Indoor Soccer Tournaments

For some coaches, indoor soccer tournaments have always been a red-headed stepchild of the “real” game that is played outdoors, preferably in an 11-a-side format.

But the simple fact of the matter is that year-round soccer is next to impossible in more than half the country without the option of indoor play.

In fairness, the indoor soccer industry has come a long way since the days when the only available facilities seemed to be inflatable bubbles with dasher boards that encouraged “human pinball” tactics. It is now not uncommon to find very high-level players competing in indoor soccer tournaments all across the country.

There are a great many more building structures in place than there used to be, and that allows for larger field sizes. We even have one structure here in New England, NH Sportsplex in Bedford, NH, that allows for indoor 11-a-side play.

In many parts of the country over the last few years, we have seen the emergence of futsal, the FIFA sanctioned version of indoor soccer that does not use dasher boards. This version of the game is very popular in Brazil, and places a higher premium on technical skill that really does help players when they head outside.

Even in regular indoor play, the speed of play, as long as it is not at the expense of technical skill, can be good for developing quick thinking players.

There are loads of indoor tournaments around the country, and plenty of good reasons why teams should enter them. We will discuss some of those reasons here.

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