Perth Youth Futsal

Perth Youth Futsal play in UAB Tournament in Barcelona

Perth Youth Futsal Club embarked on a trip to Barcelona from 19^th to 24^th June, heralding the first International foray by a Scottish Youth Futsal club, and returned with trophies, much acclaim and unforgettable memories.

The 27 strong travelling party consisted of U14 and U18 select teams along with coaches Steve Chatila, Scott Robertson, Kenny Barclay, Steve McPhee and Dave Bruce.

Among the many highlights of the trip were an extended tour of Barcelona’s very impressive Nou Camp stadium, watching the match between Barcelona and Celta Vigo, which Barcelona won 2-0, and participating in an enlightening Futsal coaching session with the experienced and well-respected Spanish trainer Javier Ruiz.

The day of the tournament was to test the resolve of the Perth players to the limit as temperatures soared to 36 degrees Celsius. As for the matches, each Perth team was involved in a triangular tournament also comprising a local Futsal side and a regional select Futsal team. As Spain are the current Futsal World Champions, this was seen as a baptism of fire.

The U14s opened the tournament with their match against IES Gorg Cerdanyola. Despite losing an early goal, the Perth players decided to show that they were capable Futsal players and proceeded to overwhelm their opponents with two goals from Gary Cargill and one from Steve Bruce. Despite some fine goalkeeping from Scott Christie, Cerdanyola then showed their quality by pulling back the two-goal deficit, but this only spurred on the Perth boys and a fine goal by Mark Whiting and an own-goal put Perth into the lead with five minutes remaining. Cerdanyola managed to pull one goal back, but just as a Perth victory looked certain, they pushed forward and scored an equaliser with the last attack of the game.

By the time the U14s came to their second match, against Santa Perpetua, they required a victory to assure first place by virtue of their opponents’ impressive large-margin victory over Cerdanyola. Unfortunately, by this time the effort exhausted in the previous game and the soaring temperatures served to undermine the boys and a very impressive Santa Perpetua team ran out easy winners, so the Perth U14s had to settle for a very creditable second place in the tournament.

Meanwhile, the U18s opened their tournament against Santa Perpetua and showed their class with an impressive victory. They got off to a perfect start with an early goal by Jamie MacLeod, but this was soon pegged back. This focussed the Perth players’ minds and they went on a four-goal barrage, with goals from Stevie Grieve, Fraser Bruce and two by Ally Gray, to take a commanding lead in the match. Gray in particular was having an outstanding match, typified by the move which saw him gain possession whilst defending a corner and proceeding to flick the ball through the attackers legs, race the full length of the court before clipping the post with an angled drive. The opponents were rattled at this point and although they managed to pull a goal back, they had no reply to the effort and imagination of the Perth team and further goals from Gary Thom, Ally Gray (2), an own goal and Stevie Grieve completed the rout.

Once again the second game was to be the decider, and Perth Youth faced IES Forat Del Vent in the mid-day sun. Having earlier watched the U14 wilt in the heat, the older boys were determined to make a good account of themselves. Indeed, despite facing an impressive team, they made light work of the opposition and commanded the game from start to finish. Once again Jamie MacLeod got Perth off to a flying start with an early goal, and goals from Ally Gray, Mike Waring, Andy King, Scott McCabe, Mike Sword and a double from Fraser Bruce had Perth in pole position. Only a late strike by Forat Del Vent ruined a clean sheet. Highlights of this game were an overhead flick and volley by Ally Gray and a move by Gary Thom which included a double pullback shuffle followed by a nutmeg of the bemused defender. Also worth noting was an impressive first-half clean sheet by Steve Meiklem in the first half, and an almost matching performance by Stuart Kirkwood which was only ruined in the last minute by a wonderful free kick from Forat Del Vent. It says much for the courage, skill and organisation of the Perth team that they made light of the extreme conditions to record an impressive victory against a regional select team, and a major boost for youth Futsal in Perth and Scotland. Joint captains Jamie MacLeod and Andy King proudly lifted the impressive winners trophy.

In amongst all this action, the coaches formed a makeshift team and had a brief run in the sun, playing a few friendly games, with some making a brief comeback from retirement. Thankfully, the youths did not follow their example as the coaches team lost all their games, but had fun nonetheless.