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Saskatchewan is well represented on Canada Soccer’s inaugural women’s national futsal team.
Goalkeeper Jadyn Steinhauer, defender Jade Houmphanh and winger Erica Hindmarsh are all from Saskatoon and have been named to the 14-woman Canadian roster. The trio played on the University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s soccer team while in school.
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Steinhauer, Houmphanh and Hindmarsh currently all play for SK Impact FC, which won the national futsal women’s title in Regina in March for the second year in a row.
The 14-player roster is made up of athletes from across the country but Steinhauer, Houmphanh and Hindmarsh are the only players from western Canada. The rest of the roster is made up of players from Ontario and Quebec.
Current Huskies women’s soccer team head coach Jerson Barandica-Hamilton has also been named to the women’s national futsal team as an assistant coach.
The team will represent Canada at the inaugural CONCACAF W Futsal Championship in Guatemala, which began on Monday and runs to May 4.
The tournament is made up of two groups and the top two teams in each group will advance to the semifinal. The Canadian team has been drawn into a group with Costa Rica, Honduras and the United States.
The two teams which advance to the final of the tournament will qualify for the inaugural 2025 FIFA Women’s Futsal World Cup in the Philippines from Nov. 21 to Dec. 7. It will feature 16 teams from around the world.
Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Italy, Morocco, New Zealand, Phillippines, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Tanzania have all already qualified for the World Cup.
Brazil is ranked as the top team in both men’s and women’s futsal standings.
What is futsal?
Futsal is basically a fancy name for indoor soccer. The game is played with five players on each side using a size-four ball and is played on a basketball gym floor.
The five players on the floor can substitute at any time and those substitutions are unlimited throughout the game.
Each half lasts 20 minutes and the clock stops whenever the ball is knocked out of play. Coaches can also call a one-minute timeout at any point in either half.
Most of the traditional soccer rules also apply to futsal, including the yellow and red card rules when it comes to fouls.
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