6th Annual Perth Youth Futsal Open

Middlesbrough Futsal Club Under-14s arrived on the futsal scene in style, winning the 6th Annual Perth Youth Futsal Open at the weekend. After only five weeks of coaching, the Boro boys entered their first competitive futsal tournament hoping to gain some vital experience of the game and not only learnt a lot, they brought the trophy back to Teesside.

After a six hour journey, Boro had their opening match against Letham Tangerines at the Bell’s Sports Centre – the home of Scottish futsal and it couldn’t have started any better. After a good warm up, the captain for the game, James Bolton won the toss and Boro kicked off. Bradley Laver, with the first kick for Boro, hit a powerful shot direct on goal and scored the opener to ease nerves and give Boro under-14s the perfect start. A further five goals from Liam Manuel, Sam Clarke (2), Charlie Raby and Lewis Bollands completed a 6-0 win – the exact same result as the first ever senior team game in 2005!

The second group game was on the Saturday morning against North Muirton. It was a very tight game in the first half, with both sides being complemented on good tactical futsal, and North Muirton got the breakthrough on the stroke of half time as they hit Boro on the counter attack. In the second half Boro played a different team to the first half and some slack defending allowed North Muirton to take a four-goal lead. Reece Reed gave Boro a consolation goal after Charlie Raby set him up with some good work on the edge of the box.

Boro’s chance for redemption came just an hour later as the two teams met again and Boro emphasised not being caught on the counter attack as had happened in the previous game. It was 0-0 at half-time thanks to a well organised defence, much down to captain Matty Soakell’s communication and some good saves. The only breakthrough in the tight game came with a wonder strike from Lewis Manuel. A chipped ball into the centre fell perfectly for him to strike first time with a volley that Wayne Rooney would be proud of. The goalkeeper had no chance and Boro kept it tight to go on and record a 1-0 win, again with second half goalkeeper and captain Mikey Crosby making some important saves.

The final group game was against Letham Tangerines and with qualification to the final already guaranteed, Boro could relax and the low-pressure situation produced a good performance from captain Connor Smith. Connor opened the scoring after Matty Soakell threw a quick ball over the top for Connor to finish deftly into the bottom corner.

Guido Battista then came on to score a quick-fire hattrick as he combined excellently with Charlie Raby on three occasions, with some quick interchanges that the first team would be proud of.

Meanwhile, Branksome School from Darlington, competing in the 15-17 Category also reached the final, inspired by Boro star Mikey Roberts and coached by goalkeeper, Chris Withers to set up a double final.

Middlesbrough against North Muirton was the first final and Sam Clarke was given the captain’s armband. The tournament so far had taught the boys so much about futsal, and a team talk before the final was geared towards taking all this and applying it one last time. The boys were nervous and the starting five was cautiously balanced to prevent the counter attack while having attacking flair. Bradley Laver, who had been solid defensively, partnered Youssef Elkiraa at the back, while Sam Clarke and Lewis Bollands provided the forward line.

If the nerves were present, they were quickly given some relief when Bradley tried a shot straight from the kick off again. He hit the post, the ball rebounded off the ‘keeper and in to give Boro an early lead! Sam Clarke, inspired by the captaincy got Boro’s second before Liam Manuel scored a brace to take his total to four in the tournament. North Muirton got one back in the first half from some slack marking at a kick in, but 4-1 at half-time and Boro were in control of the final. The Scots battled away and reduced the deficit to 4-2 before Connor Smith scored well-worked goal to restore Boro’s three-goal lead.

The final minutes were tense, as North Muirton pressed forward looking to get back into the game and one goal, followed by a quick second in the last minute left Boro hanging on by a thread. On came Bradley to solidify the Boro defence and he wrapped up the victory with his second and third of the tournament to make the final score 6-4.

Before the presentations were made, Branksome School had their final and a truly inspirational performance by Mikey Roberts took the game to a penalty shootout. Mikey scored all five of Branksome’s goals in the final, 12 in total, and stepped up to take the first penalty in the sudden-death shootout. One penalty each until a winner was decided – and the Scots had missed their first. Mikey shot straight at the ‘keeper, but he was saved despair when his goalkeeper made a superb save from six metres before Branksome won the trophy from the spot to round off a superb weekend.

Boro Futsal’s season goes from strength to strength with the Under-14s adding to the first team’s position top of the league, and the present and future of Boro looks good.

For more information about how to get involved with the club go to BoroFutsal.com.


Results:

Boro 6 Letham Tangerines 0
Captain: James Bolton
Bradley Laver, Liam Manuel, Sam Clarke 2, Lewis Bollands and Charlie Raby

Boro 1 North Muirton 4
Captain: Bradley Laver/Charlie Raby
Reece Reed

Boro 1 North Muirton 0
Captain: Matt Soakell/Mikey Crosby
Liam Manuel

Boro 5 Letham Tangerines 1
Captain: Connor Smith
Connor Smith, Guido Battista 3, Bradley Laver

Final: Boro 6 North Muirton 4
Captain: Sam Clarke
Bradley Laver 2, Sam Clarke, Liam Manuel 2, Connor Smith

Goalscorers
Liam Manuel 4
Bradley Laver 4
Guido Battista 3
Sam Clarke 3
Connor Smith 2
Charlie Raby 1
Reece Reed 1
Lewis Bollands 1

Photo: Arran Bollands (Lewis' younger brother) holds the trophy aloft as Boro celebrate.





















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