Having watched England get beat 2-0 in Spain and last night seeing top of the league Manchester United draw 2-2 with Portuguese team, Porto one thing really stood out for me….the gulf in technique on the ball across the whole team.

Looking at Porto, the team was made up nearly solely of Portuguese players all of whom had excellent first touches, looked composed on the ball and made it look effortless passing it around creating space and the movement of the team as a whole.  Yes, Man Utd have awesome players in their own right but I still feel technically on a whole that home grown talent struggles to compete with Spanish & Portuguese players who are leading the way.  With players like Torres, Villa and Xavi at the forefront with a player like Fabregas who is not an automatic first choice in the national squad shows the strength the team has technically. Portugal have the worlds best player, Ronaldo in their ranks.

I think one key to this is the introduction of Futsal into Spanish schools 15 years ago.  With so man kids exposed to the game it is not hard to see the effect this has had nationally.  Before the summer of 2008 Spain had gone over 40 years with no major title and now Spain are ranked 1 in the world.

Futsal is about creativity, control, skill and vision with fast paced fooball and excitement.  When I watched the game last night I saw a fluent Porto side show the best team in England a thing or two and when you now watch Spain you can’t help but enjoy the football the team plays. 

I believe Futsal is a major contributor to this!

Steve