Courtesy: UEFA.com


Andorran futsal heading in the right direction

Thursday 4 December 2008

by Álvaro Macho from Madrid

Andorra's national futsal team took a huge step forward last week thanks to back-to-back away wins against Finland. In spite of the fact that both victories were in friendly games, team coach Josep Linares told uefa.com the triumphs were "pleasing" and deserved reward for his players' hard work.

Confidence boost
"Achieving these wins against a rival which is more or less similar to us in terms of quality was very pleasing, and they will give us the strength to keep on working," said Linares. "Dealing with this type of national team means you can hope to cope better with powerful sides like Spain or Ukraine." The victories for Andorra - 3-1 in the first game and 5-3 in the second - were convincing, although Finland's use of an outfield goalkeeper in both games ensured that the tension remained high right until the end. "In the first game they scored first, but we managed to go into the break with our noses in front," Linares said. "With the match in its closing stages, they took more risks and we were able to take advantage with a third goal. In the second game, we completely dominated the first half and went 4-0 up. Afterwards, they pushed harder, but we put an end to their comeback with a fifth."

Past disappointment
Linares took over the national side in September 2007 with the view of preparing the team for the qualification phase of the FIFA Futsal World Cup which took place last February. Andorra suffered successive defeats against Kazakhstan, Cyprus and Italy, although both initial losses were narrow ones. "Against Kazakhstan, it was a real shame because they had a far superior team to ours and we could have won that match. Against Cyprus it was disappointing because I had hoped to win and didn't, while when playing a team as strong as the Italians, there's little you can do."

Future plans
The next target for the Andorran national team is to test themselves in more friendly action as they prepare for the preliminary qualification rounds for the 2010 UEFA European Futsal Championship. "We've found ourselves in the most difficult group with Ukraine, Romania and the Netherlands," said Linares. "It's going to be very difficult but we'll keep trying to gain experience and hope we will give a good account of ourselves."









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