Courtesy: Football Australia


Futsalroos duo living World Cup dream

Sunday, 4 September 2016

by Russell Gibbs

They play their club football together at the former F-League Champions Vic Vipers and now Adam Cooper and Jonathan Barrientos will line-up alongside each other once more, only this time for the Futsalroos at the FIFA Futsal World Cup in Colombia.
Whilst vastly different as players, the attributes that the duo brings to the squad cannot be denied, and whilst the competition is special for both, there is an element of a homecoming for Barrientos in particular as the team prepares for battle in Bucaramanga.

“Both of my parents were born in Colombia and I have been back here twice before but it’s definitely special for me playing a World Cup for my country, Australia, in the country where my parents were born, it means a lot,” Barrientos commented. “Also, purely for the fact that my mum passed away four years ago, this is a special way to honour her and her family as well.”

It’s that driving ambition that has this Futsalroos squad champing at the bit to get out on the court and prove their worth, making history in the process, as Cooper confirmed.

“Playing on the World stage at a World Cup – there is nothing bigger than that, it will stay with you forever and I know everyone in Australia that plays Futsal would want to be in the situation I am in so I need to take advantage of it,” he said. “I’m not sure how the feeling will be but I am sure it will be an unbelievable experience. I don’t know what to expect, we will just have to wait and see. “It means a lot to me as the last World Cup I wasn’t even in contention for the group at all. As soon as that World Cup finished I joined the training group and it is an unbelievable experience to actually be here.” Arguably the pair is in prime shape, both physically and mentally, coming off a season in which they represented the Vipers at the AFC Club Championship in Bangkok, losing narrowly to Thai super-club Chonburi Blue Wave, who finished third, and drawing 2-2 with eventual Champions Nagoya Oceans from Japan. “I have had the best preparation I can ask for this year having come back from an AFC Club Championship and having played against two of the top teams in Asia, it has helped me a, lot this season just preparing and trying to focus on my goal of playing at the World Cup,” Cooper said. “I feel defensively I can be quite strong and, of course, there is my shooting. I can go left or right which always helps.”

Barrientos echoes his club partners views in that the preparations undertaken by the Vipers have boosted his game to the next level, whilst acknowledging that there is plenty more to come. “We were lucky enough to have a coach from Minas come down and help us prepare for our national league team and he brought a whole new set of concepts to training and upped the intensity,” Barrientos said. “Tactics wise the perception of the game changed to a whole new level and we had to dig deep and push and that definitely made the training harder. “We need to lift a lot coming from the F-League into a competition like this though. We need to be at our best from day one and gradually work on it every day and in every training session. But, I strongly believe, we need to play at the highest level that any of us have ever played before.” The Futsalroos FIFA Futsal World Cup preparation continues in Colombia with a brace of friendly matches against Costa Rica (3rd September) and Kazakhstan (5th September).



Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com