Balanza Futsal · Argentine futsal in New Zealand
With its own technique, its own tactics and its own training methods. We bring the Argentine way to New Zealand: played all year, coached properly, and played with garra.
In New Zealand, futsal is what you play when football season ends.
A fitness filler. A preseason accessory. The game you muck around with until the real one starts.
We think that's exactly why it hasn't grown here.
Futsal is a sport in its own right.
It has its own technique, its own tactics and its own training methods. Tactically it's closer to basketball than it is to football. Rotations, screens, set plays, time-outs, rolling subs.
In Brazil and Portugal, kids grow up playing futsal. In Argentina, generations grew up on baby fútbol, and over the last 15 years those same clubs have moved into futsal leagues. Small courts, small teams, thousands of touches. Most kids don't play 11-a-side until 11 or 12. Some move to grass. Many stay. Either way, they arrive with skills you can't learn on a full-size pitch.
Nobody here is saying it. So we will.
We're here to give Kiwi kids that start, and a real choice: futsal as a path, not just a pastime.
The countries where kids learn the game on small courts are the same countries that keep winning, on both surfaces.
FIFA Futsal World Cups won by Brazil, Spain, Argentina and Portugal. Nobody else has ever lifted it.
Men's FIFA World Cups won by Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Spain, including the 2026 final. More than half of all tournaments ever played.
The year Argentina became futsal world champions, in Colombia. The country we come from.
Sessions a week for a typical futsal kid in Buenos Aires, plus a game at the weekend. Ten months a year, not just in winter.
Cristiano Ronaldo. Ronaldinho. Neymar. Iniesta. Vinícius. They all grew up playing futsal.
"Si yo tuviera cinco años, empezaría en fútbol sala."
Why the name
Every kid who grew up on an Argentine court knows it, and it's the move we teach first. You attack the pass, take a little hop, stop the ball dead with the sole and land with the ball between your feet, having turned 90 degrees to face the goal. Balanza means balance.
Control, balance and facing forward. It's everything futsal is, and everything we want our players to be.
What we do
Launching 2027 in Auckland. Every programme is built around one idea: futsal trained as futsal, by people who grew up inside it.
Weekly group training by age and level, all year round. Ball mastery, decision making and the fundamentals of the game, coached the way it's coached in Buenos Aires.
Our best players form Balanza teams and compete in Auckland futsal leagues. Train hard, get picked, wear the celeste.
Individual sessions that target exactly what a player needs: first touch, the sole, 1v1 moves, finishing, reading the game. Football players very welcome.
Futsal goalkeeping is its own craft: the split, the block, playing with your feet, and becoming a fifth outfield player. In Auckland, nobody teaches it formally. We will, with a specialist keeper coach.
We bring futsal into your school before school, at lunchtime or after school. It builds a futsal culture and gets kids hooked on the sport early.
Coaching and clinics for school and club teams that want to play real futsal: structure, rotations, set plays and a game model, not just football played indoors.
The pathway
In South America and Iberia, kids learn on small courts first. Then they choose: futsal, football or both. We're building the same pathway here, from the first touch to a league shirt.
Fun first. Thousands of touches, the sole of the foot, balance, and loving the ball.
Technique under pressure, 1v1, first tactical ideas, and playing as a team.
Game model, rotations, set plays, physical preparation and competing to win.
League competition for selected players, and a real futsal path, all year round.
Our players can go on to play football, futsal or both. Either way, they'll have the touch, the decision making and the garra that hard-court players carry for life.
How we train
Four pillars, brought from Argentina and adapted for Kiwi kids.
The sole, the toe-poke, receiving on the half-turn. Thousands of touches every session, in tight spaces, at game speed.
Rotations, 3-1, 4-0, pressing triggers and set plays. Real futsal ideas, taught at the right age.
Intensity, courage and never giving a ball up. The South American edge, and it can be coached.
Game-based learning. Players solve real problems, make decisions and love coming back.
Small court, five a side, rolling subs, time-outs, accumulated fouls, set plays from every restart. Futsal was born on a basketball court in Montevideo in 1930, using basketball rules, and it still plays like it. FIFA's own coaching manual teaches screens and pick-and-rolls. That's why we teach it as its own game.
Who we are
We both learned to love futsal in Buenos Aires. Now we want to give Kiwi kids what the sport gave us.
#10 · Head CoachAndy started playing futsal at six at Club Pinocho in Buenos Aires, the most decorated club in Argentine futsal, and has been dedicated to the sport ever since. Now 18, he has played in the National Futsal Superleague, NZ's top competition, with Auckland City, and won it.
He currently coaches the Selwyn College Junior Boys team.
Obsessed with the ball.
Director · TacticsPablo grew up playing basketball and discovered futsal when Andy started playing. He fell in love with it straight away, and was soon playing in competitive adult leagues himself.
Since moving to New Zealand in 2020 he has developed a love for coaching, earning a qualification from a recognised Argentine coach. He coaches the Selwyn College Senior Boys team and is fascinated by how much futsal tactics share with basketball.
Obsessed with tactics.
One obsessed with the ball.
One obsessed with tactics.
Both obsessed with futsal.
Balanza TV
Tutorials, drills, game clips and the moves that make futsal beautiful. Free, every week, on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
2027 intake
We're opening in 2027 with limited spots. Register your interest and you'll be first to hear about trial sessions, venues and timetables. No commitment.