Head Coach targeting further improvement from Three Lions.
England v Malta
The FA Futsal Four Nations Tournament
England, Finland, Malta, Turkey
2-3 April 2010
Point 4, The Royal College of the Blind, Hereford
England’s Futsal Head Coach Peter Sturgess believes the team is on the right tracks, as they go into a Four Nations Tournament this weekend.
The Three Lions take on Malta on Friday at thePoint4 venue in Hereford, before facing a further game against either Turkey or Finland in a second match on Saturday.
Sturgess is looking forward to the games too, after seeing positive signs over the last few months from his squad despite defeats against Israel and Cyprus coupled with an impressive win against African Champions Libya in Tripoli.
“It has been somewhat of a ‘roller coaster’ ride over the past few months for the England team,” admitted Sturgess ahead of the Tournament.
“The excellent performances against Libya late in 2009 ended the year on a real high and gave enough positive signs to indicate that there was progress being made and, optimistically, more to come.
“If everything had gone to plan, the team’s progress would have been consolidated during the two games against Cyprus in February. However, Futsal does not always go to plan and a talented, well prepared Cyprus team won both hard fought games.”
The squad have enjoyed regular training camps together inbetween games and Sturgess has seen enough to give him belief that they can continue to improve at international level.
Victories have been relatively few and far between for England in Futsal, but the belief is that the next good result isn’t too far away.
“The England team is continuing to make good progress and it is hoped that the next few games will consolidate the improvements made,” added Sturgess.
“This will be very challenging as the three teams invited to Hereford for this tournament are all capable of playing Futsal of the highest quality, so we will have to be at our very best.”
To see the Tournament's promotion poster,click here.