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2017 National Futsal Championships

Football Federation South Australia (FFSA) Athletes with a Disability team (AWD) is competing at the 36th Football Federation Australia National Futsal Championships. The 2017 tournament is being held between January 3rd & 8th in Sydney, New South Wales. Inclusive Sport SA is proudly supporting the FFSA AWD team through the Marie Little OAM Athlete Support Program (MLASP). The MLASP is contributing over $1800 towards the uniform costs for the players and officials. For more information on the MLASP or if you are interested in how to apply for individual funding, please visit www.inclusivesportsa.com.au/marie-little-oam-athlete-support-program/. If you would like to make a donation to the team please visit: www.givematcher.com.au/2017-sa-futsal-team-for-athletes-with-disabilitiesAll donations will go directly to the players to subsidise the cost of their trip. Any support would be greatly appreciated!

2017 FFSA AWD Team (Left to Right): Igor Negrao (Coach), Bradley Bettens, Chris Thompson, Samuel Mills, Roberto Mastrogiacomo, Toby Sutherland, Rhys Baker, Brandon Venables, Sean Guster, Paul Eichner (Manager)

Coach’s Report

[toggle title_open=”Wednesday 4th January” title_closed=”Wednesday 4th January” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]The place we are staying and playing is the Valentine Park in Glenwood, the headquarters of Football NSW. The team was really excited today to play the first game of the competition against the NSW Thunder. It was a very exciting game full of action and great effort from all players. NSW scored 2 games in the first half and, with a very deep bench, coach Greg managed to keep his players’ energy fresh by rotating everyone. Goalkeeper Chris Thompson did a fabulous job stopping lots of shots against us. Captain Bradley Bettens was satisfied with the team performance and proud of the way we played. The Mount Gambier promising star Sam Mills scored a quick goal right at the start of second half making the game 2×1. Towards the end of the match, NSW started pressuring the ball and scored 3 more goals making the final score 5×1 in their favour. As a coach, very proud of everyone and looking forward to tomorrow’s games! Tonight, some of the players will watch the Big Bash Cricket game and some will be at the accommodation relaxing and recovering a little bit.[/toggle] [toggle title_open=”Thursday 5th January” title_closed=”Thursday 5th January” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]A very humid and hot morning in Sydney, but the energy was pretty high during our second game of the Nationals against the solid team from ACT at 9am. The game was very balanced and competitive! ACT played a really good first half scoring two goals and also stopping all shots from our two main attackers Rhys Baker and Sam Mills. During half-time, the team made some adjustments and played a much better second half scoring one goal and almost equalising a couple of times. In the last minute of the game, the score was 2×1 in favour of ACT, and the pressure was on! Unfortunately for us, ACT had a quick counter attack at the end of the match, and scored its third goal making the final score 3×1. Most of the players were a bit upset after the game, but team manager Paul Eichner and volunteer Antonio Trotta did a great job motivating the team to focus on the next task – the game against Tasmania in the afternoon. With a positive mindset and great determination, our team started the game on fire scoring 7 goals in the first half and allowing just one goal from Tasmania Team. Toby Sutherland was the player of the match, leading the team with his voice and scoring two important goals for SA! Brandon Venables and Sean Guster also did an outstanding job on both sides of the court (defense and offense) stopping the Tasmania players and scoring a goal each! Final score 12×3 – first win for SA. Well done team SA for giving ACT a great challenge this morning and for winning our first game in the competition this afternoon. Straight after the second game, the team had a recovery session in the pool conducted by our team manager Paul Eichner and everyone is looking forward to playing tomorrow against Queensland (9am) and NSW Lightning (6pm). Let’s go SA![/toggle] [toggle title_open=”Friday 6th January” title_closed=”Friday 6th January” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]Today was a very exciting day for the FFSA Inclusive Team! We didn’t start the day very well, losing against Queensland in the morning 11×1 at 9am. Queenslander Josh Long, last year’s Grand Final MVP dominated the match scoring several goals with his powerful long kicks.

The SA boys were down a little bit after the tough loss, but a trip to the local shopping centre after lunch helped the team to relax. The second game of the day was a ‘win or go home’ game against the NSW Lightining, which was also playing for the last spot in the Semifinals. The game plan was to keep the control of the ball and pressure the opposition. With the fantastic support from the crowd – several young players from South Australia – the SA team executed the game plan with great perfection scoring 4 goals in the first half and allowed just a single one from NSW. Despite playing through a very sore leg, Sean Guster was the player of the match scoring the first goal of the game and playing a very solid defense next to Captain Bradley Bettens. The second half was very tense with players getting physical on both sides of the court. Hard fouls were called and amazing plays by both teams. The final result was 6×2 giving us a spot in the Semifinals! Well done NSW Lightining for playing really hard and showing great sportsmanship. Now, we are off to dinner and on the way to the movies to enjoy the evening and we all look forward to tomorrow’s game (1pm) against the powerful NSW Thunder, which finished on top of the ladder. Well done Team SA![/toggle]

[toggle title_open=”Saturday 7th January” title_closed=”Saturday 7th January” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]Here we are again with an update of the 2017 FFA Futsal National Championships. Today, FFSA team (4th place) played against NSW Thunder (1st place) in the Semifinals at 1pm at Valentine Park. It was the rematch from last year’s Semis and the boys were a bit nervous but at the same time excited and positive. There were around a hundred people supporting both teams including the FFSA Under 12’s making some noise! The game started with a scoreless 10 minutes and both goal-keepers were determined not to let the first goal through. NSW kept attacking the SA goal and eventually scored. At the half time the score was 4×0 in NSW favour. Some of the SA players were feeling exhaust after six intense games but never gave up and kept trying to score. At the last second, Sam Mills put one through the net and the crowd went crazy! Final score was 6 to 1 for NSW. Thank you for NSW for the great sportsmanship throughout the whole week. Tomorrow there will be the Grand Finals and we are going to watch the Queensland against NSW Thunder at the Sydney Olympic Park and hopefully going for a walk near the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. On behalf of Inclusive Sport SA, thank you very much for your support. Well done to all players from AWD Divison, coaches, referees and team managers. Thanks Football NSW and FFSA for supporting our team and for organising such a great competition. Thanks Paul Eichner and Antonio Trotta for the incredible work doing the laundry, driving us around and helping the team to recover between the games. Thank you Toby for writing this report! We look forward to coming back STRONGER next year. Yours trully, Igor Ferrari Negrao[/toggle]

Results

[box border=”full” box type=”note” icon=”none”]Round 1 FNSW Metro Thunder – 5     (2 Goals – Z. Jones, N. Nunn. 1 Goal – D. Kalogiros) FFSA – 1     (1 Goal – S. Mills)[/box] [box border=”full” box type=”note” icon=”none”]Round 2 FFSA – 1     (1 Goal – R. Baker) ACT – 3     (2 Goals – C. Gudgeon. 1 Goal – G. Pannell)[/box] [box border=”full” box type=”note” icon=”none”]Round 3 NHC Tasmania – 3     (1 Goal – A. Dengate, S. Krushka, T. Dixon) FFSA – 12     (5 Goals – S. Mills. 2 Goals – R. Baker, T. Sutherland. 1 Goal – S. Guster, B. Venables, A. Dengate (og))[/box] [box border=”full” box type=”note” icon=”none”]Round 4 FFSA – 1     (1 Goal – S. Mills) QLD Metro – 11     (5 Goals – J. Long. 3 Goals – A. Davison. 1 Goal – L. Amos, E. Bond, T. Warner)[/box] [box border=”full” box type=”note” icon=”none”]Round 5 FNSW Metro Lightning – 2     (2 Goals – S. Sauri) FFSA – 6     (2 Goals – S. Mills, R. Baker. 1 Goal – B. Bettens, T. Sutherland)[/box] [box border=”full” box type=”note” icon=”none”]SEMI FINAL FNSW Metro Thunder – 6     (2 Goals – P. Mitchell, M. Forrest. 1 Goal – D. Kalogiros, A. Hernandez) FFSA – 1     (1 Goal – S. Mills)[/box]