Courtesy: Futsal England


Team England in Bangkok

Team England are on their travels again, this time swapping the warm climes of Mediterranean Algarve, for the searing heat of Bangkok, Thailand.

Graeme Dell’s National Futsal Squad, are participating in a tri-nation tournament with Egypt and Thailand with England’s matches scheduled over the weekend 13th and 14th November 2004.

13th November -- England vs Thailand (15:00 local time)

14th November -- England vs Egypt (14:00 local time)

In the Egyptians the Brits will face the African Futsal Champions, who qualified for the third successive time for the World Futsal Championships Chinese Taipei 2004. The Pharaohs are a notoriously physical side, however, recently they have secured the services of a domestic football legend: the striker Hossam Hassan whom it is believed will add further sparkle to an experienced team, and greater following in Egypt to what is still in essence a developing sport.

South East Asia's regional champions Thailand, the tournament hosts, have recently returned from a trip to brazil that saw them defeat a strong Argentina side, yet suffer defeats against Australia and mighty brazil.

Team England, under graham Dell, are travelling the world in search of their first victory. Recently humiliated in the Algarve by Portugal 24-1 and then mauled by both Belgium 11-3 and Hungary 18-4, they now re-visit a part of the world in which England first cut bit their teeth in the KL 5’s 2003.

The squad bears little resemblance to those that represented the nation over a year ago and it will be a good measure of how things have progressed under their experienced England coach. An enormous emphasis on fitness and optimal physiological preparation of players is at the forefront of futsal development in England, with The FA believing in the importance of preparing players both from a neurological and metabolic perspective.

The question remains whether Team England have the tactical nous to have learnt from the lessons of the past 18 months international activity and sufficient futsal technical ability to compete on the international stage.

The England Squad

Player -- birthday -- Caps

Marc Canham -- 11.09.82 -- 4
Mario Daniel -- 09.07.84 -- 4
Stephen Gallen -- 21.11.73 -- 5
Brendan Gallen -- 21.04.81 -- 5
Jamie Godbold -- 10.01.80 -- 4
Stephen Harrison -- 29.05.85 -- 5
Farai Jackson -- 09.07.82 -- 2
Alistair Otto -- 03.12.82 -- 3
Graham Smith -- 14.08.83 -- 7
Gareth Berry -- 11.06.76 -- 1
Michael Skubala -- 31.10.82 -- 0
Neil Saunders -- 07.05.83 -- 0
Mark Simmons -- 11.05.80 -- 3
James Elford -- 12.06.80 -- 0