Another win for futsal club
ETHEKWINI City Futsal Club strengthened its reputation by adding yet another title to its trophy cabinet when it won the National Futsal League’s Knockout Cup at Pietermaritzburg’s YMCA Hall recently.
With the popularity of futsal on the rise, South African Indoor Football Association, an affiliate member of the SA Football Association, was given the responsibility of co-ordinating the National Futsal League which is currently composed of seven teams from around the country.
Futsal is different from football. It is played on a much smaller surface of 20m by 40m. It is a five-a-side game with four infield players and one goalkeeper.
There are more stringent rules, for instance, when the ball goes out of play it is a kick-in instead of a throw-in.
During free kicks, corners and when the goalkeeper collects the ball, players are restricted to four seconds to resume play, and no slide tackles are allowed.
Without dropping a single game last year, Ethekwini City were winners of the National Futsal League and Knockout Cup.
Chris Naidoo, 58, of Reservoir Hills, head coach for Ethekwini City, said: “There was a lot of heat coming into the current season.
“I think complacency, maybe players were big-headed. We thought we couldn’t be beaten and we lost the league this year. We did not defend the league title successfully as we came second in the league.
“The Young Natalians from Pietermaritzburg won the league, so going into this Knockout Cup, we had a lot to prove.
“Obviously, if we wanted to be regarded as the best in the country we have to win tournaments and titles, so we went into the tournament really determined to do well.”
Preceding the end of National Futsal League, the Knockout Cup saw teams from Cape Town, Johannesburg, Soweto and Durban travel to Pietermaritzburg for a two-day competition of a round-robin format.
At the end of the roundrobin phase, Ethekwini City were the log leaders and netted a convincing victory of 9-4 against fourth-placed Free State’s OBC Chickens in the first semi-final.
Maritzburg Hotspur eliminated the 2018 league champions, Young Natalians, 7-5 in the second semi-final.
“That was a real humdinger. It was an end-to-end affair and a thriller of a game,” added Naidoo.
Ethekwini City were drawn against Maritzburg Hotspurs in the final.
Naidoo said: “We started off like a house on fire. We knew that their previous game was nail-biting, so it was a very high-energy game and they were tired out.”
Naidoo’s men had a lot to prove since losing the 2018 league and outclassed the Hotspurs 6-1 in the Knockout Cup final.