Sand Soccer: An Up and Coming Sport
There is a new type of football being played around the world; the kind that is played on sand. It is basically like beach volleyball with small teams playing a football match on the sand. With the popularity of the sport growing every day all over the world, it looks set to become the biggest new sport that anyone has ever seen very soon.
It seems the game of beach football started in Brazil a few decades ago and was played informally ever since. The 90s rolled around and rules were introduced and a governing body was set up to control leagues and set up a World Cup. People have been going to beaches for as long as anyone can remember and usually they will take a ball with them and kick it around. Many people would remember setting up makeshift goal posts with shoes or clothes and getting friends together to start a game of football in the sand.
The game gained its popularity in America and has spread all over the world. It seems to have spread so easily because of the ease of play and the simplicity of the game. It is a very interesting game to play because the surface it is played on gives the game a unique perspective. Sand, unlike grass, has bumps and dips that can be very hard to run on. So the playing style is different with players having to work harder to control the ball in the soft sand. Each team has five players on it including the goalkeeper and the game consists of 3 - 12 minute periods of playing time. The only rule change is the lack of offside, with players being able to stand anywhere they want to try to score. This leads to games which have large score lines of an average of 11 goals per game. The lack of offside rule and the smaller pitch that the game is played on give an average game its large scores. Players usually play barefoot, but over the years technology has been creeping in here as well with special socks being created which have traction control soles on them to give players greater grip in the sand.
The game has been spreading all over the world, from traditional football mad nations like Brazil to relative newcomers like Australia. It seems any nation that has access to beaches can get a team together and become a force to be reckoned with. Evidence of its growing popularity amongst nations filled with beaches is the fact that the beach soccer World Cup took place last year in the sunny city of Dubai. The city is full of beaches and played host to a stunning tournament that was eventually won by Brazil. They seem to win any sort of football tournament in the world, be it on grass or on the sand.
The beach soccer scene in America is growing at a very fast pace. Tournaments are being arranged all over the country and it is claimed to be one of the fastest growing professional sports to be found anywhere in the world. One of the biggest organisers of beach sand soccer tournaments is the North American Sand Soccer Championships (NASSC). They organise a whole festival type event around sand soccer with rides, games, activities and other beach sports all surrounded by the game of soccer. America looks all set to send a very strong sand soccer team to the next World Cup and looks to be a force to be reckoned with by the traditional beach soccer kings.
This burgeoning new sport is one that is gaining in popularity for a number of reasons. First of all it is very easy to play by any age group it is extremely fun to watch it is a great summer activity and with rules and governing bodies becoming involved along with sponsors it looks like this sport will soon take over the world. It looks like it will become a very popular sport for the next generation of football stars as maybe a stepping stone to professional grass football or become a sport as big as grass football in years to come.
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