Futsal dribbles into Ottawa’s east end

"I got sold on this sport 18 years ago," he recounts, though he admits even he had initial reservations about the sport. It's like outdoor soccer only played with a less lively ball and on a narrow, hard-surfaced court; players change on-the-fly à la ice hockey, and shots rifle this way and that like popcorn. "I was thinking 'What the hell is that?’,” he says.

"It took me a while to understand the concept."

Though he's well-schooled in the sport these days, Gray says he didn't realize he was witnessing one of the world's most popular indoor sports. The freewheeling game is played by tens of thousands, young and old, in Europe and South America and even by soccer stars like Ronaldo, Zenedine Zidane, David Beckham and the mighty Péle.

Indeed, after Brazilian soccer legend Ronaldo netted a spectacular toe-punch goal past a phalanx of Turkish defenders in the 2002 World Cup, the Brazilian striker credited the goal to just one thing: skills he learned playing futsal, as a youth, in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.

"You look at the major stars and you'll see many of them played futsal when they were kids, and many still do," says Gray, adding it's the only official FIFA-sanctioned form of indoor soccer.

Lisa Muse, an OCFL player who supervises matches for kids at St. Patrick's High School, says she was immediately awed by the sport's sheer velocity. The 40-year-old mother of two says she loves the game's speed, intensity and on-the-fly excitement – kind of like soccer on steroids.

"I love the game, because it's basically a really fast game of soccer," she says. Recreational players pay around $165 for a season lasting more than 20 games. "But it's also the touch that you learn.

"It does teach you that touch, and the thinking, and plays, more than outdoor (soccer)," she says, adding it encourages player development by speeding up, and intensifying, traditional footie.

Having existed in Ottawa's west end for nearly 20 years, however, Futsal has finally emigrated east; matches for adults are played each Monday evening at the Louis Riel gymnasium, and Gray says interest has been brisk enough to warrant further expansion in the not-too-distant future.

That's good news for east-end kids and adults looking to buff up their soccer skills, says Muse, who plays various positions for three different teams. She says along with reaction time, futsal teaches great teamwork skills and encourages cameraderie. "You can't survive (in futsal) at all unless you're passing and operating with your teammates," she says.

"In outdoor you can get away with that a little more. But here you have to be flowing constantly – whoa!" she yells, suddenly.

A futsal ball had just rifled past her head; she had to duck for cover.