The other soccer

It’s not soccer, but futsal, and Japan made it to the finals, woohoo! I didn’t know there was a futsal World Cup but I shouldn’t be surprised, I suppose. If there’s arena football, why can’t there be a world level competition for short field soccer, err, I mean, futsal. 日本、決勝Ｔ１回戦 はウクライナ／フッ トサル

フットサルのワールドカップ（Ｗ杯）は ９日、バンコクで１次リーグＥ組とＦ組の 最終戦を行い、Ｃ組を３位で突破して初の 決勝トーナメント進出を決めていた日本は １１日の１回戦で、Ａ組１位通過のウクラ イナと対戦することが決まった。 日本は９日にバンコク市内で調整した。 ８日を休養に充ててリフレッシュした選手 は、強豪に挑む決勝トーナメントに向けて 短期間でコンディションを上げ、連係を高 める。ロドリゴ監督は「格上相手だが、こ こまでやってきたことを信じて戦う」と意 気込んだ。（共同） The Futsal World Cup, with the finals of Tier 1, E and F group being held in Bangkok, announced on the 11 th that C group, 3 rd place Japan, who is making its first appearance in finals tournament play, will square off against A group, 1 st place Ukraine in the first round on the 11 th ..

Japan did some fine tuning in Bangkok on the 9 th . After setting aside the 8 th for resting, the refreshed players worked on short-term conditioning and improving teamwork in preparation for taking on the league heavyweight in the finals tournament. Coach Rodrigo declared that “Our opponent is better ranked, but we’ve come this far and we believe we can compete.”

http://www.sanspo.com/soccer/news/20121109/jpn12110919540015-n1.html