Hybrid 3x3 Futsal in Harrison

Growing up Gen X, I wasn’t exactly inundated with soccer – I barely knew the sport. I loved hoops and baseball, and to a lesser degree football. So I was very surprised to find myself taken by 3-on-3 soccer, outside the back of my neighborhood Mexican brewery.

If you’ve traveled about Central America, you may have sat down in a park or in a bar next to a small soccer field on which pickup games of adults are underway. It’s much better than trivia night, let me tell you. Indeed, I more than once thanked my stars that it was a soccer field and not a basketball court, otherwise in my excited/inebriated state I might jump up and go. (At my age, with my knees…)

The fierce but playful energy is something to experience, and so when I noted the court out behind La Doña Cervecería, I got excited. The field there is no bigger than a full-court outdoor hoops court, only pinned by pens, like indoor soccer, with a netting wall and artificial grass between two 4” by 6”(?) goals.

There is no goalie, so no hands, and the netting is out, reset from the crease. Watching from outside it has the pace of foosball. With so little room to maneuver ball skills become more important. Nobody is raising up the field – indeed, often the best shot if you’ve got a step on someone is the sort-of slapshot – a long kick at the goalie-less goal from around the crease.

The field is only like 30’ long so nobody is free for long, but it also means good passing and movement can be deadly. I watched this pair do a variety of backdoor plays that with clever passing set them up moving toward the goal for a “layup.”

There’s not much time to feel bad, the games I saw had 30-40 goals apiece. It’s fast-paced, but there’s not a lot of running so much as turning back and forth, like the shuttle run. That's good exercise, and will wear you out. Teams had 4-7 reserves who would scoot in from a gate in the goal as line shifts or just to sub a single player.

The pace and odd bandbox nature made it a fun, drinking a beer activity. The teams were coed and on this particular night more of a beer-league. There’s a clock on the wall and lots of picnic tables to watch and rest from.

It’s reminiscent of how 3-on-3 basketball is similar to hoops but boiled down to essentials. It’s soccer, but it’s not the kind of leisurely long runs of European matches, but a pinball table type situation of odd caroms, bunched up wall scuffles shooting the ball to the other side of the field. I saw people line goals off the sidewall like an air-hockey puck.

The bar runs three leagues and finished their spring season a few weeks ago. They’re currently registering for an 8-week summer season. There are three leagues – the beer-league, a competitive league and a Friday pickup league that is just starting up, from the look of things. (Free play Friday is $20, A team pays $200. For more info go here.

The signup deadline for the first Summer season is June 6 and the season begins July 12. The Fall season signup deadline ins September 7 and the season begins September 13.