Courtesy: The FA.com


Lions roar into National Finals

by Stephen Brown

Tuesday, 13 March, 2012

Oxford Lions run out winners in Hereford at the weekend.

This weekend saw the first of three regional qualifiers take place in the Midlands for The FA U18s National Futsal Championships. The regional qualifier also gave the teams participating the unique opportunity to play ahead of the second game of the England versus Switzerland international in Hereford.

Team Bath, Team Derby Futsal Club, Oxford Lions Futsal Club and South Gloucestershire and Stroud College played in seven thrilling matches, which above anything else bodes extremely well for the future of English Futsal. The players from all four teams demonstrated outstanding technique, skill and understanding of Futsal.

The qualifier started with teams playing in a qualifying group, with Team Bath setting the early pace with an impressive 3-0 win against eventual finalists South Gloucestershire and Stroud. The latter team was given a vital lesson in this first game of which they took into their other group games with a fine display against Team Derby. Their eventual opponents in the Final, Oxford Lions, set the tone for the rest to follow with back-to-back wins against both Team Derby and Team Bath with Andreas Vais particularly impressing the growing crowd with his clinical finishing.

The final two group games proved to be classics with both Team Bath and Gloucestershire and Stroud fighting it out for chance to meet Oxford in the Final. It was Team Bath’s turn first against Team Derby; Bath started strongly and took an early 3-1 lead and looked set to progress to the Finals, but Team Derby would not be beaten and fired back with three goals in two minutes to take a 4-3 lead into the half-time break. The second half proved to be just as frenetic with Team Bath racing out of the blocks from their half-time team talk to draw the game level; however this was how it would remain.

It was then the turn of South Gloucestershire and Stroud, who now required a draw against finalist Oxford, as Team Bath watched on anxiously. And their hopes of reaching the Finals got off to a fine start with Oxford taking an early lead.

But South Gloucestershire were not to be outdone this time and had learned their lessons quickly from the first game, replying within a few minutes through their talisman Perkins who netted his fourth of the competition. However, Oxford surged back to grab what they and Team Bath thought would be the vital winner but South Gloucestershire would not lie down and replied again to see the game end in a 2-2 draw and South Gloucestershire progress on goal difference.

The Finals proved to be a repeat of the last group game, a close and tense affair with the emerging South Gloucestershire and Stroud holding their own against the formidable Oxford Lions, but it would be Vais who would prove to be the difference between the teams by scoring the winning goal to see the Lions progress into the National Finals and his sixth of the competition to see him top the goalscoring charts.

Speaking about the Finals, Simon Walker, FA National Manager for Grassroots Football, commented: "The Midlands qualifier has shown how rapidly the quality of Futsal is developing in this country. The standard of this year’s qualifier was even higher than the previous years – showing the commitment by many clubs and colleges to develop the sport.”




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