Courtesy: Soccer Nation


U.S. Futsal at Grand Prix

by Stephen Prendergast

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

U.S. Futsal National Team Finishes Grand Prix

Kraig Chiles of the San Diego Sockers scores for the USA against Belgium.

The U.S. Futsal National Team finished its first tournament a disappointing 0-7 in the invitational Grand Prix of Futsal in Manaus, Brazil. While the USA did not set the Futsal world on fire, fans need to remember that this team has only been working together since the end of September, compared to most of the other teams which have years of experience training together.

The 16 teams that took part in the tournament came from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas and featured such powerhouses as Brazil, Uruguay, Iran and Russia.

This was the United States’ first appearance at the seven-year-old Grand Prix, which is considered one of the premier futsal competitions in the world.

The Americans began the tournament with a 7-0 loss to Uruguay – the birthplace of futsal. The game was close at the half, with Uruguay holding only a 2-0 lead, but after the half Richard Catardo caught fire, scoring a hat trick to lead his team. Santiago Blankleider scored two and Diego Llama and Diego Garrido each scored once. Uruguay would eventually advance to the quarterfinals, only to fall to Brazil.

In their second game, the United States came up against a powerful Iran team that would reach the semifinals – before also losing to Brazil. Against the Americans, Iran wasted no time scoring just before the second minute of play en route to an 8-0 victory. Six different players scored for Iran, which is ranked No. 6 in the world in futsal. America’s best opportunity came on a one-on-one with Jeremy Ortiz against Iran’s goalkeeper Mojtaba Nasirniaie Farouji, who made the save to preserve the shutout.

In the last game of group play, the U.S. finally found the back of the net against Belgium. Kraig Chiles of the San Diego Sockers opened the scoring in the 5th minute on the way to a four-goal performance. Matthew Stewart, Jeff Hughes and Lucas Stauffer also scored for the Americans. However, a win was not in the cards as Belgium scored ten on the strength of Andre Vanderlei’s matching four-goal game for a 10-7 final score.

The United States finished the tournament playing in the consolation rounds. Their first game was a 5-2 loss to the Netherlands, with U.S. goals by Stewart and Hughes. This was followed by another loss to Belgium, 4-1, with the lone goal by Henrique Pinto. The team closed out the tournament losing 1-0 to Costa Rica, a team they will need to beat in CONCACAF play to qualify for the Futsal World Cup next year in Thailand.

Afterwards, Chiles talked about the tournament. “This trip has been a great learning experience for me,” he said. “I had very little futsal experience before this last month. The ID camp in September and full camp were my first 12 days of competitive futsal.” Chiles was complementary about head coach Keith Tozer, who had little time working with the team before the Grand Prix. “Keith Tozer did a very good job preparing the team in such a short period of time. As a team we were together for two weeks before the Grand Prix, while most of the other counties playing in the tournament have been together for years and have played dozens of games as a team.”

“Personally I'm excited to have scored my first goals for the United States,” Chiles continued. “I'm most disappointed that we couldn't find a win, but this trip was a chance for our team to bond and prepare for the upcoming Futsal World Cup qualifiers in August. We will have to finish in the top three in CONCACAF to go to the World Cup in Thailand next November, which is our team’s goal.”

Host country Brazil won the 2011 Grand Prix of Futsal, beating Russia in a hard-played 2-1 game. Argentina took third in the tournament, defeating Iran 4-2 in the bronze medal game. Guatemala, Paraguay, Uruguay and Czech Republic rounded out the top eight in the competition.




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