to read the English Futsal Bullettin n° 1!

Bulletin 001
March 2-16
The FA Futsal League kicks off
Last Sunday saw the long
awaited start of the FA
Futsal League: the first
Football Association organised national futsal league.
The national league is made
up of three regional leagues:
North, Midlands and South
with the top two teams
from each division progressing to the playoffs at the
end of September to
contest for the national
championship and a place in
The UEFA Futsal Cup
2009/2010.
The FA Futsal
League is a step in the right
direction for the sport in the
country, which has traditionally been in the shadow of
5-a-side football. The FIFA
version of 5-a-side hasn’t
taken off in England until
recently, and this leaves us
playing catch up with
nations that have played
futsal for years. This was
evident as England yet
again struggled against
international opposition in
the World Cup Qualifiers
earlier this month.
With the FA Futsal
League now underway, the
best players in England will
be training and playing on a
regular basis, which should
give Graeme Dell a better
pool of players to select
from.
The opening day’s
results saw no real shocks
as
Baltic
overcame
newcomers Northaw 7-4
and former champions
White Bear beat Kickers 9-5
in the South. The only
game in the Midlands saw
reigning champions; Ipswich
Wolves defeat rivals Team
United Birmingham 5-3.
Only the North league had a
full set of fixtures and
Middlesbrough stormed to
the top with a 10-1 rout of
FC Barsa. Tranmere Victoria, arguably favourites for
the North, beat a strong Hull
9-6 and Grimsby overcame
Manchester in a close game
3-2. The Sheffield derby
ended 5-2 in favour of the
more experienced Sheffield
FC (FPL North champions
2007).
The 3rd Tees Valley Futsal
Cup will take place at the
University of Teesside over
the weekend of 12th and
13th April. For more info:
11-13 April 2008 www.BoroFutsal.co.uk
Mortlock tackles Black, Boro vs. Barsa.
Photo taken by Mark Gillespie.
Results
South
Baltic 7-4 Northaw
White Bear 9-5 Kickers
Midlands
Ipswich 5-3 Team United
Match Report: Baltic vs. Northaw
By Rob Brassett
The game was kicked off by
Baltic United and things
started at a nice pace with
both sides getting possession but neither finding the
breakthrough. On 3 minutes
Baltic United found the net
to put them in 1-0 up. Game
on. Some good play by Sam
judge at the back was
seeing the ball passed
around well with Dezenzo
and Cato doing some good
work out wide.
Baltic have seen
this all before and were not
fazed by the pace and some
slick passing saw them go
into a 2-0 lead after 9
minutes.
James Dezenzo
showed what FS Northaw
has on offer and within a
minute he blasted the ball
into the net and it was back
North
Middlesbrough 10-1 FC Barsa
Tranmere Victoria 9-6 Hull
Manchester 2-3 Grimsby
Sheffield 5-2 Sheff & Hallam
Eye on England
England embarked on their
first ever World Cup Qualifying campaign in February in
what was their last set of
to 2-1. Jamie has been
banging in goals for fun
locally in the Cheshunt
League and proved he can
step up to national level and
do the business.
The foul count had
been rising through the
match and after 15 minutes
FS Northaw gained a 6th
which meant Baltic received
a long penalty from the 10
metre spot, this struck Tony
Edwards’ left hand post and
Northaw were let off the
hook.
With minutes to
go in the half Northaw
struck once again, Aaron
Cato finding the net to
make it 2-2 and a dream
first half for the North
London side.
The second half
started at a frantic pace
with Baltic piling on the
pressure and using all their
experience, this proved
valuable as on 4 minutes of
the half they went into a 3-2
lead and increased this to
4-2 within a minute to once
again leave the Northaw
boys some work to do.
Sam Judge blasted
in a long range effort with 3
minutes to go and the game
was on at 5-3, Manager
Grant Suborn then beat his
man in the middle and
blasted in the 4th to make it
5-4 with only a minute to
go.
Pushing forward
for the equaliser they left
themselves open at the
back and 2 goals in the
space of a minute shattered
the dream of a victory or
even a point. Baltic used all
the experience they had and
opened up the defence with
2 great runs that made the
final score 7-4.
fixtures prior to the FA
Futsal League’s kick off. It
was never going to be easy,
but results didn’t do English
Futsal any favours as they
went down 10-2, 15-0 and
4-1 to Poland, Hungary and
Macedonia
respectively.
It was hardly showing an improvement over
recent results in the KL 5s
either, but with the players
now returning (hopefully) to
futsal teams in the national
league, we should start to
see an improvement in
England’s next fixtures,
which are yet to be
confirmed.
To
read
the
thoughts of England Manager
Graeme Dell log on to
www.TheFA.com
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