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The game is like football. Players have smaller balls on their feet than footballs. This ball bounces less than football. Again, this playground is quite small compared to the football field. Instead of grass, the field is hard court. Each team has 5 players. Can be transferred as often as you like. The game is prized worldwide for its control and creativity on the ball.

It should be understood by now which game is being talked about. You guessed it right, futsal. In the eyes of some, it is the domestic version of football or indoor football. And this Futsal World Cup final will be a ‘dream match’ – Brazil facing Argentina!
The FIFA Futsal World Cup started in Uzbekistan on September 14. The semi-final held yesterday at Humo Arena in Tashkent was a ‘re-match’ of the last World Cup football final. France faced Argentina and the winner of this match was the Latin American country. However, not in a tiebreaker like the World Cup football final, the one-time futsal champion Argentina confirmed the final against Brazil by defeating France directly 3-2. Brazil is a five-time world champion in futsal like football. Brazil reached the final after defeating Ukraine the day before yesterday. Margin of victory? That’s right, 3-2 just like Argentina.

Argentina became Futsal World Champion for the first time in 2016. They lost to Portugal in the final of the 2021 Futsal World Cup. Brazil last played in the Futsal World Cup finals in Thailand in 2012. Brazil beat Spain 3-2 to win the championship. That is, after 12 years, the opportunity to win the Futsal World Cup title is in front of Brazil. But will the task be easy? not at all Argentina will be desperate to reach the final for the third time in a row and win the second title.

Be it football or futsal, the appeal of a Brazil-Argentina match is already different. For example, in 2014 Brazil-Argentina friendly futsal match at Mane Garrincha Stadium in Brazil was attended by 56 thousand 483 people. This is the highest attendance match in futsal history. The audience of Toitambu is also expected in the final held at Humo Arena in Tashkent next Sunday at 7 pm Bangladesh time. Although this indoor arena has a spectator capacity of only 12,500. However, that does not diminish the appeal of the Brazil-Argentina final.

As Brazilian winger Pito said about the final, ‘There is no bigger match than Argentina in the World Cup final. In my opinion, futsal – God himself decided this match, and it will be the final.’ In the eyes of Argentine goalkeeper Nico Sarmiento, ‘There is no doubt, this is the biggest match in the history of futsal. I think everyone born in Brazil and Argentina dreams of such a match. It is also a dream match for the rest of the world. Argentina-Brazil is the biggest derby in the world, everyone wants to see this match.

Brazil-Argentina have never faced each other in the Futsal World Cup finals like World Cup football. This is the first Brazil-Argentina final to combine the senior football and futsal World Cups. Brazil has won 66 times against Argentina in 83 matches so far in futsal. Argentina won 8 matches, the remaining 9 matches were drawn. In this encounter between the two arch rivals, Brazil had the monopoly by winning the first 28 matches. However, in the last 10 encounters, both teams have won 3 matches each, while the remaining 4 have been drawn. Argentina reached the final by defeating Brazil 2-1 in the last 2021 World Cup semi-final.

Many legendary footballers in Latin America grew up playing futsal as children. Just like Brazil’s Ronaldo, Denilson or Roberto Carlos, Lionel Messi played futsal in Argentina as a child. Apart from them, legends like Cristiano Ronaldo, Xavi, Luis Figo, Andres Iniesta also played futsal in their childhood. FIFA and the World Futsal Association (AMF) are the governing bodies of the game. Known as ‘room football’ in Portuguese, this game is more popular in Europe and South America.

Futsal field is 38 to 42 meters long and 20 to 25 meters wide. In this game of two halves each half is played for 20 minutes. There is no offside, but there are red card and yellow card rules like in football. The game was invented by Uruguayan teacher Juan Carlos Ceriani in 1930, the year of the first World Cup soccer tournament. He invented the sport for the youth championships of the local YMCA. At that time, 11 people could play in each team.

However, another version of futsal is claimed to have appeared on the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil in the 1930s. The rules of this game were first published in Brazil in 1936. The first international tournament of this game was held in 1965. The first Futsal World Cup was held in 1989. Brazil has won the most number of Futsal World Cups held so far. Spain has been champion twice. Argentina and Portugal have been champions once.