Ryan from streetfootballworld – we spoke, and traveled briefly together during this festival. I am only now reviewing the work of our 650 journalists! I really enjoy what you wrote here and am wondering how long it took you to write this and in under what time constraint…I do not know your full circumstantial story but I recall that you happened upon the commission via craigs, I believe. That is great, anyhow, I ask you this because I am impressed with your work and would like to read more of it. Preferably related to the topic – which other posts are yours? Send me some material, please! I would like to pass it around…

Saludos,

Ryan Mykita
ryan.mykita@gmail.com
1 949 485 5083 – International

Glad you had fun at the festival!

10 mates get together on a 5-a-side pitch after work with no ref and the ball alwys in play? That’s what we do every Wednesday!

By the way, what other countries have teams in this tournament?

However, our real street football includes:

1. cars. Parked cars and other street obstacles are part of the field. If the ball gets stuck below the car, or somewhere else where it can’t be recovered, it’s the equivalent of going outside the field.

2. There’s no actual side lines, the lines at the end of the field (past the goal). Sometimes sidewalks are considered outside the field, but it depends on the neighbourhood/city I guess.

3. Sometimes the line past the goal is also ignored, so you can go around the goal (hokey style). The ball can’t traverse the goal line in reverse though.. if you are behind the goal and want to score a goal, you have to get around it, not back and forth.

4. people. When someone needs to walk across the “field” (it’s a street afterall, people walk through it), all gameplay should halt immediately. Players should remain on their position. That’s specially valid in case of women or cars. If a man is walking over the field, he usually can be ignored, and it’s his problem to dodge the ball and the people running after it. If someone that demands special treatment (ie, woman with baby) is walking by, you can stop the game AND secure the ball with your hands to show respect.

5. only “low” goals are valid, the usual goal “height” is around half a meter. Goalposts are rocks, shoes, cans, natural markings on the ground, or anything else.

6. usually, there’s no goalkeeper, unless the teams are pretty big in size. Nobody wants to play as the goal keeper, so that position servers rotation…: when the current goalkeeper suffers a goal, he starts to play as a normal player, and other player replaces him as the goalkeeper. If that was an “easy” goal (meaning the GK conceded it because he wants to leave the position), he gets to remain on the position.

7. there’s no fixed time. A target score is set before the match – say, 10 goals. The first team to reach the score wins. When someone reaches half of the score (5 on this case) it’s half-time and teams should swap the sides of the field.

8. if you kick the ball outside of the field and it goes flying somewhere far, you’re the one who should run to recover it. That includes balls that goes inside other people’s houses… you’re the one who should jump the wall to grab it back, or ring the bell and ask for it politely.

9. teams can play with a difference in the number of players, but some kind of balance has to be reached depending on each players’ ability.

10. players can join or quit the game at anytime. There are no substitutions, per se. People just join in on the team that’s losing.

11. the field is pretty small. Obviously, there’s no offside.

12. anything can be a ball, although some are better balls than others. Real footballs are never used, they’re too big and bounce too much. Futsal (”indoor” football?) balls are used albeit rarely, they’re a deluxe item. The ball is usually some half-deflated old ball. The kid who owns the ball is the king of the match, and can threaten to go home and take the ball with him if he doesn’t like something. Coke cans, or plastic bags full of paper are also balls to some extent.

13. dribbling is everything.

There’s a guy who wrote a more extensive article about this (hum.. Luís Fernando Veríssimo?) a while ago, but I can’t remember it. It goes more or less like what I said though.