Courtesy: All Africa


Futsal National Team Tackles Libya in Last Match of the World Cup Qualifiers

22 June 2012

The South African Futsal indoor soccer) National Team faces Libya in the second leg of the final round of the FIFA Futsal World Cup qualifier.

The clash will take place on Saturday, 23 June 2012 at the Orlando Community Hall Indoor Arena (opposite Orlando Stadium) in Soweto.

Kickoff is at 15h00.

South Africa goes into this match trailing by four goals to nil (4-0) from the first leg played in Tunisia a fortnight ago.

The match was held at a neutral venue due to political upheaval in Libya.

Three African countries will represent the African continent at the 7th edition of the 2012 FIFA Futsal World Cup set to take place in Thailand from 1 - 18 November.

South Africa played two warm-up matches in preparation for the encounter against Libya.

On Wednesday (20 June) they defeated Maccabi, an amateur team, by 15 goals to four (15-4).

The next day (Thursday, 21 June) they beat Stars of Africa Academy by seven goals to three (7-3).

"The preparations have gone very well. The focus has been on the need for goals as you can see in our practice matches I instructed the players to score as many as they can. We need goals to overcome our opponents and qualify for Thailand. But at the same time, we have to be tight at the back because any goal against us will make things even more difficult," said Quinton Allies, head coach of the South African Futsal National Team.

"The current score line is a concern but we have the belief that we can overturn it. In Tunisia we gave away three silly goals and they scored one good one. We made elementary mistakes on the day and they were really not that threatening. Talk in the team is that "if Libya scored four we can also get four or more."

South Africa has been playing their other qualifiers at the Wembley Stadium in Turffontein but has taken this one to Soweto.

"I believe we will have a better advantage in Soweto because just this week alone during our practice matches we had about 300 hundred spectators coming to watch. This gives us hope that with them behind us we will do well. Also, playing in Soweto is good for the exposure of the game," added Allies.

He is also aware that an overall win here will set them on the way to Thailand.....despite the score line.




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