Episode 3: The Group Phase

Australia’s initiation into this years Futsal World Cup started at the top, an imposing game against the might of Paraguay the current World Cup Champions in this category C-20. (Players aged 20 and under)

Paraguay known as Guaraníes, La Albirroja (whit and reds) are known as one of the strongest futsal nations in the world, in fact Futsal in Paraguay is followed fanatically by their supporters. The AMF Federations home base is located in Paraguay and the teams receive government funding to ensure they are able to train and select the highest squads possible. After speaking with the technical team we were advised that this current national team from Paraguay has been training for approximately 6 months and have played 11 friendly matches in the last 8 weeks to prepare for this tournament. In perspective, the Australian team met for the first time 3 days before flying out of Sydney. We had two training sessions in Sydney and then 1 friendly game in Barcelona. This can be seen as a very mediocre and an amateur build up although truth be told the situation arises due to lack of funding in Australia for the game of Futsal and lack of help from the state and different federations.

The Australian Futsal landscape is in a very fractured and worrying state. There are many different governing bodies and private operators who in their own words “want the game to grow in Australia”. The 3 main bodies are Football Australia (FA), Federation of Aust Futsal (FAF) and Australia Futsal Association (AFA).

The general perception in Australia is that Football Australia (linked with FIFA) and is state members are the arbitrators of the game of Futsal in Australia. In terms of numbers and competitions that are run this is most likely correct. The question to be asked though is “does Football Australia have the games best interest at heart” most will respond with an emphatic NO.

FAF who is linked with both AMF and FIFUSA has a small percentage of the competitions and players in Australia but are the only Federation who can lay claim to attending official World Cups in all categories of age groups from U13 through to Men’s and Women’s ages. FAF over the years have regularly assembled Australian squads to attend these world cups, usually held in the South American countries who are dominated by the AMF and FIFUSA federations. We are currently now in Spain with the affiliated federation from Catalunya at the AMF World Cup. (AMF stands for Associacion Mundial de Futsal)

AFA is a privately run company that runs its own competitions and selects players from its own tournaments as “Aust All star” teams. The company then sells tours to many different countries to play in local tournaments.

All three entities are at least giving players the chance to play Futsal…..the question to be asked is how can we bring Futsal into the main stream Australian sports landscap and secure enough funding to enhance facilities, coaching and structure so we can compete on the world stage?

Back to the current tournament as there is much to say about Futsal in Australia on another day!

Our schedule in the group phase is Paraguay, Monaco and Italy.

All three games proved to be very tricky, our mindset going into the games was to push ourselves to play but to also not allow the opposition to score too many goals. We believed that we could finish in second or third spot in the group. The 2 top teams in each group and the 2 best third spots from all groups would progress to the quarter finals.

Our first game against Paraguay was a monumentus effort, we held Paraguay to a 2-1 scoreline until early in the second half. A very surprising scoreline that the Paraguayans started to feel the pressure. All in te stadium were impressed. by Australia’s tanacity in defence. The game started to become quicker as the Paraguay coaches pushed their team, Australia started to feel the professionalism and tactics from Paraguay. The score blew out to 7-1 by fulltime but its fair to say we put up a huge effort and it was praised by the opposition.

Second game was against Monaco, we had high expectations. Maybe we came into the game a little too confident after our showing against Paraguay. We knew Italy blew Monaco away the day before sop thought this could be our win. Monaco came to play…going out to a 3-0 lead. We were shocked. our boys rallied and came back into the game leading 5-4 with a minute or so left. We tried holding the ball but unfortunately we conceded with pretty much the last kick of the game to draw 5-5.

The game plan against Italy was simple. Do not concede to many goals and would would progress as one of the third best placed team. Italy started very fast, a goal within 30 seconds. It seemed like just a flash but we conceded two more goals quickly going behind 3-0. Again, our boys came back into the game…equalising at 3-3. The Italians scored again and won 4-3. A very interesting game that showed our strenth and resilience. We executed our plan in not conceding too many goals. Our team just had to wait to see if we progressed onto the next phase.

The ride back to the hotel was quiet, we were on the same bus as Italy. Both teams showed respect and kept to themselves. Back at the hotel our boys were instructed to rest and recover.

The news came in late at night that Australia would face Brazil in the quarter Finals…this would be a match that we could only dream of!!

The following day was a rest day before the game against Brazil….what could we achieve against the giants of South America. A dream come true.