that to [association] football on the grass. So it is a combination of factors that is interesting. We develop the technical aspects of the player because ultimately they need to solve a tactical problem. It is beautiful because you can see the kids thinking.”
Also on this episode we speak to South African junior international Rowan Human, who has just completed an excellent season on loan at Israeli second-tier side Beitar Tel Aviv.