Courtesy: FAI Futsal Portal


Midlands League Tournament

Friday, 24 April 2009

The Midland Schoolboy/girl held its first competitive Futsal Tournament recently. Group Stages were held first to determine who went forward to the Cup and Shield Finals. Group Stages consisted of twenty games and produced an impressive 83 goals much to the delight of the big crowd in attendance.

Finals day began with the Shield Competition in the morning with the Quarter Finals alone producing 15 goals. The Final saw Mucklagh FC play T&S Utd and they didn’t disappoint the crowd as Mucklagh won 3-2 in a brilliant end to end final.

The crowd were then treated to a display from the Mountmelick Baton Twirlers. Girls aged from 8 to 16 showed their dancing skills and got the crowd warmed up for the following Cup competition.

As in the Shield Competition, the Cup Quarter Finals and Semi Finals continued the same high standard and skill producing 26 goals leading to the Final between Abbeyleix FC and Portlaoise AFC. Portlaoise went into a 2 goal lead but Abbeyleix were not about to throw in the towel and levelled the game with five minutes left. Abbeyleix finished off a great comeback to score the winner with seconds remaining.

Overall the Tournament was a great success and advert for the game of Futsal. The Player of the Tournament was awarded to Donagh Egan, who displayed a high range of skill and talent, showing what players can achieve in this sport.

The development of Futsal in the League is being spearheaded by the League’s Coaching Coordinator, Brian Flannery. He is adamant that this is the way forward in the development of young players. “We started with under eights and nines last season and as it was such a success, we decided to carry on again this season including under tens. The statistics for the under ten tournament of 34 games and 139 goals and the skills that were evident to see is testament to the fact that Futsal is important in the development of young players”.






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