Today I had the pleasure in interviewing the Lusitano Captain, Dani Ribeiro who has previously competed in the Sub-Socca tournament on two occasions. On both occasions Dani and his team finished as runners up, read on to hear more from Dani about his teams’ hunger to go all the way this time round and claim top honors.

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

1. Dani, can you tell us a little about yourself and a brief history of where you have been in the football world?
I’m 24; being playing football since I can remember, totally love it. Played my fair share of Amateur Outdoor Football and represented Maritimo SA in a tournament hosted in Portugal at an U/19 level, probably say the highest level of football that I’ve played would be the Caltex League – top U/19 circuit in South Africa.

But indoor is where the passion lies, I’m a defender myself, often nicknamed “The Bull”, by opposition and friends, because of my tendency to put my head down and go 100% into tackles. I formed Lusitano (Indoor Football Side) about 5 years ago, since then the side has grown into the powerhouse it is today, with a tight bunch of friends forming the core of the side and polished off with one pro player and one international indoor player, the side is exceptionally good, but more than that, it’s a family.

2. Dani, how would you rate the tournament provided by Sub Socca and its organizing committee?
I rate highly, the level of football is spectacular, and this year we even have a pro side coming down to strut their stuff. The organizing committee has gone through great lengths to make this as professional as possible, and for that we are greatly appreciative.

3. How do you think playing by official Futsal laws and regulations will affect the tournament, is it for the better or for the worse?
Most definitely for the better, we are now following international standards, and this leaves the door open to maybe form a National Team to represent South Africa, from there, who knows.

4. A lot has been said about the five accumulated fouls rule, whats are your views on this and will it be beneficial to protecting players and cleaning up the game?
I think this rule is one of our favorites, having players like Abel Borges, Rudi Lage, Richard Ferreira and Alex Perreira; we get quite a few fouls against us because of their little fancy tricks and awesome footwork. However, once the 6th foul occurs and John Ferreira starts blasting the ball at the goalies, I feel sorry for any goalie that decides to get in the way. John has got one of those natural shots of life, our own Roberto Carlos if you like.

All in all, I reckon it will help the game, let the boys play a bit better and get a chance to show the skills or be hacked down and get the foul. Something that teams don’t really want to do.

5. From your previous experience in the competition, whom do you see as key players that you know of that are competing in this tournament?
We all know that Paul’s Auto will be the team to watch, the returning champions however, have had a total makeover, and their side this year is made up of professional players from Silver Stars, whether they can adapt to the indoor game is a remained to be seen, but I have no doubt, that their outfit will be the one to watch.

Outside our team, players like Rui Ferreira, Dario, Jorge Roposo and Michael Ferreira are all top quality players who should be watched. Jorge will have to be watched closely, being an ex-Lusitano player; we all know he has the quality to be an awesome player. But as all tournaments go, there will always be one or two stars who will come up, and these are the players that we love to play against, the ones that rise to the occasion to try and better you.

6. And in your own squad, do you feel this time round your team is stronger than before?
From our team, we have a host of stars, which are well accustomed to the tournament and are seriously hungry to win it this time round. In Ricky De Sousa, we probably have the best goalie on the circuit, he is truly amazing and his reflexes are second to none. In Abel Borges, Rudi Lage and Alex Perreira, we have some gifted players who can play the ball well and love to impress the crowd with their fancy footwork; all have played with pro sides and are truly great players. Alex is our latest signing; he has previously won the tournament in its first year and represented South Africa in the Hyundai Futsal Tournament in South Korea in 2002.

Richard Ferreira is our pro player, super fit, fast and great technique; his passion to win is unbelievable. With the rest of the side being made up of myself, Juan, Vaun Rheeder and John Ferreira, we have players who are strong on the ball as well as technically strong enough to hold of any opposition. Juan is our normalized “Lefty”, but also doubles as back-up goalie, having trained with Orlando Pirates as a youngster; we have our faith in him both in and out of goals. Myself, John and Vaun make up the hard men in the side and will most definitely have fun breaking down opposition play and getting stuck in. Our side has grown stronger compared to before because of latest signings – Alex, Juan and Vaun, who all caused us much headaches in the previous tournaments.

As mentioned before, for some reason we always seem to come 2nd in this tournament, having done so twice in a row now. The lads are determined that this will not happen a third time and are going all out to ensure victory.

7. For people reading this, what are your final thoughts on the tournament as a whole? Would you recommend it or not?
Most definitely, it’s real entertaining football, the guys have got a saying that they pack their bags of tricks and bring it down on the night of games and let loose on the opposition and we have seen it in previous tournaments, the level of football is amazing, really fast and action packed.

8. Finally, would you like to see this tournament receive more attention and eventually give players an extra avenue to pursue in professional careers?
We are hoping that this tournament will be the groundwork for what could be one of the sleeping giants in South African Football – the Indoor Circuit. We have a lot of gifted players playing for a variety of teams and we hope that the exposure given to them in this tournament may lead on to greater things.

Thank You Dani and we wish your team the best of luck.

Warren Fernandes