Press release from the St. Helena National Futsal Association

"There's some good news for supporters and players of Futsal in Britain, because whilst the England Team has yet to record its' first success after three and a half years of competition, the representative team of the small British Overseas Territory of St. Helena has secured not one but two victories in its' very first Tournament, the recent U.E.F.S. Championships held in Catalonia.

The St. Helena side was drawn in the same Group as Italy and the host nation, potentially the toughest Group of the Championships, and the squad subsequently learned that the organisers had anticipted the "Saints" would finish the event in last place.

Their first match was against Catalonia, and was played in front of a very passionate and patriotic full house (which included their Secretary of State for Sport), with the game broadcast live on National Radio, and with TV cameras present to record highlights for Catalan news bulletins.

Catalonia took the game to the Saints from the first minute, probing for any weaknesses, anticipating that their experience and wide skill range would lead to an early score.....their first goal duly arrived, but only just before half time, and St. Helena still had time to draw level before the break with an excellent ten metre penalty.

The second half started with the hosts again pressing forward, but the game had already become a more even contest with the hosts unable to break down their opponents' defence, whilst their own was always poptentially at risk from a Saints attack that proved to be quicker and more sophisticated than might have been expected, and so it was not against the run of play when St. Helena took the lead 5 minutes into the seciond period, scoring another goal just three minutes later.

This was a scoreline that had not been anticipated by Catalonia's very vocal supporters, but the high quality of the home side presented a constant threat to their visitors, and when Catalonia finally got on the score sheet again it was followed by an equaliser just 35 seconds from full time!

When the final whistle blew the spectators erupted with relief that their heroes had managed to secure a point, but they stood to give a very warm and sporting round of applause to St. Helena for their outstanding performance.

Everyone wondered whether this result was just "beginner's luck", but they only had 24 hours to wait for the Saints' second match, against Italy, for their answer; this game initially followed the same course as the first, with the Italians taking the game to St. Helena early on, but the longer the match went on the more it swung to the underdogs, with the depth of the side's fitness a revelation.

Italy displayed all the hallmarks for which Italian Futsal is so well known, and with only five minutes left held a single goal advantage, but the Saints well remembered what could happen in the final minutes of a match from their game the night before, and refused to give up.....and their tenacity was rewarded by scoring twice in the last three minutes to record a memorable first win against top class opposition at only the second attempt.

It's worth recalling that because St. Helena has no airport the only contact with the outside world is via the Royal Mail Ship, which is operated by Andrew Weir Shipping Ltd; this Company helpfully provided the squad's kit for the Championships, but whilst the team enjoys the full support of the Island's Government, etc., there are no financial resources available to help support their activities, and the squad therefore receives no financial help from anyone.

This contrasts sharply with the situation applicable to their Quarter Final opponents, Russia, whose phenomenal team had won their first Group match by a seventeen goal margin, and who would go through the whole Competition to ultimately take the winner's title not only unbeaten, but without ever looking like dropping a single point.

Tremendous resources had been placed at the disposal of the Russians, and their squad had apparently spent three months together in training camps prior to the Championships, playing Futsal for up to four hours each day, producing a wonderfully well organised and balanced side of in depth quality and skill, a joy to watch in action.....unless you were their opponents, of course!

By comparison the Saints had a coaching staff of one, and only had their first day in Catalonia to train together as a squad, and consequently they fared no better against Russia than the other competitors, going down bravely to their first defeat in front of a generous and supportive crowd.

In the subsequent play offs for the final rankings St. Helena lost one more match (just three seconds from the full time whistle), but then came back from 6-2 down in their final game to win 9-7, and so take 7th place; it was two of the Saints' opponents, Russia and Catalonia, who contested the Final, with the Russians coming through as very worthy winners, 3-1.

In considering St. Helena's final ranking (with two wins, two defeats and one draw) it's interesting to note that the "Old Country", England, has now played a total of 34 matches during the last three and a half years, but haven't yet registered a single win, drawing one match, but losing 33 others.

The Saints have been asked how they achieved such a level of success first time out with absolutely no resources to support them and with an active squad of little more than a dozen players, whilst in contrast England have had no success at all despite their substantial funding, and as many players to draw upon for their squad as they could wish.

It's widely accepted that Futsal is as different a sport from soccer as Rugby Union is from Rugby League, and so one factor for the Saints' success could be their decision to select only specialist Futsal players for their team, whereas it seems the England coaching team has been consistent in largely overlooking Futsal players in favour of eleven a side players drawn from non League Clubs, and may now be thinking of drafting in retired professional footballers into their squad.

In any event, there are no Brits more patriotic than the Saints, and the squad hopes that their recent success will give the England team a bit of a boost as they head off for the UEFA Futsal Cup later this month.....in the meantime St. Helena is hoping to attract more opponents in the coming months; any takers?"



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