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Photos: Jack Western
The Men’s Futsal team, fresh from their promotion to the FA National Futsal league North Division 1, the highest futsal league in the country, continued their successful campaign on Sunday afternoon, winning a place in the semi-finals of the FA futsal cup. Their opponents were the very physical Baltic Alliance, a tough group who were not easily pushed aside, but in the end the men in black and gold powered home with a convincing victory of six goals to four.
The first twenty minutes were very even, both teams having chances to take the lead; Baltic hit the bar in the opening minutes and some great flare from Rob Hiza teed up club president James Briars who fired over. Mark Howorth was the first player to really test Baltic’s keeper with a powerful shot that was punched away. Baltic introduced an interesting tactic after the opening stages, their keeper joining part of the defence and leaving the goal completely unguarded. This tactic was seemingly to give the visitors an extra man in the field to make up for their lack of players, with no substitutes while York had a full bench.
It was York who made the breakthrough, Hize hitting an impressive shot which shot past the keeper and into the net via the post. He continued to look dangerous with tricks allowing him to skip past the Baltic players, and chances began to fly in for York, who only needed to draw the game, Alex Tringham trying a Wayne Rooney effort from within his own half, making the most of the vacant Baltic goal. York were unable to add a second however before Baltic equalised after a free kick was given away by David Mirande. The original shot was saved by Jonny Sim, with the follow up shot flicked home by a Baltic player. As York began to step up the pressure in response, Baltic struck again after the ball was picked up on the edge of the area by a striker whose shot crept past Sim into the corner of the net. Baltic nearly put daylight between the teams at the end of the first half when a striker’s shot hit both posts before being cleared to safety. York had the last say of the first half however with a scrappy goal scored by Shin Murata, bundling the ball over the line from Tringham’s cross.
The second half was much more open, with the supporters in the tent thinking York had taken the lead after Tringham flicked the ball goal wards, hitting both posts and rebounding back out. The crowd got their wish soon after though when the ball feel to Alli Arnarson, one on one with the keeper, who unselfishly squared the ball to Tringham who couldn’t miss, slotting home to regain the lead for his team. As Baltic pushed forward to get back in the game, knowing they needed a win to progress, their tactics of playing their keeper as a sweeper in denfence came back to haunt them when Briars dispossessed a defender just outside the area, blasting the ball into the empty net for York’s fourth. They added a fifth soon after when Howorth tapped in Maurizio Poluerini’s cross. Jonny Sim, in true futsal style had a few opportunies to get on the score sheet, hitting the bar with a clearance and narrowly missing the target from a drop kick. A missing shot from a Baltic player was flicked in at the far post , but any sign of a last ditch comeback was short lived when Mirande squared the ball to Hize, who rounded off an impressive performance with a sixth goal for York, confirming their place in the semi- finals. Baltic had one final say at the end, a powerful shot blasting in off the bar, though nothing could dampen York’s celebration when the final whistle blew to send them through.
The Futsal coach, delighted with the result told Vision ‘These boys have shown they can compete with the top teams in the county, we played a good game against a difficult side, because we worked hard, we got the three points to qualify in second place and we’re going to travel to London for the semi- final as well.