Leeds Met crowned Futsal trophy winners

Leeds Met Men's Futsal team have been crowned BUCS trophy champions at the BUCS Championships in Sheffield.

16 teams qualified from regional heats which took place over a period of weekends throughout the year. Teams were then drawn in groups of 4 where the top 2 progressed knockout stages for the Championship and 3rd and 4th placed teams entered the Trophy.

Following a slow start which saw defeats against Marjon and Brighton Leeds Met found themselves facing old adversaries and unbeaten Loughbrough in the final group game. This was to prove a turning point as the team set out not to concede and marshalled by skipper Thurston confidence grew as the scores remained level. Eventually Carnegie determined and organised were able to counter against Loughborough's fly keeper tactics and England keeper Dalton was amazingly able to volley two quick goals. Tyler scored the 3rd only for Loughborough to pull one back with seconds remaining, but the 3-1 win came as a big boost for the whole squad.

Carnegie then faced Imperial (London) in the quarters and following a 3-3 draw after extra time Carnegie progressed following a 6-5 shoot out, with keeper Robinson performing bravely between the posts.

The semi final paired Carnegie with another London based team in Brunel. An end to end game which produced lots of efforts but sadly no goals and again this one went to penalties where the Carnegie kept their cool to progress to the Final. Brighton would be the opposition late Friday evening and only 45 minutes after the semi final onslaught. Brighton, very organised with players showing good Futsal knowledge and skills were soon 2-0 up and remained that way well into the second period when Sadeghian was able to put the pressure on with a well worked close in finish. The Carnegie bench were in the air as with only seconds remaining Tyler was able to force the extra time with a cool finish. This period proved to be a roller coaster as Leeds took the lead with 2 minutes remaining only for Brighton's outstanding pivot to conjure up an equalizer with 16 seconds on the clock. Did the previous penalty experience play its part? Probably as goalkeeper Robinson smashed home the 7th penalty to claim the Trophy.

The standard of the championships has improved enormously and there was some fantastic Futsal played throughout. It was also noticeable this year that there were many "independent" Futsal Clubs, although most teams still utilised there strong footballers to field teams. Leeds Met due to a number of reasons have encouraged Futsal players in an attempt to eventually establish a stand alone Futsal Club, Carnegie have been able to draw on the experience of Leeds Futsal manager/Coach Junior Roberti throughout the year with his weekly sessions and passion playing a big part of the success. It was enormously satisfying to see the rewards for the hard work, discipline and desire shown by a tight group of players.