Learning experience for Marist teams at futsal championships
The Palmerston North Marist men’s and women’s teams will take some valuable lessons from their first year in the Futsal Superleague.
The national series finished in Auckland at the weekend with Waikato winning the men’s competition and Capital winning the women’s league.
It was Marist’s first year with teams in the competition, in a partnership with Central Football.
The women’s team finished fifth and the men finished seventh.
In the last round the Marist men lost 5-4 to Bay of Plenty, won 5-2 against Hawke’s Bay, won 2-0 over Auckland City and drew 3-all with Waikato.
Marist men’s coach Adam Cowan was pleased with the team’s results. “Something very positive was to have a win and a draw against the eventual winners Waikato Rapids. I was pleased that throughout the competition we did very well against the top-four teams.
“If we turn some of our draws into wins next year then we would make the top four, so we are not far away from where I believe we should be.
“On games won throughout all the series we would have come fifth on the table if we didn’t lose our points from the initial games versus Capital Futsal.
“I’m extremely pleased with how the squad responded to this adversity and we grew stronger the further we went into the competition.”
He said the last series showed their ability as a team and the future looked positive.
Marist were found to have fielded an ineligible player in their two games at the start of the season and their two results were overturned and recorded as wins for Capital.
Marist player and former Futsal White, Mickey Malivuk, scored 16 goals to finish second on the golden boot table.
The Marist women lost 4-2 to Papakura City, 6-1 to WaiBOP and 10-0 against Capital, and won 3- 2 against Southern in their final-round games.
Marist women’s coach Nick Chong said it was an arduous three days with some dynamic futsal played.
“The team worked hard, putting their training into practice, both offensively and defensively, creating a lot of great scoring opportunities against some tough and seasoned opposition.”