Courtesy: The Fa.com

White Bear roars to glory

Monday, 24 July 2006.

London White Bear won their second FA Futsal Cup after they cruised past Baltic FC in a one-sided final on Sunday.

The FA Futsal Cup finals tournament, which took place at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield, kicked-off on Friday morning with the qualifiers drawn into seeded groups of four teams.

Early matches revealed some of the newcomers to the competition would struggle against the superior technical skills and tactics of the established Futsal teams.

The only real surprise of the opening round was the progress of the Ipswich Wolves who, having drawn their players from the Portuguese community, revealed themselves to be an attractive side.

The Wolves secured the second qualification place over the much-fancied Vaughans who were handicapped by a seven-man squad who struggled to cope with the physical demands of this non-stop game.

Tranmere Victoria also impressed early with a team which has recruited three skilful Portuguese players to complement its English core.

The Eastern European challenge for the title was emphasised by the smooth progress of White Bear and Baltic, the latter emerging as tournament favourites after a 4-0 victory over the Russian and Ukrainian Bears.

Kickers FC made easy work of their group games whilst Doncaster College for the Deaf recovered from a 4-3 defeat to Birmingham’s Team United with victories over Trydovie Reserves and Barsa FC.

The quarter-finals saw Ipswich Wolves progress at the expense of Team United while Baltic eliminated Sheffield’s Ravenous Taverners 5-1. London White Bear defeated Brazilian rivals Kickers 3-0 and Tranmere Victoria gained revenge over Doncaster College who eliminated them at the same stage of the competition last year with a hard fought 3-2 victory.

In the semi-finals, Baltic were indebted to the outstanding Konstantin Filionov – who later won the award for Goalkeeper of the Tournament. He made a number of superb saves to thwart Tranmere Victoria while at the other end of the field, his team-mates capitalised on their chances to take a 3-0 lead at half-time.

Tranmere raised their game and playing five outfield players peppered the Baltic goal. They scored two goals but couldn’t quite manage the equaliser.

The other semi-final was also a very tense affair with the Bears edging out the youthful Wolves 3-2.

The Ipswich team at least had the consolation of scoring the goal of the tournament with Bruno Ferrage running the length of the field at top speed, slaloming two challenges and the Bears' keeper to bring the score to 3-2 and spark a frantic last few minutes.

Ferrage also picked up both the Golden Boot and Player of the Tournament award.

White Bear and Baltic meet frequently in London Futsal Leagues and are very familiar with each other’s games, and the final proved to be a cagey affair with both teams happy to sit back and counter-attack during the opening exchanges.

It was the Bears who struck first and with Baltic flagging were able to pick off their opponents at ease – scoring a further four goals.

By winning the tournament, The Bears secured a UEFA Futsal Cup entry spot for 2007 and will be confident of mounting a strong challenge to progress to the latter stages.

In contrast to the main final, the plate final was an open affair where Vaughans, strengthened by the England trio of Alex Sykes, Faria Jackson and Alex Lobban, secured an exhilarating 8-7 victory after extra-time over Magpies.

Magpies played their part in an exciting game by recovering from 7-4 deficit, with another ex-England international Paul Goodhand excelling.

In addition to the Futsal Cup, the weekend also offered the growing number of youth or school teams an opportunity to play the game. As many as 32 teams from ten different County FAs took part in seven different school or club competitions and were rewarded for their involvement with certificates or medals from England Manager Graeme Dell.

Sunday also saw the first appearance of one of The FA’s newest representative teams – the England Women’s Deaf Team. They played a friendly fixture against Tranmere Victoria Ladies in preparation for the European championships that take place in November.

The final award of the tournament went to Sporting Shropshire who picked up the competition Fair Play Trophy from FA Vice Chairman Barry Bright.





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