- April 18, 2024
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PALM COAST — As I walked up to Palm Coast’s new indoor soccer facility on Wednesday night, there was really only one thing I could think about.
I looked to my friend Ricky and said: “Dude, this is going to be a lot of running, isn’t it?”
Ricky had already played at Indoor Revolution, located off Utility Drive, a few times. It just opened about two weeks ago.
"Suck it up," Ricky replied, with complete seriousness. "We need to win."
It’s one field, with a black fence set back about 2 feet from one sideline, and a wall with a few doors the same distance away from the field on the other side. There isn’t much room behind the goals, either, but enough room to take corner kicks. If the ball hits the ceiling, it’s a kick in from the side. One of the coolest parts of the field, though, is how people eating at Hungry Howie’s can watch the action unfold through the window in the unit next door.
It’s traditional Brazilian futsal. Owner Jayme Fernandes is Brazilian, after all.
There are boundaries, so players can’t knock it off the wall like hockey. It’s also incredibly physical. There are no referees, so might as well try and sneak in a tackle here and there.
Basically, it’s like a cage of creativity: players try rainbows, triple stopovers, bicycle kicks and moves so crafty that sometimes players stub their foot on the artificial surface and fall on their face. (I might have done that once or twice.)
But, man, it’s fun. We played for two hours on Wednesday night. There were about 15 people there to play pickup, so we divided into three teams. First to two goals stays on the pitch. Loser sits.
Our team lost the first two games, but then we went on to win about six in a row. Maybe more. I lost count while trying to keep track of the number of goals I was scoring.
The plan for Indoor Revolution is to begin leagues in March.
It’s also huge for the area high school and club teams.
Rich Weber, boys soccer coach at Matanzas High School and part of PDA Florida, said PDA and Indoor Revolution are official partners.
“Jayme and Indoor Revolution have a great vision for bringing new soccer opportunities and programs to the area, and players can only grow from this new facility,” Weber said.
Actually, there were quite a few current and former area high school players on the field Wednesday night, including me and Ricky — even in our old age.
“But, yes," Ricky continued, as we were about to lace up our boots. "It’s going to be a lot of running."
