Courtesy: FAI Futsal Portal


Pele kicks off Futsal exhibition in Ballymun

Monday, 30 November 2009

PELÉ was the guest of honour at a unique futsal exhibition game at the BRL Umbro Arena in Ballymun, Dublin last Thursday.

The legendary Brazilian superstar symbolically kicked off a Futsal friendship game between Irish futsal players and members of the Brazilian community living in Ireland who regularly play in Irish Futsal leagues.

All of the players on show starred in the recent Emerald Futsal League, which was played out of the futsal-specific BRL Umbro Arena at Trinity Comprehensive, Ballymun.

The specially arranged match was a celebration of the friendships forged between Irish and Brazilian Futsal players which have blossomed over the last two years. Indeed, many players from a variety of multicultural backgrounds have regularly played alongside each other in the Emerald league but this day was dedicated to the Brazilians with their King being in town!

Pelé took in the fixture as part of his whistle-stop tour of Dublin, which included presentations to schools and other groups who signed up to his Goals for Life charity campaign.

Speaking about the benefits of playing Futsal, Pele said he had played Futsal as a youngster before establishing himself in the World Famous Santos football team.
“A lot of Brazilian players play both normal football and Futsal. I played Futsal for 2 or 3 years before I joined Santos”.

Futsal is a fast moving, high scoring game and Pele spoke of the appeal that this aspect of the game had for him:
“I wanted to score lots of goals. I was 12, 13, 14…. three years I played Futsal, it was very important to me”.

It’s a game which he believes helped his development as a footballer and that has the ingredients to help in the technical and mental football development of new generations of Irish players.

“Of course Futsal was important in helping to develop my ball control, quick thinking, passing…. of course you have to have an aptitude for both Futsal and normal football and you must have the capacity to adjust because of the differences in the games. But for dribbling, balance, concentration….Futsal was very very important, no doubt”.

Such an endorsement for Futsal from the King of Football should remind coaches throughout Ireland tasked with helping our youngest players to investigate the benefits of introducing this fast and exciting game into their training programmes.

The Futsal match itself was a great exhibition of Futsal skills with the Brazilians racing into an early lead thanks to a double from Rodrigo Di Melo and a fine strike from Hygo Cesar.

Brazilian keeper Gustavo Silva had made a string of important saves to keep his side in control, denying Alan Lynch, Jack Doyle and Ian Byrne to make it 3-0 to his side at the break.

John O’Donoghue brought the Irish back into the tie with a fine finish early in the second half but Di Melo completed his hat-trick before Cesar struck his second of the day to put the Brazilians back in control.

Lynch and Lloyd Massey scored late goals to leave a final score of 5-3 to complete a thrilling encounter.

“It was a great game, played in the right spirit,” said Junior Da Silva, coach of the Brazilian Futsal friends team.

“We were very good in the first half but the Irish side was excellent in the second half so it was a close contest.”

IRISH SELECT – John Perkins; Mark Langtry, Alan Lynch, Tony Kane, Ian Byrne; John Somers, John O’Donoghue, Cian McDonald, Jack Doyle, Brendan Dawson, Lloyd Massey.

BRAZILIANS SELECT – Gustavo Silva; Hygo Cezar, Carlos Eduardo, Rodrigo Di Melo, Helio Neto; Vinicius Terso, Alex Da Silva, Alessandro De Lucena, Marco Prudencio, Rodrigo Lourenco, Isaias Lima.







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