General
- Tuesday August 19th, 2008 @ 16:35
ST PATS LOSE OUT IN UEFA FUTSAL QUALIFIERS
St Pat's Futsal team gave some wonderful performances in their UEFA Cup Group E battle and were unlucky to come away with just a single win.
Ranked 43rd in Europe St Pat's definitely punched way above their weight against far higher ranked teams from Finland and Slovenia and were only narrowly beaten 4-2 by eventual group winners KMN Gorica from Slovenia.
Derek O'Neill FAI Futsal Co-ordinator said “Pats faced an incredibly tough group – “the Finnish team had seven international players and the Slovenian team had ten internationals six of whom played in the recent futsal world cup but St Pats never looked out of their depth.
Against the host team Golden from Finland St Pat's probably had the more scoring chances but found themselves on the losing side. Over the three games St Pats played fantastically well and really did the league proud”.
Ovidiu Matiut said “It was hugely disappointing for everyone to lose out but it was great to see just how close we are to these teams.
For each of our three games a Pat's player won man of the match.
At times we probably paid for lack our lack of experience of playing at this level but the lads delivered some great performances”.
A big thank you to the team manager Ovidiu, Junior and all the players for all their hard efforts over the futsal campaign this year and the club looks forward to working with them all again in the future.
“I think the lack of experience told againsat up at times
Group E Pld Pts
KMN Gorica 3 9
Golden 3 6
St Patrick's Athletic 3 3
Scandals Futsal FC 3 0
Golden 7 – 2 St Patrick's Athletic
Preliminary round - 14 August 2008 16:00 CET (17:00 local time) - Pasila Sport Hall - Helsinki
Lottonen 8, Salmi 11, Lima 16, De Melo 33
Sihvonen 24, Lumivaara 28, 36,
Henriksson 36, Sihvola 40
St Patrick's Athletic 2 – 4 KMN Gorica
Preliminary round - 16 August 2008 14:15 CET (15:15 local time) - Pasila Sport Hall - Helsinki
De Melo 5, Lima 23 Mehic 2, 9, Goranovic 4, Osredkar 8
Scandals Futsal FC 3 – 4 St Patrick's Athletic
Preliminary round - 17 August 2008 12:00 CET (13:00 local time) - Pasila Sport Hall - Helsinki
Anicic 15, De Sant'ana 9,
Ciangura 22, Opeldus 13, 28,
Aboubakar Achami 24 Massey 27
