Street soccer played in a caged arena, already taking hold in some Chinese cities, will hopefully be introduced to Shanghai next year. [Photo by Wang Zhenghua/Shanghai Star]

Street soccer,in which players compete in a small cage pitch placed in a densely populated area, is giving spectators a close-up view of the action. Wang Zhenghua takes a look.

In an enclosed playing field in the middle of a roadside square, Chen Tingyue weaves a soccer ball around the legs of his opponent in the drizzling rain. Spectators and substitute players stand or sit just inches outside the cage, fingers wrapped around the wire.

The spectators are gawking at the footwork that they will never get a chance to see up close at traditional soccer matches. Players find it even more challenging than usual to compete in this caged-in soccer arena. The ball is a blur and possession constantly changes. Fans flinch as the ball hurtles toward them and crashes into the fence — the game resumes after a lightening quick out-of-bounds break.

"Street soccer is quite fast paced and requires more agility," Chen, 28, a State-owned company employee, says after a match held during the sports carnival that took place earlier this month in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu province, 240 kilometers north of Shanghai.

"This portable arena provides amateur players a perfect alternative. We have been craving a place to play soccer in the populous urban areas," adds Chen, who is drenched in sweat after the first half of the game.

Wildly popular in Brazil and the Netherlands, street soccer has recently taken hold in some Chinese cities and it will hopefully soon be introduced to others, including Shanghai.

Teams of five play two 20-minute halves on a field as small as 31 meters by 19 meters, inside a 4.5-m high net. Players love how the small field creates an adrenaline-packed game that allows them more contact with the ball and is more physically demanding.

There have been several tournaments hosted since last year in Beijing, Wuhan, Jinan and Qingdao, where amateur players develop the level of their skill, learn to make a perfectly timed tackle, improve their ball control and shoot with greater accuracy in the small enclosure.

Huang Wei, an official with the General Administration of Sport, says one advantage of this portable soccer arena is it covers a small area and can be set up on a square out of a shopping mall, in a residential community, park, or even on the top of a building - basically any flat, safe surface.

"We see bright prospects for 'caged soccer’, especially in cities that are short of vacant plots," he says.

The cost of the facility, which was developed by Impulse (Qingdao) Health Tech Co, is only a tiny fraction of the cost of constructing a traditional stadium, which usually is more than 100 million yuan ($16.7 million).

"We try to meet the demands of different groups for sport facilities," Huang says.

Ding Lirong, president of Impulse Health Tech, says that the target group of caged soccer are young people in cities.

The professionalism of Chinese soccer is still very low, he says. "We need to get more people involved in the sport and create the atmosphere of working out and playing soccer."

Ding says Shanghai is among the new markets where the company wants to introduce to the new facility. "We have talked with sport authorities in Shanghai, and will see if we can get any results."

Although the facility has yet to be introduced to a wider range of residents, it has already drawn some foreign fans in China.

"It's quite a nice soccer arena," says Emma Tetteh, 20, a college student from Ghana. "The game features some good up-and-downs. I love it very much."

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