Courtesy: UEFA.com


Hvöt earn European futsal chance

Monday 12 January 2009

by Stefán Stefánsson from Reykjavik

Blonduos, a town of a 900 people in the north of Iceland, will be represented in UEFA competitoin next season after local side Hvöt beat reigning champions Vídir Gardi 6-2 to claim the national futsal title.

New opportunity
Vídir became Iceland's first UEFA Futsal Cup representatives last August in a preliminary round mini-tournament in France and Hvöt will follow in their footsteps next summer. Like Vídir, Hvöt usually ply their trade in the third tier of Icelandic football, only just missing out on promotion in 2008, but captain Gissur Jónasson is looking forward to a new adventure later this year.

Tactics work
"I'm sure none of our players have played for a place in a European tournament before," Jónasson said. "We did not do a lot of preparation and mainly participated for the enjoyment. We realised we had a chance of winning when we made the final, which we did not expect, and were to meet reigning champions Vídir, who played in the last Futsal Cup. We knew it would get more difficult but stuck to our tactics of holding tight in defence and making the most of our quick breaks. I'm not sure what the key to victory was; maybe the Vídir players came here thinking of nothing but victory while we came to enjoy the game."

Summer campaign
So unexpected was their triumph that no thought has yet been given to their European campaign, though they will not discover their opposition until 2 July. Indeed, the club is currently without a coach after Kristján Óli Sigurdsson left in the autumn. "We don't know what will happen this summer," Jónasson admitted. "The Icelandic second division is our primary tournament but we will go for the futsal games and enjoy it and one thing is for sure – we never go into a game without aiming to win so we will do our best. This is fun and I think clubs should put more effort into futsal. It's very good for our young players to have this experience in a UEFA tournament and also very good experience for a small community: I'm sure our town will support us."

Preparation
He may be advised to compare notes with Vídir, who suffered three defeats in their European campaign. Vídir captain Rúnar Daníelsson warned Hvöt that they cannot go in unprepared. "Read the rules very carefully and see as many games as possible because this is totally different from how we play in Iceland," Daníelsson said.








Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com