Beach Soccer

And football is so "the face" of the country that is practiced in every possible field: from the countryside to the floodplain, from the court to the sands. In this edition we will talk a little about the history of sand football.

Sand football was born on Brazilian beaches in the 1990s. In 1992, in the United States, the first rules for the regulation of sport were created, but sand soccer, or beach soccer, always had Brazil as its cradle and reference . In 1995 the beach of Copacabana received the first edition of the world championship that had Brazil like winner in many editions.

The sport is an agile and full of impromptu mode, an informal mix between the rules of field football and futsal. One of the main differences compared to field football is the number of players. There are 5 athletes on each side, four on the line and one on the goal, similar to futsal. The playing time is also reduced, it is 3 times of 12 minutes.

Curiosities

The ball at beach soccer is lighter than field football and can only be drawn back to the goalkeeper if an opponent has touched it.

In the sand, fouls and penalties are charged by those who suffered the infraction, unless the player has been injured. Lateral and corner can be beaten with feet or hands, just not worth scoring directly from the collection.

Here in Pipa the sand football is very practiced. Preferred places are Downtown Beach, at low tide and Dolphin Bay, where the annual Joga Limpo Futebol Championship takes place annually, a traditional championship organized by natives, which rewards local teams and gunners with lots of excitement, cheerleading and relaxation.

By Nathalia Leme. Text originally published in Bora Magazine - issue 15 - Jan / Feb 2016