The FA Futsal League kicked off at the weekend and Middlesbrough Futsal Club had the honour of kicking off the first ever match in the Northern regional league with a 1pm kick off at home to FC Barsa (named after manager, Kevin Barr), from Leeds.

The first official national futsal league is made up of three regional leagues; North, Midlands and South, with the top two teams from each division progressing to the playoffs at the end of September to contest for the national championship and a place in the UEFA Futsal Cup.

English Futsal is way behind the likes of European counterparts Spain, Portugal, Russia and Italy, but the FA Futsal League is a step in the right direction for the sport in England, which has traditionally been in the shadow of 5-a-side football, England’s highest participation sport.

5-a-side, although good for a kick about, doesn’t offer the opportunities afforded with futsal, which is essentially 5-a-side, just with a low bounce ball and no rebound boards.  Futsal (futebol de salão) developed in South America and it was taken on by FIFA as an official version of football in 1989.  England, because 5-a-side was on the up, didn’t take note of futsal back then and are now regretting that decision, as we now have 20 years to make up on the top nations in futsal.  This was highlighted as England finished bottom of their World Cup Qualifying group last week, losing 15-0 to hosts Hungary on the way.

With the FA Futsal League now underway, clubs have the opportunity to play at a high level on a regular basis, giving England manager Graeme Dell a better pool of players to select from, and will hopefully see an upturn in the fortunes of the national team, who have only won one game out of almost 50.

Middlesbrough Futsal Club, an all English team, stormed into pole position of the league with a 10-1 rout over close rivals FC Barsa, of Leeds.  Previously the clubs had met twice and both games have been close affairs.  4-2 was the first result in January 2007 and later in 2007, Boro were held to a 3-3 draw, which ultimately prevented the Teessiders from taking the FPL North title in 2007.  (Futsal Premier League: the unofficial national league).

Holmes, Mortlock, Burgess, Leyshon and Amos started the historic fixture and their possession game began right from the start.  Boro’s rotation was good and led to several early chances with Barsa’s keeper making a string of saves to deny the opening goal.  Four of Boro’s starting 5 have been playing futsal for 3 years and it was the most experienced player, and Boro captain Ben Mortlock, who scored the opening goal after 4 minutes.  A strike from distance beat the keeper and went in off the inside post to make it 1-0.  Barsa were stunned and a minute later the lead was doubled through David Herbert.  Boro continued to create chances, while restricting Barsa to shots from distance.  Rob Oxley of Barsa fluffed Barsa’s best chance when he got round the back of Boro’s tight defence.  Mortlock grabbed his second before Burgess picked out Kwaku Saifah with a superb lofted pass, which Kwaku volley into the roof of the net.  Jonathon Prosser rounded of a perfect half of futsal when he slotted into an open goal for his second goal in as many matches and Boro went in 5-0 at half time.

In futsal, a 5-0 lead is not a guaranteed win, and Boro had to avoid being complacent.  The second half started a somewhat sloppy affair and the Teessiders were being pinned back by the team from Yorkshire.  Still Boro kept them at bay until a loose ball was pounced upon by Masood Khalighi to give Barsa a lifeline.  The disappointment of conceding sparked Boro into life and they turned on the style with 7 minutes remaining starting with a goal for Leyshon, his 17th of the season.  Mortlock completed his hattrick as he jinked past Leeds defender and buried a powerful shot past Davidson in the Barsa goal to make it 7-1 with 5 minutes to go.  Boro had wrapped up the game and Leeds still sat back allowing Boro to pile on the pressure.  Ben Amos, having hit the bar and post already, got off the mark for the national league season before Herbert doubled his account keeping his nose in front of Amos in Boro’s all time goal scoring table!  To crown the domination over Leeds in the first ever national league game, Boro’s keeper Curtis Holmes, who had been superb between the posts, fired a smashing shot into the top corner taking the final score to 10-1 and put the Teessiders top of the national league after the opening day of the FA Futsal League.

Other results in the FA Futsal League North saw Tranmere beat Hull 9-6, Manchester lose 3-2 to Grimsby, Boro’s next opponents, and Sheffield FC overcame Sheffield & Hallamshire in the local derby 5-2.

It was a historical day in English futsal and one that was thoroughly enjoyed by Boro and around 50 fans at the University of Teesside.  Barsa, however, will want to forget their debut and manager Kevin Barr, one of England’s top futsal coaches, is looking forward to the return match in July when he hopes to exact revenge on Boro.

Manager Damon Shaw applauds one of the Teessiders best performances of the season, where defensively and on the attack, things seemed to fall into place.  “We’ve been looking forward to this game for a long time, and all the lads knew exactly what it meant for us.  Everyone put in 100% effort and should be proud of their display.  We’ve made a great start with a great result and a solid performance and we’re only going to get better.”

Boro’s next league game is away against Grimsby, to be played at the Gemtec Arena in Hull on Sunday 16th March.  The two teams met just over a year ago and Boro won 9-5, but with much more at stake it’s likely to be a totally different game.

Team line-ups:

Middlesbrough: Holmes, Herbert, Mortlock, Amos, Prosser, Hamblin, Burgess, Leyshon, Saifah, Kilbride.

Barsa:  Davidson, Khalighi, C. Barr, Smeathers, Fox, Oxley, Black, O. Barr, Talibrow, Honeyman.

For more information on Boro Futsal check out the club’s website www.BoroFutsal.co.uk

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Notes to editor:

§  For further information about Middlesbrough Futsal Club and futsal contact Damon Shaw on 07807 146 319 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

• Middlesbrough Futsal Club website: www.borofutsal.co.uk