Courtesy: Central Western Daily


Championship test for talented trio

by Nick McGrath

09 Jan, 2011

THREE of Orange’s finest young futsal players will test their skills at the 2011 Football Federation of Australia Futsal National Championships in Canberra, starting today.

Futsal, a variant of the game of football played on a smaller playing surface and indoors with a harder ball, has taken off in Sydney during the last five years.

And it’s hoped with the inclusion of talented trio Luke Masotti, Reece Robinson and Max Drion in the NSW Western side for the championships, the sport will take flight in the Central West, too.

This week’s national championship is the FFA’s 32nd edition and proud father Marco Masotti said it was a great way for the boys to test their skills at the under 13s level.

“It’s the natural progression for the boys to have gone from representing Western at state level to now representing on the national level,” Masotti said.

“They had the opportunity to trail at the state titles and did really well. They deserve selection.

“And it’s important they are able to test themselves at that higher level. They’ll be able to do that in Canberra.”

Although playing under the Western NSW banner for the national titles, Masotti, Robinson and Drion are the sole representatives from our region.

They’ll be joined by players predominantly from metropolitan Sydney to make up the Western NSW side coached by Colin Armstrong.

Luke Masotti, a representative player for outdoor soccer, too, said the rep experience would be invaluable.

“It’s going to be good. We’ll get more skills and be able to use the skills we already have,” he said.

Robinson and Drion, both gifted futsal players, said the higher standard of competition would take their games to the next level.

“I think we’re going to like the better competition,” Robinson said.

The trio played trial matches at Dural over the weekend against the Solomon Islands, NSW Lightning and NSW Thunder before heading to Canberra.

They will play pool matches against New Zealand and the Solomon Islands once in Canberra.


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