Miss Lind recently arrived at school to take gym class. \u201cI\u2019m a Finnish champion,\u201d she proudly announced to her students. \u201c\u2019We played futsal at the weekend too,\u2019 they responded. It was no big deal to them! (laughs)\u201d<\/p>\n
What is a big deal to her students is when their teacher pulls on that blue cross-emblazoned white shirt. Now the HIFK player is out to make it a consequentially bigger deal by doing it in the first FIFA Futsal World Cup\u2122.<\/p>\n
Lind, a pacey, powerful performer who has become one of the best European pivots outside Iberia, chats to FIFA about quitting 11-a-side for a sport she didn\u2019t initially embrace, her playing style, a 16-year-old phenom and Finland\u2019s quest to reach Philippines 2025.
\nYou were an 11-a-side footballer. A futsal team had a lot of injuries, asked you to play and the rest is history. Can you tell us about this?
\nSandra Lind: That\u2019s all true. I never thought that futsal would be my kind of game. When I was young, I only played in the winter, when we couldn\u2019t play [football] outdoor. I never thought, \u2018I love this\u2019. But the futsal team that was short of players, who were playing in the highest league in Finland, they had a really fun playing style. The players were free, you didn\u2019t have stay in a fixed position. I really liked that style and I really liked the constant involvement in the game.
\nWho have been your idols?
\nMy mum. She wasn\u2019t a big player, but she was my biggest idol. I started playing football when I was five. My mum was my coach. She taught me a lot. She stopped coaching when I was around 15. [Lionel] Messi and [Cristiano] Ronaldo were my idols too. In futsal I have many idols. The biggest have been Janice Silva of Portugal, who is an incredible pivot, and my Finnish team-mate Tiia Juntikka. She\u2019s really great on the ball. I\u2019ve watched her closely for many years and learned a lot from her.<\/p>\n
Can you describe Sandra Lind as a player?
\nI don\u2019t have many flashy tricks. I rely on speed, strength, body feints and finishing. I like to play with my back to goal. I like to turn my markers. I\u2019m quite direct \u2013 spin, shoot. I used to struggle more when I was only comfortable turning to the right. I\u2019ve since trained a lot on going to the left and feel that\u2019s improved my game greatly. I use toe-pokes a lot. Even if I\u2019m the furthest player forward, I also really enjoy the defensive side of futsal. I like it when the teams comes together and we have coordinated pressure. I\u2019d say I\u2019m good at reading when I need to put pressure on and when I need to step back.<\/p>\n
How did you feel when the first FIFA Futsal Women\u2019s World Cup was announced?
\nIt was really, really, really amazing. I think it\u2019s so important for the sport. It will push the sport forward. It\u2019s a worthy reward for all the great players who have put their lives into futsal. I\u2019m so, so happy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Miss Lind recently arrived at school to take gym class. \u201cI\u2019m a Finnish champion,\u201d she proudly announced to her students. \u201c\u2019We played futsal at the weekend too,\u2019 they responded. It was no big deal to them! (laughs)\u201d What is a big deal to her students is when their teacher pulls on that blue cross-emblazoned white […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":985023,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20966],"tags":[9648,27192],"class_list":["post-985022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fifa-news","tag-fifa","tag-fifa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=985022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/985023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=985022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=985022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=985022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}