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Double-winning Helvecia confirm dominance
By Simon Walker
Monday, 13 September, 2010
A full round-up of this weekend's action in The Futsal Cup.
The FA Futsal Cup The Finals 10-13 September 2010 The English Institute Of Sport, Sheffield
Helvecia yet again stormed to victory this weekend at The FA Futsal Cup National Finals, emphasising their dominant stranglehold on English Futsal by claiming The Cup for the third successive year and claiming the double of being both National League champions and Cup winners for the second year in a row.
The London-based club that is formed out of the Brazilian expat community has proven itself to be a level above its nearest rivals over recent years, but Helvecia had to fight hard to claim this year’s FA Futsal Cup.
Helvecia in establishing their control over English Futsal are renowned for their beautiful Futsal played at an incredible speed and precision. However during this weekend’s Finals, Helvecia were untypically reliant on more dogged and determined performances than the classy displays that they normally exude. This led to many onlookers predicting an upset at this tournament, with Helvecia’s closest rivals Spartans tipped for glory.
This weekend’s FA Futsal Cup Finals saw the culmination of a long hard qualifying process for both the men’s and women’s competition. Over 400 male and female teams entered the competition back in March and have progressed through local qualifying leagues and regional heats through to the National Finals at Sheffield.
The National Finals started on Friday, with some mouth-watering displays in the women’s tournament from Reading, Watford, Team Bath and Team United Birmingham. The quality of Futsal played by the women’s teams at this year’s FA Futsal Cup showed an impressive development compared to previous years – the game is clearly progressing with the ladies teams. But these four clubs really stood out in the opening group encounters, with Watford and Reading looking like the clear favourites for the Final.
In the men’s group stages, there were not too many surprises or upsets, with Spartans, Tranmere Victoria, Helvecia and Manchester Futsal Club all topping their respective groups. There were some notable displays from Team Unum, who are a newly formed club and managed to beat several of the FA National Futsal League clubs, including Tranmere Victoria 5-4 in an exciting Quarter Final.
Spartans had a narrow escape against Genesis in one of the other Quarter Finals, with Genesis having an unlikely 2–0 lead with only five minutes of the game to play; unfortunately Genesis perhaps showed their naivety in failing to close out the game, whilst Spartans displayed their belief and experience to finish the match 5-2. Helvecia and Sheffield were the other two clubs to progress to the Semi-Finals.
In the women’s Semi-Finals, Reading faced Team United Birmingham in a riveting match that saw the momentum continually swing between the two clubs. Reading, being the more powerful and technically capable team, finally sealed the game 5-3 in a physically draining encounter. But Team United arguably displayed more Futsal prowess and were unlucky to lose.
The other women’s Semi-Final witnessed an end-to-end encounter between Team Bath and Watford Ladies. Throughout the tournament, Watford’s young squad looked in immense form, but Team Bath played exquisitely by controlling the tempo and flow of the game. Team Bath’s Ana Bruni was central to everything positive that the university team created, and led them to a convincing 5-2 victory.
With Reading Ladies having a far larger squad to utilise for the final match of an exhausting tournament, they were the favourites leading into the Women’s Final. But with the stand-out player of the tournament in Bruni, Team Bath could not necessarily be underestimated – but it was a case of whether Bruni had pushed herself too hard in the Semi-Final. Reading seized the lead through Kelly Chambers and capitalised on their early dominance of the game, but Team Bath edged back into the game with Helen Bleazard scoring twice to give them the lead at half-time. In the second half, both teams seemed physically drained, with it affecting Reading more than Team Bath. Reading inexplicably did not choose to rotate their players to any great extent, and thus did not benefit from their large playing squad. Bruni gave Team Bath a 3-1 lead, which to Reading’s credit was quickly cancelled out by Mikela Howell’s goal. But Bruni stepped up once again to give Team Bath a 4-2 cushion that was enough to see the university team home and to be crowned The FA Futsal Cup winners for 2010.
The men’s Semi-Finals saw two exciting matches, with Helvecia edging past Team Unum 3-2 in unconvincing fashion. Team Unum’s captain and player of the tournament, Bruno Vittorino, who had been in exceptional form throughout the competition, missed three long-penalties at crucial points in this Semi-Final that ultimately cost the team dearly.
The other Semi-Final witnessed an outstanding performance from Sheffield Futsal Club against Spartans. Very much the under-dogs going into this match, Sheffield took the lead through the outstanding Ben Mortlock. The England international was the driving force behind Sheffield’s performance, but Spartans soon stamped their authority on the game with two goals from Agon Rexha, Spartans’ own England international. Spartans seemed to completely lose focus for the remainder of the game, and after a number of excellent chances for Sheffield, this was eventually punished late in the second half by a good finish by Joel Rocha. The game went into extra-time, and this awoke the desire of the Spartan team, who moved up a gear and eventually won the game 4-2, setting up an exciting finale with Helvecia.
The Final between Helvecia and Spartans, the two powerhouses of the game, was inevitable and was a re-run of the tense and thrilling FA National Futsal League Grand Final in July. On that occasion, Helvecia won an extraordinary game after extra-time. This Final unfortunately did not have quite the same quality or excitement as the Grand Final, but was still a compelling match as these two giants tussled for victory. Spartans started brighter and took a very early lead through Spiro Susa, and Helvecia for the majority of the first half struggled to get any foothold in the game, with Spartans exerting their authority and control. Through Leonardo Moreira’s well worked goal, Helvecia equalised against the run-of-play, but Spartan’s captain Bruno Ferrage re-established the lead going into half-time and they were very much the team in the ascendency.
Helvecia came out for the second half revitalised and began to dictate the tempo of the game. Similar to previous games in the competition, and at the Grand Finals, Spartans appeared to switch-off and lose their focus as the game went on. Eventually, Helvecia carved out a goal for Leonardo Carmagnani to level the game at 2-2. The match went into extra-time, but by this point it looked like there would be only one winner: and Pagliuso’s finish for Helvecia confirmed that the most successful club in English Futsal would retain The FA Futsal Cup for the third consecutive year.
