Courtesy: IC Liverpool


McCall targets Turkish delight in World Cup

Jan 5 2007

By Paul Edwards, Liverpool Daily Post Correspondent

MENTION Istanbul to an employee of Liverpool Football Club and you can be pretty sure of reviving golden memories of a never-to-be-forgotten May evening in 2005, but for Waterloo's Colin McCall, the Turkish city is also the place where he hopes to realise his own sporting dreams.

In addition to being a full-time coach at Melwood, McCall is also a member of England's partially-sighted football team and while the rest of the country was engaged in a manic bout of shopping last week, the St Mary's Old Boys' winger was at the National Cycling Centre in Manchester taking part in a four-nation tournament which was seen as a vital part of the preparation for this year's World Cup in Turkey.

Probably the least pleasing aspect of the event for McCall and his fellow Merseysiders in the squad, Andy Lang and George Ferguson, was that England lost 4-3 to Spain in Friday's final.

More encouraging for England manager Graham Keeley was the way his team responded to a heavy defeat from the same opponents earlier in the week.

"We were seriously hell-bent on doing well in Manchester," said 26-year-old McCall. "We need to get into the winning mentality in advance of the World Cup and over the next nine months we'll be going on about seven training weekends to ensure we're in the best condition possible."

The time and effort England's partially-sighted footballers expend on their game merely reflects the professionalism of their approach.

Although this form of football is played on a synthetic Futsal court and consists of 20-minute halves, the national team - none of whom were born with the eye conditions from which they now suffer - are already comfortable with a regimen of ice baths and strictly controlled diets.

"People think that because I coach at Liverpool, my training is done while I'm working," explained McCall.

"But that's really not so. In addition, the preparation needed to play on a Futsal court is different to that required to play on grass and for that reason I didn't play for St Mary's in the autumn."

On a personal level, the Manchester tournament was a triumph for McCall, who scored twice in both the 3-1 defeat of the Republic of Ireland and the 4-1 victory over Italy. He even found the net during the "horrible nightmare" of England's 9-3 loss to Spain, and another goal in the final ensured he collected the trophy for the event's leading scorer.

Netherley's Andy Lang also picked up a couple of goals last week and was quick to identify the good things which the England squad could take from their week.

"Of course we were disappointed at the end of Friday's match but Graham Keeley highlighted the positives for us," said Lang, who plays for Everton's pan-disability side. "Spain are ranked second in the world but we played well against them in the final, and after Tuesday's result, we've shown that we can come back after losing heavily and still stay focused on what we have to do."

England were ranked sixth in the world going into last week and currently have a pool of twenty players, plus two fully-sighted goalkeepers, from whom the 10-strong squad is chosen. Competition for places on the plane to Istanbul next autumn is therefore likely to be fierce, but for Colin McCall, Andy Lang and George Ferguson the prize on offer will make all the sacrifices and work worthwhile.



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