The Gap Continues to Shrink
We have heard that the difference between the big four nations (Italy, Portugal, Russia and Spain) and the others is narrowing for quite some time. Though the games were getting closer I think this is the tournament where the second level nations were genuinely competitive with the heavyweights.
In 2012 those elite four won all their group games against the other countries. This time no team was able to record two victories in the group phase, which included surprises like Slovenia's victory over Italy and Croatia's draw with Spain. This is only the second time no team has recorded maximum points at this stage. The last time was in 2007 under a different format with just two groups resulting in the four heavyweights having to face each other. Every team in Antwerp managed to earn at least a point except Netherlands. Over half of the twenty games finished with a 1 goal or fewer difference in the final score. This highlights how competitive the teams were and made for a very interesting competition.
However, in the end it was still the familiar favourites that reached the semi-finals. The significant advantage these nations have over the others is the quality of their domestic leagues; They have professional championships which not only means the players are able to train more frequently but the level of competition is higher with the presence of top foreigners. What matters most is what your national team players are doing on a daily basis within their clubs.
f countries such as Croatia had professional leagues I am sure they would be on the same level as the big four. Slovenia has seen a lot of improvement through having the majority of their players representing foreign clubs.
In addition to this, if they want to really make their mark and challenge for the title, there is one other aspect they must change. This is their squad management. Was it a co-incidence that all the semi-finalists utilised every player available to them? Out of those four only Portugal had a noticeable drop in performance when their first four weren't on and this was because their star man Ricardinho is unique.
Compare this to Slovenia and Croatia who gave most of their minutes to five or six players. This will only get you so far and when it comes to the latter stages in these tournaments, or even just at the end of a game, the players are inevitably fatigued. This costs through a lack of intensity and bad decision-making. Croatia should have learned their lesson in EURO 2012 when at the end of the tournament they looked like a very poor imitation of the team that started the competition. You may argue that they are forced to do this because they don't have the quality in depth of the best nations but I would disagree.
I have played alongside or against every player in the Croatian squad and they certainly have enough ability. Most of the time what can appear to be a lack quality with fringe players is just a lack of confidence. Psychologically, the most important thing for most players mentally is to feel the trust of your coach and the freedom to make mistakes, which paradoxically results in fewer errors. If a coach doesn't show belief in some players they will perform below their maximum level. With a coach's confidence a player can be a world-beater and without it the same player can look out of his depth. The coaches give a couple of minutes to a player and, when he doesn't perform, wrongly attribute this to a lack of quality; Reinforcing their belief that they must stick with their favourite players.
I expect that the trend of improvement from these second level nations to continue and in 2016 I would not be surprised to see a couple of the big four go out before the semi-final stage. As for the weaker nations at the finals, where futsal is not a professional sport, I think the goalkeeping position is something that they need to address. Many of these are using techniques suited for 11-a-side football goals with lots of sliding and diving, rather than focusing on positioning and blocking. This is the most important position in futsal and developing better goalkeepers would have a significant impact on their success.