Report by our welsh collaborator Kevin Green


Welsh Futsal Finally Making Progress

University of Glamorgan 3 Hartpury College 2

This past weekend saw the 1st round of the British University and Colleges (BUCS) Futsal championships regional qualifiers. Glamorgan Academics Futsal Club (University of Glamorgan), the 1st established Futsal Club in Wales, who compete in the South West Regional heat have in the past 3 years of this competition struggled, recording very few victories and never progressing to the national finals. However, this year hopefully this is all due to change.

In the off season (and throughout last year) a vast amount of work has gone on behind the scenes at the club to promote the face of Futsal in Wales and at the University. This has resulted in the Club expanding to 2 teams, after having an unprecedented demand of 130 players trying out for the club, and what is even more encouraging is that both teams are looking competitive.

Perhaps the biggest sign of the progress made came this weekend at the BUCS qualifiers in Plymouth, when Glamorgan’s 1st team defeated British University Champion’s and National Finalists Hartpury College 3-2. In last year’s competition we had lost this game by a staggering 14-2.

The game was a very tense affair. In the 1st half the game was very open with plenty of chances at either end Bernardo Meira making some excellent saves in the Glamorgan Goal. Kevin Green came closest to opening the scoring, narrowly heading wide after a lofted pass by the skilful Matthaus Marriott. However, Hartpury quickly countered to go 1-0 ahead. In defense Glamorgan were excellent, particularly new players Vinny North and Matt Croft, and the half closed out a 1-0.

In the second half Glamorgan could not of had a better start when the ever composed Ricardo Santos scored netted with the seconds of the kick off. Soon after , Glamorgan took the lead when Santos again combined with ‘craque’ target player João Sacramento. Glamorgan continued to attack in search of a third, coming close through the ever reliable vice-captain Matt Jones. However, the chances did not pay off, and Harpury equalised when a deflected shot beat Ramon Vidal. This equaliser seemed to inspire Glamorgan who then piled on wave after wave of attack. Eventually the winner came when Green’s blocked shot from a corner was convincingly fired home again by Sacramento. Glamorgan closed out the final 2 minutes under the leadership of experienced Captain Gareth Cobb and superb defending of stalwart Ricardo Gonçalves to take home a monumental victory.

Glamorgan Academics 1st Team – Bernardo Meira (Gk), Ricardo Santos, Vinny North, Kevin Green, João Sacramento – Gareth Cobb (Captain), Matt Jones, Ricardo Gonçalves, Matt Croft, Matthaus Marriott, Ramon Vidal (Gk).

The improvements shown so far by Glamorgan are testament to the years of hard work by coach Paul Lewis and honorary lifetime president Roberto Teixeira who have worked tirelessly to improve the standard of Welsh Futsal.
In the other games the 1st team comprehensively defeated Plymouth 2nd’s 6-0 and narrowly lost 4-3 to Gloucester 1st. The 2nd team in their only game lost 4-2 after being late on after being locked at 2-2 with Marjons.
Glamorgan’s next action will come in the South Wales FA Futsal League commencing in the next few weeks, and in friendly action against BUCS finalists and established national league side Team Bath at the @Futsal centre in Cardiff on 29th November 2009. Information will follow on these events shortly.

Glamorgan Academics Futsal Club Website on Facebook: click here














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