28/12/2017
⚽️COACH’S SUMMARY⚽️
Very proud of our boys, going down fighting to FC Barcelona 0-14 after what was a superb first half effort in particular, earning accolades from other international coaches here for holding out the superstars for big periods of match.
Nil All for nearly half the first half!
0-1 for over 75% of first half!
Starting to create our own opportunities and believing the ‘Miracle at Blanes’ just may be possible. The top bar was hit from a corner play, we forced super 1v1 saves from the Barca Keeper, if we just had that bit of luck we could have been on the scoreboard and close the margin to 1 or 2 goals at half time.
However. 3 classy late Barca goals in last 2-3 minutes of the first half saw us down 0-5 at the break, a cruel but still very praiseworthy score line for our exceptional defensive effort and discipline, against the relentless iconic Barca possession game!!
Second Half saw the combination of our boys trying that bit too hard to ‘press’ and force Barca mistakes and buy a cheap goal or two. But Barca don’t make those mistakes, and started to elevate their game to a level we’d not encountered before in a killer 10 minute spell where they nailed every pass, run, shot and gave us a scoring clinic!
At 0-12 or 0-13 with plenty time on clock, it could have ended up over 20 goals, but a late gutsy stubborn display ‘held’ Barca to 0-14 with a few near misses from us again.
In summary, an amazing experience to see our boys perform so incredibly well to frustrate Barca for most (95%) of the first half, and nearly score multiple times ourselves. But the ultimate compliment to our Peninsula Futsal Team had to be that FC Barcelona had to find another gear to kill us off in that second half, that I’m sure they thought they’d only need to use in the expected Grand Final against Rio (Brazil) - we earned their respect, and forced them to produce their ‘A’ Game, which was very satisfying and rewarding!
Thanks to Dawn (“Snapshots by Dawn Bordin”) for taking a stunning set of captured moments from the boys “game of a lifetime”.