Courtesy: Fiji Times


Kamal backs team

by Amit Raj

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

FIJI team captain Kamal Hassan says it is an honour for him to lead the national team in the Oceania Football Confederation Futsal Championship.

The 26-year-old from Navosa will be playing in his third OFC Futsal Championship this year and he feels the team named by selectors yesterday is better than the 2008 and 2009 teams.

"I'm really happy to be chosen as captain and I'd like to thank the coaching staff for giving me the lead role," the Lautoka striker said.

"It's a big challenge for me and I have to lead by example.

"As a team, we have a big task ahead of us. But this is the best team compared to the teams we had in the last two years.

"We will do our best and try to win."

Hassan said Fiji's biggest challenge in the last two years were the Kurukurus from Solomon Islands.

"Firstly, it was playing the Solomon Islands. They've been playing in the Futsal World Cup and also winning the OFC championship.

"Solomon Islands players are more skillful than us.

"They've been together for six to seven years.

"But we have worked hard in the last three weeks. We also have some skillful players.

"For us it was really hard last year.

"Straight after playing in the Fiji Fact, we came into camp and just a week later, we had to compete.

"I'd like to thank Fiji FA for shifting the BOG dates as it has given us time to concentrate on Futsal. We've had time to build combination among players," he said.

Fiji will be coached by Hussein Saheb while OFC Futsal development manager Scott Gilligan will be the team's technical advisor.

Apart from skipper Hassan, just three players Navua's Siga Ali, Nadi striker Uraia Loki and Nadroga utility Simione Vesa have previously featured for the national team in an OFC championship.


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