Egypt got off to a flying start at the futsal world championship, reports Abeer Anwar Egypt and hosts Chinese Taipei featured in the opening match of the fifth FIFA Futsal (five-a-side football) World Championship. Not surprisingly Egypt, ranked first in Africa, crushed the young, inexperienced Chinese Taipei outfit, composed mainly of school students, 12-0. Before the match Chinese Taipei Belgium coach Damien Knabben knew what he was in for. "I watched our opponents at Guatemala 2000 and obviously it will be an exceptionally tough game for us. I was impressed by their speed and technique." The win gave Egypt a confidence boost before they face the world champions, Spain. "This huge result gave the players confidence to continue to win," coach Mohamed Ali said. "The team is not yet at full force as two of its stars, Samir Sabri, Egypt's player of the year in 2003, and Ikrami Ibrahim, will catch up after their league matches with their clubs." Futsal's birth was a relatively recent event in Chinese Taipei which is making its first appearance at the world championships. It was not until 2002 that a local futsal committee was officially established. With baseball and basketball the most popular sports on the island, futsal is being promoted to attract more of the public to the beautiful game. With space at a premium in the state, futsal has already proved a comparatively easy and convenient sport to practice. The Chinese Taipei Football Association has devoted itself to developing the game at the league levels and its efforts paid off when its bid to host the FIFA Futsal World Championship 2004, taking place from 21 November to 5 December, proved successful. Said Chang Chan-Wei, the Chinese Taipei Football Association general secretary, "the championship will change the face of football in Taiwan." As hosts, Chinese Taipei qualified automatically, but this has not stopped them from making huge strides against Asian opposition in the past year. They were close to overcoming some traditional continental powers in Macao's Asian finals in April. Opening up against South Korea, they came from behind to go 2-1 up before conceding three late goals and succumbing 4-2. They were soundly beaten 5-1 by Kuwait before bouncing back to demolish Maldives 11-2. Egypt falls in one of the strongest groups of the competition, Group A, with Chinese Taipei, Spain, the reigning world champions and Ukraine. Group B has Australia, Brazil, Thailand, and the Czech Republic. Group C includes Italy, Paraguay, the US and Japan. Group D comprises Argentina, Portugal, Iran and Cuba. For the last decade, Egypt have ruled the African futsal roost. Continental champions in 1996 and 2000 and winners of the first-ever Arab Cup, it was little surprise that they qualified this year, making it three tournaments in a row as Africa's representative at the global level. Egypt's record at the championship shows that North Africans are improving fast. After one victory in 1996 against Australia (8-2), they succeeded in qualifying for the second round at Guatemala 2000, a first for a team from the continent. This time around, the Pharaohs are aiming higher. To this end the team will be banking on the experience of players who took part in Guatemala 2000, including captain Gihad Arafa, 31, and Samir Seif, 29, top marksman in the African qualifiers with 10 goals. The Egyptians coasted through their qualifying campaign. After a first-round stroll in the park against South Africa (19-3 aggregate over two matches), they met Morocco, in the semi-final. But the Moroccans had an off-day in the away leg (7-0), before succumbing to a narrow 4-3 defeat at home. The only remaining hurdle was the final with Mozambique, who had only reached this stage with the benefit of byes. The first- leg produced an insurmountable 10-2 score line. The hard work done, the Pharaohs took their eye off the ball in the second leg, as their so far flawless campaign was only slightly besmirched by a 5-3 defeat. Egypt are taking part in their third consecutive FIFA Futsal World Championship. Beating Australia in 1996 in Spain (8-2), the pharaohs became the first African side to win a World Championship match. In 2000 in Guatemala, they defeated Thailand (7-0) and Uruguay (4-2) to reach the second round. Despite a further victory over Russia (6- 4), they failed to reach the semi-finals, edged out by Russia on goal difference. To prepare for the current world championship, Egypt played warm--up matches against England, winning 6-0 and drawing 2-2 with Chinese Taipei. The first record of an organised five- a-side brand of football dates back to 1930 in Montevideo, Uruguay. The same year the pioneering football nation hosted the first FIFA World Cup at its brand-new Estadio Centenario, an Argentine-born coach by the name of Juan Carlos Ceriani, so tired of rain-soaked pitches and cancelled training sessions, brought the game indoors for the first time. With an eye to making his new indoor game more accessible, but also more organised, he put together a set of rules strikingly similar to those that govern futsal today. The children of Montevideo took to the small game with aplomb, and it was played in YMCA centres throughout the capital. The hybrid version was perfectly suited to either outdoor or indoor venues, as all that was needed was a small, basketball-size court. While Ceriani was fostering the game in Uruguay, a similar game was being played on the streets of Sao Paolo, Brazil. The game quickly spread throughout South America as "futbol sala" (room football, or indoor football) or "futebol de salao" in Brazil -- where the first local leagues sprang up. Not surprisingly Brazil took to the hyper-technical, sometimes claustrophobic hybrid of football. Today many of Brazil's greats point to a childhood full of futsal as one of the main reasons for their skillful ability. Ronaldinho, Pele, Zico, Socrates, Bebeto and countless others all grew up playing futsal, and credit the game for their stardom. It didn't take long for the game to spread to every corner of Latin America, and the first international futsal competition kicked off in 1965. In a bit of a shock it was Paraguay that got off the blocks first, taking home the first South American honours. Brazil won the next six championships between 1965 and 1979. The yellow-clad pioneers of the five-a-side art then went on to extend their dominance with victories in the 1980 and 1984 Pan American Games. With a lesser number of players, a smaller field and a weighted ball, futsal demanded the emergence of new strategies. Quick feet and a quick mind were imperative, as was the use of the toes and the bottom of the foot. The International Federation for Futebol de Sala (FIFUSA) was officially founded in Brazil in 1971. And the first Futsal World Championship (though not yet affiliated to FIFA) took place in 1982 in the five-a-side hotbed of Sao Paolo. Continuing their stranglehold on the game, Brazil again took the honours with a team studded with stars from the outdoor game. They then went on to repeat their winning ways in Spain three years later in 1985 before losing their crown in Australia to rivals Paraguay. FIFA got on board in 1989, bringing the five-a-side game under its auspices and sponsoring the first official FIFA Futsal World Championship in 1989 in Holland. With the new official tag, the name of the game officially became "futsal." Brazil also got themselves back on track and won the title twice on the trot (Holland 1989 and Hong Kong 1992). In 1996 the Brazilians again took the world title, but four years later in 2000, Spain -- Europe's emerging power -- upset the South American apple cart in Guatemala. With professional leagues popping up in Brazil, Russia, Portugal, Spain, Iran and Japan, the old assumption that futsal is merely a means of developing creativity and skills to be used in the outdoor game is beginning to fade. The small game is thriving, in its own right.
