Malta target first home win

A first home victory is what Malta will be looking to achieve this week when they figure in a qualifying tournament for the 2008 FIFA Futsal World Cup.

Kicking off this evening at the Hibs Pavilion, the tournament will be contested by Slovenia, the highest-ranked team in Group Seven, Greece, Albania and Malta.

Malta, under the guidance of Czech coach Michael Striz, face Greece in their opening match this evening (kick-off 7 p.m.), Albania tomorrow and Slovenia on Sunday, the tournament's closing day.

In a bid to generate more publicity for the event, the Malta FA yesterday held a news conference at the Centenary Hall, Ta' Qali.

Ludovico Micallef, the Malta FA vice-president responsible for futsal, urged the public to support the five-a-side national team during these World Cup qualifiers.

Micallef said the Malta FA had asked permission from UEFA and FIFA to play the final matches of the tournament on Sunday morning instead of evening but their proposal was turned down by the world and European governing bodies.

While emphasising the Malta FA's commitment towards the development of futsal, Micallef remarked that experts have suggested that Malta can aspire to scale new heights in five-a-side football.

UEFA are also urging their member associations to introduce futsal at grassroots level and Malta has already begun to receive technical assistance from the European governing body to woo more nurseries and children to practise five-a-side football.

"Futsal already has a solid base in Malta but we want to increase it further because greater numbers will also improve quality," Micallef said.

Mark Marlow, assistant to Striz, described this competition as an important one for the futsal team.

"Our target is to obtain a first victory on home soil," Marlow told reporters. "It will not be easy because our opponents are strong. Slovenia are the best and most-quoted team in the group while Greece have considerable experience at this level. In our view, Albania are on the same level as us and we think we can compete against them.

"The players' commitment has been 100 per cent so far and the team has improved significantly over the last 18 months thanks mainly to the work of Striz."

Malta's futsal selection have yet to record their first victory in the international sphere. At a UEFA tourney last year, Malta suffered three defeats to Cyprus (1-7), Kazakhstan (0-13) and Georgia (2-5).

Last October, Striz's men played two friendlies against the Czech Republic, losing both by the identical score of 11-0.

Marlow claimed the two warm-up matches were part of the team's preparations for this tournament, particularly for the closing match against Slovenia.

"The impression about those 11-0 defeats to the Czech Republic was that we had been humiliated but they were intended to prepare the team for the game against Slovenia whose standard of play is close to that of the Czechs," he said.

The squad: B. Gialanze, B. Vassallo, T. Borg, N. Bray, P. Bugeja, J. Ciangura, J. Cutajar, T. Ellis, J. Gatt, R. Magro, R. Micallef, N. Mijailovic, M. Sullivan.

Programme

Today - 5 p.m. Slovenia vs Albania; 7 p.m. Malta vs Greece.

Tomorrow - 6 p.m. Malta vs Albania; Greece vs Slovenia.

Sunday - 6 p.m. Albania vs Greece; 8 p.m. Slovenia vs Malta.

Youth commitments

Between March 16 and 20, Malta U-16, led by Oliver Spiteri, will pit their wits against their counterparts from three top European footballing nations, namely, Italy, Ireland and Turkey.

Matches from the friendly tournament will be played at the training grounds.

From April 15-17, Edwin Camilleri's U-19 squad will play two friendly matches against Ireland, in Cork, and, in May, the U-15s will take part in a tournament in the Czech Republic.