A Spirited Manumea Futsal loses 4-0 to Fiji

Manumea Samoa Futsal last night suffered its first defeat in the Oceania Futsal World Cup Qualifiers in Canberra against Fiji.

After a bright opening and tight defending the Manumea defence twice fell asleep conceding two goals to bad marking. 2-0 down after 7 minutes and all looked lost but Samoa led by Junior Michael fought back with a spirited display that continued to keep the game in doubt until the closing minutes.

With the score at 2-0 at half time Manumea came out with all guns blazing and for large proportions of the 2nd half had Fiji pinned back in the defence. Afasene Tusitala missed an open goal when the ball slid between his legs with the goal gaping and Filipo Bureta was unlucky to see a rasping drive hit the cross bar.

As the game wore on Manumea became a little desperate chasing the game and in the final minutes Fiji rapped up the points to secure a crucial win but with a score line that flattered.
Despite the disappointment of losing Samoa can take both heart and credit out of this performance and go into today’s game against the Solomon Islands, knowing that if they can eliminate the simple mistakes they become a very competitive team.

National Coach David Brand was naturally not happy about the loss but pleased with many aspects of the teams play considering their lack of experience at this level against players and teams with 100’s of games and many years under their belt.

“It is easy to get critical of the boys and some times we are, but overall we have to take some credit out of this performance. We went for 30 minutes without conceding a goal which has to be pleasing. For long periods of the second half we dominated the possession without creating too many chances. When they did occur, we wasted the opportunity. Once again basic errors cost us dearly but what’s new. As we play more and the experience grows the team cohesion will develop and I can only say we will be the biggest improvers over the coming years if we can promote the sport back home and get the financial support required,” he said.

“We will go into today’s game with a little more resolve hopefully and a couple of starting line up changes may be on the cards. I am also looking for greater concentration in defence, increased composure and patience in our build up, with plenty of movement and rotation with some clinical finishing. If we can be consistent in these areas we have the ability to win.”

Manumea Futsal plays the next game of the World Cup qualifiers today against Solomon Islands at 4.30pm local time at the AIS Arena.