Courtesy: The FA.com


Helvecia & Watford take Futsal honours

FA Competitions
Sunday, 05 July, 2009

The FA Futsal Cup Finals took place in Sheffield this weekend.

The FA Futsal Cup Finals 2009
Friday 3 July - Sunday 5 July 2009
English Institute of Sport, Sheffield

Helvecia FC lifted The FA Futsal Cup for the second successive year on Sunday, courtesy of a 2-1 win against Loughborough Students, whilst 2007 champions and last year's runners-up Watford Ladies took the honours too by beating Leeds Met Carnegie in the women's Final in Sheffield.

It was a competitive tournament as always at the impressive English Institute Of Sport and that was also shown in the Men's Shield, which was eventually won by Futsal Cup debutants Hartpury College.

Over 30 teams made the trip to South Yorkshire for the Finals, which began on Friday with the early group games which carried on into Saturday before the knock-out stages began.

With the top two from each group in both the men’s and women’s Cup heading into the quarter finals, there was also the Plate to contest for the remaining men’s teams.

There were a few surprises too, as teams such as Loughborough Students and Genesis secured their place in the last eight of the men’s competition and it was Loughborough who created perhaps the biggest upset by knocking out FC White Bear by 4-3 to seal a place in the Semi-Final against London United.

With Helvecia in convincing form after an 8-2 quarter final victory against Kickers and then a 4-1 win over Tranmere Victoria, it was left to the Students to win their Semi-Final by 2-1 and give themselves a shot at the title.

They came close too, with Helvecia edging the Final by 2-1 to lift The Cup again and follow on from last year’s success and their win in The FA Futsal League play-offs.

In the women’s competition, last year’s winners Doncaster Rovers Belles headed into the Semi-Final with a thunderous 12-1 win against Barnsley Ladies, whilst perennial challengers Watford Ladies progressed after a 7-3 win against United Again to face Curzon Ashton Ladies for a place in the Final.

A 3-0 win for Watford saw them take their place in the showpiece game, but there was to be no repeat of last year’s Final as Leeds Met Carnegie ran out as 6-3 winners against Doncaster. Watford eventually took the title for a second time, by winning 3-1 in The Final.

Other awards handed out over the weekend saw Tranmere Victoria and Crewe Alexander named as Fair Play Winners in the men's and women's competition respectively.

Top goalscorer was James Efprit of Genesis with 12 to his name, whilst the best goalkeeper was named as Helvecia’s Jhonata Almeida Guimares and Bruno Abreu, also from Helvecia, was named as Player Of The Tournament.

The Golden Boot in the women’s competition was shared between Watford’s Kelly Bingham and Doncaster’s Vicki Stevens who both hit 13 goals, whilst Watford goalkeeper Lauren Davy was named as best stopper. The Player Of The Tournament award went to Sophie Walton of runners-up Leeds Met Carnegie.

All of The FA Futsal Cup results from the last three days can be seen at FullTme by clicking here.







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