Courtesy: Middlesbrough Web Site


Great Britain fall to the Chinese

by Damon Shaw

Wednesday, 27 August 2008

Great Britain had the chance to redeem themselves tonight after a disappointing opening game against Slovenia as they took on China in the Koper Elementary School Sports Hall. China finished bottom of the World University Championship in 2006, after losing to GB, which represents Great Britains only ever victory in this competition.

Dell's boys started the game brightly and if yesterday's game was about teaching the players the basics of defending, then it seemed that the China match was geared towards attacking as a team. In the opening five minutes, Great Britain pushed forward more than in the whole game against Slovenia and it was refreshing to see. Stephen Harrison, returning after missing the Slovenia game, added some much needed composure and experience to the squad and his introduction lifted the team somewhat. Unfortunately it was some sloppy play that allowed China to break the deadlock, with two quickfire goals from Fei Yan and Xi Zhang. GB didn't allow their heads to drop and continued to play their game, which ultimately paid off when Shane Gill broke free and slotted home a superb finish past Yi Yu in the Chinese goal. Game on.

Great Britain continued their positive play and were unfortunate to conceed three more goals before half time. One of them saw the same mistake as against Slovenia reappearing, but on the whole, they defended well, and attacked better, but just didn't have the finishing touch in front of goal, which would surely have seen them go into the break in the lead.

Despite a worse scoreline today at the break, Great Britain could take more positives from the opening twenty minutes of play and only some basic individual and team errors saw them trailing by four goals. China, however, could be praised for playing to Great Britain's weaknesses and affording their opponents no time on the ball and forcing these errors, but the game was open and could have swung either way.

The second half started much in the same way as the first and Great Britain defended well and pushed into the Chinese half on a few occasions, using Goalkeeper, Paul Tassell as a fifth player to control the play. It wasn't until the 29th minute when China extended their lead, but by this time Great Britain looked tired and sensed the game was out of their reach. This may explain their sitting off despite in desperate need of a goal. Paul Tassell had made some excellent saves, his most fortunate ending his Great Britain debut. A chinese player volleyed across the goal, only for a GB defender to clear the ball goalwards and directly into the face of the keeper, rendering him unable to continue his impressive debut. Curt Holmes came on and was unable to keep China out for their seventh, eighth and ninth goals, the final coming on the stroke of full time.

Some positives can be taken from the match and hopefully GB can improve once more when they face Kazakhstan tomorrow and put the final pieces together for their assault on the lower half of the Championship. They may well have been treating the first few games as a learning process, given that the squad had little preparation for the tough task in front of them and with one more game to go in the group, time is running out to reach a peak soon enough to avoid playing off for the bottom two places. Turkey or France lie in the path after the group games, either of which will be an interesting contest, given that both the above nations have only recently taken up futsal as a serious sport.




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