Courtesy: The FA.com


Dell optimistic for future

By Jamie Bradbury

Thursday, 21 December 2006


England 1-2 France

Harris - Markovic, Otmani


International Futsal Friendly Double-Header
7pm, Wednesday 20 December 2006
English Institute of Sport, Sheffield

First game result: England 2-4 France, Tuesday 20 December 2006

England Coach Graeme Dell was optimistic for the Three Lions hopes on the Futsal stage after seeing his side narrowly miss out on their first ever victory with a 2-1 defeat to France.

Dell has been in charge of the side since their Futsal debut against Albania in 2004 and has yet to see his side triumph in the FIFA form of five-a-side, which is just beginning to take off in England.

But this week's double-header against the French in Sheffield gave the coach lots to think about as he prepares for the UEFA Championship pre-qualifying tournament in Romania next month.

Speaking to TheFA.com after the game he said: “There are a lot of positives you can take from the game. The result is one thing but it's also about the way we played.

“All round I think we played better tonight than we did in the first game.

He added: “Either team could have won. Any spectators new to Futsal would have been hard-pressed to tell that there are 30-plus positions between the teams in the rankings and that's credit to the players. They applied themselves tremendously well in training and on the pitch.”

In the first game of the week, England went down 4-2, despite leading at half-time, but an improved performance on Wednesday pushed France even closer, and they were very unlucky not to register that elusive victory.

England passed the ball well for large periods of the forty-minute match but couldn't find the breakthrough to win the encounter.

“On Tuesday we made a number of individual errors which cost us three goals, but tonight we were unlucky to go away with a 2-1 defeat,” said Dell.

“Nine months ago we would have lost that game by five or six goals and gone away and said 'well they've been playing the game for a lot longer than us and we're still learning'.

“But tonight we're going away from a game against a side considerably higher than us in the rankings thinking that that's a game we should have won.

“We spanked the ball around with a degree of confidence in the first half, not so much in the first five minutes of the second, but we needed to get control of the game again as they came at us a bit. But all of those things make us work a bit harder.”

Dell knows just what is needed to take England onto the next level - a player to create openings. He was full of praise for his players who have worked very hard this week and hopes that the introduction of a national Futsal league will help to develop more talent and find a few individual stars that could help England compete with the best Europe has to offer.

“That's what we need to do to take advantage of these get-togethers, bearing in mind the majority of the French team play Futsal every week in their league, our players only have the chance to play when they meet up with England.

“First and foremost it's about keeping possession for as long as possible and we did that very well tonight, but the more experienced nations will know what to do with it - you need to create an end product.

“On Tuesday we didn't really have that, but tonight it was better, even though we only scored one,” he added.

“But for me, we'll take a lot from that game. There are some players who have played their way into the squad for Romania next month.”



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