Courtesy: UEFA.com


Spain dismiss futsal U21 'favourites' tag

Tuesday 2 December 2008

by Paul Bryan from Madrid

Spain coach Jordi García is taking nothing for granted as his team get set to kick off the UEFA European Under-21 Futsal Tournament in St Petersburg on Monday.

Spanish strength
The holders of the senior UEFA European Futsal Championship title and two-time FIFA Futsal World Cup winners, Spain are many people's favourites to claim the first U21 crown, not least as they were victorious in the annual autumn tournament in the Russian city a year ago against many of their rivals in these finals. But García, a rally driver turned futsal player, is not looking beyond their Group B games against Kazakhstan, the Netherlands and Ukraine.

Opening threat
"It all depends on how that first game goes as the result will dictate the rest of our tournament," García said. "We face a tough opening game and our opponents could pose tactical problems as we like to dictate the rhythm which sometimes risks us being caught out on the counterattack. They will be waiting for us to commit errors. Kazakhstan showed their credentials by eliminating Belarus in the qualifiers which was no easy task."

No pressure
García's side beat Greece, Switzerland and Slovakia with 25 unanswered goals in April to earn their place, and warmed up last week with two friendlies in Croatia, winning 4-0 and drawing 1-1. The coach is not piling the pressure on his players though. "We are not obliged to reach the final as we are a team that sees ourselves taking each day and each game at a time."

López thoughts
That is backed by senior national coach José Venancio López, fresh from leading his team to the World Cup final in Brazil, where they lost to the hosts on penalties. "The group is a strong one but we knew that was always going to be the case," López told uefa.com. "Ukraine and the Netherlands are powerful teams while Kazakhstan have a very quick team and are extremely dangerous. Looking at the other groups, Italy is probably the team you'd pick out as the other strong rivals

Competition
"We want to play good futsal and get as far as we possibly can. The first goal we will have is to get through to the semi-finals. Being favourites doesn't really make a difference, it's just a name tag. When it comes to talking about who can win it's not only Spain who have a chance. Russia will be up there especially as they are the home team, Italy have a great team and Ukraine are tough."








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